No bank a/c? Keep waiting for pay

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, December 5

Thousands of industrial and unorganised sector employees are facing the threat of inordinate delay in getting their salary for November as they do not have a bank account.

The authorities concerned have asked employers to deposit salaries in bank accounts. Around two lakh workers here have no bank account, it has been reported.

The district administration has been working overtime to tackle the issue. It has claimed that the process of opening bank accounts of workers who do not have the same has been stepped up.

Over 12,000 accounts had been opened in the past one week. The authorities had been holding meetings daily to monitor the situation.

Besides helping and guiding industry managers, banks in the district had been instructed to provide more manpower to open accounts in the minimum possible time so that salaries could be deposited immediately.

“The authorities aim to open at least 20,000 accounts within a couple of days. We need to open another 1.2 lakh accounts to get salaries deposited,” said Inder Mohan Sharma, lead district manager.

“While a majority of workers get their salary by the 7th or 10th every month, most of those who do not have an account may not get it by the due date,” said an entrepreneur on the condition of anonymity.

“Payment of salary may get delayed by at least two weeks as opening accounts of such a large number of employees is not possible in the given time,” he explained.

Admitting that salary disbursal was a major issue, Rajiv Chawla, chairman of the Integrated Association of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of India, said it might not be possible to open accounts of all 1.5 lakh workers within a few days.

Stating that production and sale for November were down by at least 20 per cent, he said a majority of private banks were not interested in opening accounts of those with salary of less than Rs 25,000 a month.

Calling demonetisation a major flaw, Bechu Giri, state secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress, said the concept of a cashless society would result in a host of problems for the poor and uneducated.