TMC, Congress Seek Government Action On Debit Card Misuse In Bengal

Trinamool Congress and Congress ministers from West Bengal on Tuesday raised the issue of people in the state being duped by misuse of debit cards and urged the Centre to direct banks to ensure safety of depositors' money.

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, Sudip Bandopadhyay (TMC) alleged the role of Romanians and Nigerians in skimming ATM machines and asked where will people keep their savings if the money kept in banks is not safe.

"Government of India should take steps and direct banks to take actions. The money deposited in banks should be kept safe," he said.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress) said lakhs of money is being looted and such incidents are mostly happening at unmanned ATMs.

"Banks take money from customers as service charge. They are responsible for providing security to deposits of public.

To safeguard from such skimmers, people in Kolkata are now blocking their ATM cards," Mr Chowdhury said.

Separately, BJP's Sunil Kumar Singh alleged that the ruling party is indulging in violence in the state of West Bengal after panchayat elections.

Mr Singh asked the Centre to intervene and ensure that the  violence in the state is stopped.

Speaking during Zero Hour, Veerappa Moily (Cong) demanded that Kannada be included in the list of classical languages of UNESCO.

He said Kannada is an ancient language and was accorded classical language tag by the Government in 2008.

"I would urge the Human Resource Development Ministry to take up with UNESCO inclusion of Kannada in its list of classical languages," Mr Moily said.