[Reader-list] Banks Hain Na also for loan sharking!!

[faraaz mehmood]

My neighbour Jaiprakash Sadhwani was under the spell
of marketing blitz unleashed by the private sector
banks, which promised home loans & personal loans for
the asking. He approached the bank with the most
vigorous ad campaign & applied for a home loan. After
filling a few forms & giving every personal detail
about his job, monthly salary, health & his bank a/c’s
he was asked to wait for a certain period of time. In
the meanwhile the bank launched field investigation
regarding the physical health, financial health & the
reputation of Mr. Sadhwani by sending investigators to
his work place, neighbours, doctor & the banks he
dealt with. The home loan was sanctioned & a variety
of re-payment plans were presented to Mr. Sadhwani.
Repayment in 12 months means less interest which
increases with the period like 24,36,48 months. Mr.
Sadhwani opted for the 36 months repayment scheme. He
was required to sign 36 post-dated repayment cheques,
which were duly stamped   & were sent to jaipur head
office for sorting & storing. 												Mr. Sadhwani
dealt in iron-scrap, after paying regular instalments
for 10 months he had the good luck to grab a big
contract. He decided to repay the remaining 26
instalments in one go & to do away with the remaining
interest. This was not to be so. For the subsequent
two months he found that the regular loan repayment
amount was being debited from his a/c in spite of the
full repayment. Mr. Sadhwani made a few trips to the
bank contacted the front-office guy with a huge grin
plastered on his face & pleaded with him to set his
loan a/c right. Nothing happened. So Mr.Sadhwani took
recourse to emptying his bank a/c & would derive the
bank people from the pleasure of over charging him.  	
										One fine morning as Mr. Sadhwani was
watering his plants, he was surrounded with four or
five tuff looking guys who came trampling the
flowerbeds to demand keys for his new car. Mr.
Sadhwani had no idea what to say or how to deal with
the intruders. For starters they snatched his
cell-phone & roughed him up all the way to the front
door. Although a businessman of long standing he never
had seen such behaviour meted out to anyone. The tough
ones pushed his wife aside, collected the keys & drove
away the car. 			Though there is a clear system of
presenting the cheques in local clearing for
collecting the instalments from various customers who
have availed of the loan facility, there exists none
for people who make a deviation from the normal
routine for example who settle for pre-payment
options. A tedious follow up is required from the
customer’s side to ensure that the remaining cheques
are either returned back, destroyed or marked stopped
cheques in the system of the bank where one has got an
a/c. Mr. Sadhwani being a layperson was obviously
unaware of the intricacies & was caught hapless in the
act. 										As much as lending loans, loan sharking
has also become part & parcel of the daily banking.
Before going into the intricacies of repayment &
before finding out that instead of default the loan
has been paid fully in a premature way, banks set
loose recovery agents or sharks. The recovery guys
move in a bunch of 5-7, have more muscle than brawn &
do not believe in the niceties of inquiry &
explanation. The real defaulters have a tough time on
hand. If there are lagging behind on the last few
instalments then they are in for a few unpleasant
surprises. The payment demanding bank agents would not
let the defaulter breathe unless he has shelled out
the require amount. Sometimes the well-meaning guy
with the good intentions of paying in advance too gets
caught in the sharks net. 																												
Naveen carves a niche!

Naveen joined the bank a little more than one year
before as an office boy earning the paltry sum of Rs.
1800. He was assigned the couriered desk wherein he
was expected to receive the courier mail, open it &
after sorting it deliver the letters & parcels to the
relevant persons after duly taking their signatures.
During the day time naveen has to make various trips
to almost all the desks. Over a period of time he got
a good hand about the various departments, the nature
of work, people manning those desks & the skills
required to operate in the different situations. He
even came to know about the leisure hours of the desks
chiefs & when the computers will be available to
fiddle with. 													Naveen was a school pass out
when he joined the bank. He soon realized that he is
more worthy than a courier in charge. After delivering
the letters & parcels, he would linger on the desk to
learn about the intricacies of the computer & the
mysteries of the bank software pinnacle.  He
constantly coaxed the bank staff to explain him
certain things & to correct his mistakes. In an
amazingly short duration naveen could handle the
computer processes with ease & confidence. The
clearing desk is at the rear end of the building.
Because of the convenience & the benign nature of
Preeti Mehta, the clearing officer, naveen silently &
resolutely decided to make clearing his forte. All his
non-courier hours were spent in the clearing section
where naveen worked out the technical processes of
clearing cheques & drafts amounting to several crores
a day with precision & daring. 												A couple of
months of back he was confident enough to face the
Branch Head with the demand that he be assigned to the
clearing desk. The Branch Head Mr. Shekhawat was more
amused than outraged. A young man of 22, five feet in
height with attempts to pass BA as a private candidate
was hoping a place in the clearing section. But naveen
was undaunted in his demands. He begged Shekhawat to
let him work in place of employees on leave since he
is not on the rolls of the bank, casually hired on a
monthly basis, he is not eligible to be allotted a
pinnacle id but he can always work on other employees
id when they are not at work doing other interesting
things. Besides naveen told himself that one did not
need & id to learn various MS applications. There are
some five persons working on the clearing desks they
all find naveen a big help lending that extra hand
during the rush hours & on certain salary days. 						
					Persistent pays as naveen sets out to carve a
niche for himself. Not he does not sneak in & sneak
out of the clearing section. He sits on a desk with a
computer in front & a temp id allotted to him as all
other outsourced employees are given. Shekhawat admits
that he has proven his worth in a little more than one
year. Not only in so many words but with a salary
amounting to rs. 3500/-       


MF


		
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