Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Lal Chowk in Srinagar witnessed a sizeable gathering of aggrieved depositors on Monday, as account holders of the Jammu and Kashmir State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank staged a protest demanding immediate release of their frozen savings, held through Fixed Deposit Receipts across the Union Territory.
The protesters, drawn from farming families, retired government employees, small traders and petty businessmen, alleged that close to ₹183 crore of their deposited funds remains locked despite months of representations to successive levels of the administration. Many said the money represented life savings meant to cover education, medical treatment and family weddings, expenses that have now been indefinitely delayed by the funds’ unavailability.
According to the protesters, their agitation is not new. They have been demonstrating since April 1, 2025, and have separately approached the Registrar and Secretary or Commissioner of the Cooperative Department as well as the concerned minister over the delay. Despite what they describe as repeated verbal assurances, no payment has followed.
The depositors said their grievance had also reached the floor of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, raised by their elected representatives during the last two sessions. On those occasions, the Cooperative Minister reportedly assured the House that reimbursement would follow within two months of the bank’s winding up, a process that was formally completed in February 2026. That timeline, protesters say, has since lapsed without resolution.
Those at the protest attributed the delay to a chain of procedural requirements, including regular and concurrent audits, the need for a No Objection Certificate from NABARD, the appointment of a liquidator, and final certification of records by Chartered Accountants. Each of these steps, they said, has added months to what was already a prolonged wait.
The scale of the impact, according to the protesters, extends well beyond the immediate account holders, with more than one lakh family members reportedly affected across Jammu and Kashmir. Several families described mounting difficulty in meeting routine educational, medical and marriage-related costs as the funds remain out of reach.
The depositors appealed directly to the Lieutenant Governor and the elected government to intervene and fast-track the remaining formalities, arguing that further delay would deepen hardship for a group that includes some of the Union Territory’s most financially vulnerable households.
