Mumbai, Sep 26: In a relief to the harried customers of crisis-hit Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank, the Reserve Bank Thursday increased the cash withdrawal limit to Rs 10,000 per account, which will help over 60 percent customers of the crippled lender.

The RBI had Tuesday imposed a slew of restrictions on the bank for six months, allowing withdrawal of only Rs 1,000 for the bank's depositors, leaving the customers, who are typically not from the well-heeled a worried lot.

The move came after the central bank has found certain irregularities in the bank, including under-reporting of NPAs and had put restriction on fresh lending.

"It has been decided to allow depositors to withdraw a sum not exceeding Rs 10,000 (including the Rs 1,000 already withdrawn) of the total balance held in every savings bank account or current account or any other deposit account," RBI said in a release.

The regulator said, the higher limit is subject to fact the customer does not have any liability with the bank by way of loans of surety for a third-party loan.

With the above relaxation, more than 60 percent of the depositors of the bank will be able to withdraw their entire account balance.

RBI said the above relaxation has been granted with a view to reducing the hardship of depositors.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.