Thane Mayor Naresh Mhaske on Thursday asked the Thane Municipal Corporation to shift its savings bank accounts from Axis Bank to a nationalised bank, PTI reported. The move came days after a war of words broke out between Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ wife Amruta Fadnavis, who holds a senior position at Axis Bank.
Mhaske also asked the department not to open any new account with private banks, reported The Indian Express. The civic body has several savings accounts and fixed deposits in Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and other private banks. “There are several nationalised banks, some of them operating in Thane,” Mhaske told the newspaper. “If we keep our money there, we at least are sure of our money. The private banks are risky, and in the past few days, we have seen how they can go bankrupt. It is just a precautionary decision.” He added that salary accounts of Thane Municipal Corporation employees would remain with private banks.
Earlier, reports said that the Uddhav Thackeray-led government was considering to transfer Maharashtra police department’s salary accounts from Axis Bank to a public sector lender. The salary accounts, worth Rs 11,000 crore annually, have been with Axis Bank since 2015.
The private banks versus nationalised banks debate gained traction days after Amruta Fadnavis challenged the Sena leadership on Twitter. Following this, senior Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi and corporator Samadhan Sarvankar asked Thackeray to shift the accounts of the Maharashtra Police and the state government to nationalised banks. “Enough of patronage to Axis Bank,” Sarvankar had tweeted.
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