Pre-payment of deposits

This is with regard to the article “When death visits a bank depositor” ( Business Line , May 4) discussing the pre-payment of term deposit before maturity to survivors of joint account. It is true that the Reserve Bank of India has stipulated that pre-payment can be done only with consent of legal heirs of the deceased.

However, most of the banks account opening form contains clause as follows “We agree that the clause ‘E or S'/‘A or S', includes the right to the survivor(s) to apply before the date of maturity for repayment or for credit facilities against the security of the deposit and/or for addition/deletion/substitution of names in the deposit subject to acceptance by the bank at its absolute discretion.” Hence, banks will allow the surviving depositor to close the deposit even before maturity.

S. Kalyanasundaram

Chennai

Water woes

Some important observations have been made in “The water agenda' ( Business Line , May 4). The biggest obstacle in efficient water management is society's general reluctance to accept that availability of water is subject to vagaries of monsoon. Further, there is very little awareness about cost of recycling of waste water and why efficiently-managed waste water recycling plants are an urgent need of the day in all metro towns.

We rarely plan for adversities and if crisis happens, we wake up to the bitter reality of water scarcity.

Narendra M Apte

Pune

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