A 30-year-old woman in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh delivered a baby girl inside a branch of Punjab National Bank while waiting in a queue on Friday. This was the second time she had come back to the bank to withdraw a part of the Rs 2.75 lakh compensation allotted to her by the government after her husband died in an accident.
According to this report in the Hindustan Times, Sarvesha is weak, but the newborn is healthy. The women present in the bank in Jhinjhak branch of PNB helped her deliver the baby after an ambulance could not reach her. Policemen then drove them to a hospital.
She was standing in the queue since morning and went into labour around 4 pm, the report said.
"I was afraid that I may lose Sarvesha but she delivered a beautiful baby and is recuperating," her mother-in-law, who had accompanied her to the bank, was quoted by the paper as saying.
The government's move to scrap currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination has caused nationwide mayhem, with ATMs running out of cash and people queueing in front of banks to withdraw a limited amount of cash. A man in Delhi collapsed and died while standing in an ATM line on 22 November. Demonetisation has so far claimed over 70 lives.