The Central Bank of India in Tamil Nadu found itself in a difficult situation after it mentioned the National Population Register (NPR) as one of the required documents to update KYC.
Muslim customers of the bank in Kayalpattinam area went on a "mass fund withdrawal spree" after they came across a notice that mentioned NPR as one of the mandatory documents to update KYC, according to The New Indian Express.
The notification reportedly mentioned multiple documents including PAN card, driving license, Aadhaar card, voter identity card and NPR among others. However, it apparently failed to make it clear if the bank required all the documents or just any one of those.
This confusion led to massive panic among the Muslim community in the area, who began to withdraw all their savings from the bank, fearing that failure to submit NPR would result into their accounts getting frozen.
While the bank officials have been trying hard to make the customers understand that submission of NPR is not mandatory, as much as Rs 1.5 crore has been withdrawn from the bank in just three days. According to the report, the concerned bank branch has around 15,000 account holders, of which, 90 per cent consists of Muslims.
Although the bank issued a fresh notice with clarification, Muslims in the area do not seem to be convinced. The report quoted a bank official that they have now decided to put up banners in order to make the customers aware of the KYC update process.
(Published 23 January 2020, 07:52 IST)