NPR ad sparks run on bank, Rs 6cr pulled out

MADURAI: On January 11, a public notice by the Central Bank of India in a local daily said National Population Register (NPR) details would be linked to the KYC of people who had their accounts with the Kayalpattinam branch in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin. It was just one of the options suggested.
But many failed to read it correctly. In the Muslim-dominated village, it created ripples.By last Saturday, social media had turned that into panic.
Hundreds of people have since then lined up in front of the bank to take out their cash, convinced the government was punishing them for taking part in anti-CAA stirs.
Branch manager A Mariappan told TOI that Rs 6 crore had already been withdrawn. “Monday was the day of the highest withdrawals and most of the customers were women, who rarely visit the bank on other days,” he said.
Cops had to be called in to manage worried depositors

On Thursday itself a sum of Rs 50 lakh was taken out. Kayalpattinam is a coastal town in Tuticorin district with about 10,000 households, most of them Muslim. Many of the men work abroad and hold NRI accounts with the bank.
Caught off-guard by the money-withdrawal spree by customers, the bank has launched an “auto-rickshaw” campaign to allay the fears. But few are convinced. Shabana, who didn’t want to give her full name, said, “We were told that the notice could be a consequence of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and that our deposits wouldn’t be safe.” Her husband who works in the Gulf sends most of the money he makes home.
Bank officials said they were surprised to see hundreds of customers outside their bank last week. “It was only a little while later that we realised they wanted their money back. There was nothing we could do,” one of them said.
Mariappan said they had to seek help of staff at a neighbouring branch to deal with the rush. And since Kayalpattinam does not have a police station, personnel from a neighbouring thana were summoned to manage the crowds.
Social activist and member of Mass Empowerment and Guidance Association S K Salih said that the people’s fears on seeing the notice seemed natural as they were at the forefront of CAA and NRC agitations.
Hussain, a villager, said bank officials were cordial and tried to tell them that everything was fine. “But that doesn’t solve our problem, does it? What they were telling us was only a comma at the end of the sentence, and not a full stop,’’ he said.