A recent notification from the Central Bank of India published on January 11 in local daily ‘Thinathanthi’, listing “National Population Register (NPR) letter” as a document for Know Your Customer (KYC) update, created panic in the Tamil Nadu villages with a predominant Muslim population.
The advertisement asked account-holders to submit their KYC (know your customer) document at the earliest and among the list of acceptable proofs was a mention of the National Population Register (NPR).
Soon after, villagers, most of whom were Muslims, started queuing up outside the bank branch as fear gripped locals that this was somehow connected to the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.
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According to reports, around Rs 4.5 crore cash, large deposits in savings bank accounts were withdrawn in panic from the Kayalpattinam branch of the Central Bank of India in Tuticorin district since Saturday.
Hit hard, the bank has made a U-turn. In a revised advertisement on January 19, it has made the submission of the NPR letter optional, asking customers to submit any one of the documents as proof. They claim the earlier advertisement that made the submission of the NPR letter mandatory was a mistake.
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