Collector U. Sagayam on Friday issued show cause notices to 18 banks, including three public sector banks and a regional rural bank, in the district for violating the Election Commission norms, official sources told The Hindu .
Following the seizure of several vehicles carrying cash for banks and automated teller machines (ATMs) in the district on March 11 by the police and Revenue officials, the then-Collector C. Kamaraj had convened a bankers' meeting to prevent recurrence of such situations.
The bankers were told to give daily reports regarding all transactions involving withdrawal of cash of over Rs. 1 lakh to the Collector, who is also the District Election Officer (DEO). The district administration, through the Lead Bank, had also informed all banks to strictly adhere to the norms.
While a majority of banks in the district had complied, 18 banks and their branches in the district had failed to do so. Following this, the Collector, on Thursday, instructed District Treasury Officer K.S. Muthupandian and Lead District Manager KN. Subramanian to issue summons to the errant banks.
Following this, show cause notices were issued on Friday to the 18 banks seeking explanation as to why the information was not provided to the DEO. The banks were advised to submit all details within 24 hours.
Upon receipt of the show cause notices, several banks provided the information in the evening hours in hard copy and electronic format to the DEO.
The banks that had failed to submit the details as yet had been told to provide the information at the earliest. Pointing out that this behaviour of the banks was in violation of the Election Commission's guidelines, Mr. Sagayam warned the banks that their Chairman and Managing Directors would be asked to initiate action against such branches.
