Erode District Election Officer and Collector H. Krishnanunni has asked all nationalised and private sector banks to report suspicious transactions to the district election officials.
Mr. Krishnanunni chaired a meeting with bank managers on the need to follow the model code of conduct (MCC) for the ensuing by-election to the Erode (East) Assembly constituency at the Collectorate, on Friday.
Mr. Krishnanunni asked banks to open special counters to deal with opening of bank accounts for election purposes and also depositing and withdrawing of cash by the candidates for election purposes. He said that outsourced teams that transport cash to refill ATMs should carry necessary documents while the team members should also carry their identity cards without fail.
The Collector also said that since the MCC is in force, unusual or suspicious transactions carried out in Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions to many individual accounts, and cash deposits and withdrawals of over ₹1 lakh in a candidate’s bank account or his/her wife’s account should be reported to the District Election Officer.
“If banks suspect that certain transactions are meant for bribing the electors, it should be reported immediately,” he said. Also, if a transaction is carried out that is of over ₹10 lakh, it should be informed to the Income Tax Department and the Election Monitoring Officer, he added.
S. Santhoshini Chandra, District Revenue Officer, personal assistants to the Collector Ganesh (General), Gurunathan (Accounts), Tahsildars Sivagami and Vijayakumar (Disaster Management) and other officials were present.
