Coimbatore: J Arul Selvi of a self-help group (SHG) named Everest Magalir Kuzhu who sells idli dough was surprised to find that Rs nine lakh was deposited into her savings bank account in March and the same amount was deducted from the account of her SHG. She learned about the whole transaction only on May 9 when she made entry into her passbook.
“The amount was deposited in two instalments - Rs 4.5 lakh on March 26 and equal amount on March 28,’’ she said. Exactly a week later, the entire amount was withdrawn and deposited back into the SHG account from her personal account. It was not just her account where such dubious transactions had taken place. From November 2017 to May 2018, funds were transferred from 14 SHG accounts to the members’ personal accounts and then transferred back in Nilambur town panchayat in Coimbatore.
SHG women said that the transactions ranged from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. They were perplexed at the unauthorized transactions more so because the cash was not swindled but returned to their SHG accounts. Now a probe has found that it was a bank manager who did these dubious transactions driven by annual targets and show adequate number of bank transactions.
The deputy general manager of Canara bank, Coimbatore district, D Ganeshan, conducted an enquiry at the Nilambur branch of the bank on Friday. He accepted that the irregularity had taken place.
“We will take disciplinary action against the manager T R Radha and conduct a detailed enquiry,” he said. The inquiry also revealed that the manager was doing this for the past seven months. But SHG women were in the dark till now since they neither got any SMS in their phone. Nor were they allowed to make entries in their passbook even for their personal transactions.
When K Ramamurthy, a social worker, got to know about it, he wrote to the bank seeking details. “But Radha refused to reply to the letter. After much persistence, the bank agreed and gave pass books of 15 SHGs with updated financial transaction history. It was then that the women realized that such transactions were made,” he said.
Saradha Mani of the group named Annai Teresa Mahalir Kuzhu said there were about 60 such SHGs that had an account in that branch. “It was only this month that we got to know that the money is being taken from my account. We were worried as we could be in trouble with the government for such dubious transactions. We were also scared if the money was being misused,” she said.
While for some only one such transaction had taken place, for a few two or three transactions had taken place.
The Nilambur branch does an average transaction of about Rs 40 crore every year and the irregularity is about Rs 42 lakh in these 14 accounts.
Ganesan however said that no money was credited from any external account nor was SHG money siphoned off. “We generally set targets of 10-15% increase in transactions every year. So, the manager wanted to show higher transactions to meet targets. But transferring money and taking them back without the permission of the account holder is unacceptable,” he said. There are totally 59 branches in the district and the official said they will conduct enquiries in all of them.
The project director of Tamil Nadu state rural health livelihood mission, K Selvarasu, said that as per norms, for every transaction made in the account of the self-help group, a resolution should be passed by the group.
“We cannot allow any such transactions. We will also conduct an enquiry into this and we will take action against the bank. There should be transparency in the entire financial transactions. We have a committee for bank employees at state level and district level and we will ask them to take action,” he said.