The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has appealed to the State Bank of India to unblock the “Tiny Accounts” and permit the account holders withdraw money from these.
In a memorandum to the chairman of the bank, K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, has said that the bank served people living in unserved areas and the underprivileged through business correspondents and had established Customer Service Points at many places. These mostly covered people under social security schemes. Initially, no frill accounts with simplified KYC norms were opened for them. Later, only KYC compliant accounts were operated. Most of these accounts were called “Tiny Accounts”. For the last few days, the system was not permitting withdrawals from the “Tiny Accounts” as the bank was said to be converting these into “Special Tiny Accounts”. The conversion was time-consuming and could be done only at the home branch of the respective Customer Service Points, he claimed.
Further, it was learnt that if the Aadhaar linkage had not happened, the conversion was not happening. The “Tiny Accounts” were mainly opened for those who received financial assistance from the Government and the economically backward. They should be able to withdraw money from their accounts, Mr. Kathirmathiyon said.