The Telangana Grameena Bank landed itself in the soup after they realised that they deposited Rs 16 crore in bank accounts that were not eligible for the relief announced by the Centre. They were forced to recover the amount from more than three lakh people after the bank officials realized their mistake. They were supposed to deposit Rs 500 each into accounts that were eligible for the relief.
The money deposited was withdrawn by at least one lakh ineligible account holders and the account is trying to recover the amount from these account holders. The money was deposited by the bank authorities in April's first week and within a week's time; the bank realized its mistake.
Investigation underway
Investigation at the bank level is on and they are trying to figure out that who actually was responsible for this fiasco.
In view of the ongoing national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Centre had announced that under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), poor women would get Rs 500 in their Jan Dhan accounts directly. It was decided that for three consecutive months, the beneficiaries will get the amount and the first installment was released in April.
The Telangana Grameena Bank is sponsored by SBI and there are about nine lakh Jan Dhan accounts in the bank. But it was found that for the relief; only 5.15 lakh people were eligible.
Out of the 99 lakh Jan Dhan accounts in Telangana, about 52 lakh accounts are in semi-urban and rural areas and 47 lakh accounts are in urban areas. As of April 15, the total balance in these accounts total up to Rs 2,717 crore.
Telangana Grameen Bank general manager (IT) V S Mahesh, was quoted as saying that only women who opened their accounts after August 1, 2014, were eligible for the relief scheme. Mistakenly, the benefit was extended to all the zero accounts. However, the bank noticed that the error had happened and recovered Rs 16 crore from three lakh accounts.
