Mismanagement at South Mumbai's Corporation Bank has left 124 pensioners of St Xavier's College without their dues for March. The bank failed to communicate the new account numbers of the pensioners
Officials of state government's pension office allege that they are yet to receive the updated account numbers from South Mumbai's Corporation bank. Pic/Sameer Markhande
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Mismanagement at South Mumbai's Corporation Bank has left 124 pensioners of St Xavier's College without their dues for March. The bank failed to communicate the new account numbers of the pensioners, including teachers and administrative staff, to state's pension office.
Number game
Expert and managing partner of Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services LLP Ashvin Parekh said, "All banks are supposed to maintain a standard 14 digits for account numbers, just the way our phone numbers were changed to maintain a certain global standard."
Pensioners in a soup
However, in order to update the account numbers, the bank has allegedly asked the pensioners to get the forms authorised by the pension office and then submit the same to the bank. This hasn't gone down well with the beneficiaries. Crawford market resident Flory Goes, whose husband worked as a helper at the college, said, "My husband is 93 and can hardly talk. It's difficult for me to run around for the pension. Our meals depend on the money; we have no idea what to do this month."
Thomas Lobo
Another pensioner, Thomas Lobo (84), who was an administrative staffer at the college in the 1960s, is incapable of travelling. He lives with his niece Zelia, who said, "The bank is not cooperative at all. We have never dealt with such a problem in the past. Though the bank manager assured us of speedy action, nothing has been done yet."
Flory Goes
A pension office employee said, "We give the money to RBI, which sends it to the bank to be transferred to accounts. According to the new norm, the banks are supposed to change the account numbers, but we were not informed about it. On March 1, they returned all the money to us saying the accounts don't exist."
Recent upgrade
General manager of Corporation Bank's head office in Mangalore CK Gopal said, "Our bank's operating system was upgraded recently. The confusion may have been because of that. We will look into it and get the problem fixed."
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