Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, November 16: As per the directions of the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Axis Bank held a mega public awareness camp on unclaimed deposits in Phase 2, Mohali.
MK Bhardwaj, Lead District Manager (Punjab National Bank), Mohali, said that 10 leading banks participated in the program, including SBI, PNB, Union Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab and Sindh Bank, Canara Bank, Punjab Gramin Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. The participating banks created awareness about the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF) campaign of the Government of India.
He further informed that a huge amount lying dormant in bank accounts for more than 10 years is transferred to the DEAF account of RBI. *In Mohali district alone, over Rs 85 crore has been transferred to the Reserve Bank of India under this category.* Banks have now been tasked with identifying the beneficiaries of such accounts and reactivating them.
Key Axis Bank officials present at the event included Gurmeet Singh Bhatia (Head of Compliance), Pankaj Raheja and Ishwar Singh (Cluster Heads), Smt. Shalini Varghese (India Banking CRDM North 2), and Sanjay Kumar (AVP & DCO).
LDM Bhardwaj highlighted the importance of the DEAF campaign and urged all the participating banks to adopt a positive approach to spread awareness so that the ‘unclaimed funds’ can be brought back into circulation and the banking system.
He also urged the private banks of Mohali to contribute positively to the government-sponsored schemes and encourage enrolment under various social security schemes of the Government of India. He also stressed on the need to educate customers on the precautions to be taken to protect themselves from the increasing incidents of cyber crime in the region.