[ Litem Eshi Ori ]
ITANAGAR, 6 Oct: The Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) has urged the State Bank of India (SBI) to immediately examine and correct an alleged issue in its banking application and customer-onboarding/KYC system, under which Christian customers belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST) of Arunachal Pradesh are reportedly being directed towards the 'general' category.
In a representation addressed to the regional manager, SBI regional office, Itanagar, the ACF said the issue occurs when a customer selects 'Christian' under the religion option in SBI's banking applications, including YONO. According to the forum, the system reportedly does not provide an option to simultaneously select 'Scheduled Tribe (ST)' and instead directs the customer towards the 'general' category.
The ACF expressed concern that such a system, if technically designed in this manner, could result in incorrect classification of genuine ST Christian customers and cause serious concern among members of the community.
The forum further stated that the Presidential Order, 1950, as amended from time to time, contains a separate entry for Arunachal and recognises the Scheduled Tribes of the state. It maintained that the order does not prescribe a religion-based exclusion whereby a member of a notified Scheduled Tribe ceases to enjoy ST status merely because the person professes Christianity.
The ACF also emphasised that the SBI is not the competent authority to delist a tribal person from the Scheduled Tribe category, and urged the bank to ensure that customers possessing valid ST certificates are not automatically classified under the 'general' category solely on the basis of their religion.
In its representation, the ACF has sought an examination of the banking application and associated customer-onboarding/KYC software to determine whether selecting Christianity automatically disables the ST category for tribal Christian customers of Arunachal.
The forum has also sought clarification from the SBI on the legal, statutory, regulatory or RBI instruction, if any, under which such classification has been introduced. In the absence of any such provision, the ACF urged the SBI to correct the software logic and issue appropriate instructions to all its branches in Arunachal.
The ACF has requested the competent authority to communicate the corrective action taken within 15 days of the submission of the representation. It warned that failure to resolve the matter within the stipulated period could lead the forum to organise a gherao of all SBI branches in Arunachal on the following day.