Picture Courtesy : Indian Express
The unprecedented floods in Kerala has damaged property and infrastructure running into several crores. As aid and money pours into the state for rehabilitation and restoration , the country’s two leading banks – ICICI and SBI have come forward to help the people of Kerala in this moment of crisis of gigantic proportions.
ICICI while taking the lead has announced that it will contribute Rs 10 crore for rehabilitation work in flood-hit Kerala, where over 300 people have died because of the floods.
A press release issued by the bank says, “The majority of the contribution will be extended to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. The bank will also contribute to the District Collectors’ efforts in all the 14 districts of the state to help in the supply of essential commodities like clothes, food items, medicines, sanitation and hygiene products and others.
In addition, ICICI Bank has announced a slew of measures to help the flood-hit customers of the state. The bank will waive off penalties on late payment of EMI for all retail loans—home, car and personal—for its customers in Kerala in the month of August. Also, there will be no penalty for late payment of credit card dues, as well as no cheque bouncing charges for the bank’s customers in Kerala this month.
Following ICICI’s footsteps , the State Bank of India (SBI) has donated Rs 2 crore for the Kerala flood victims and initiated several other ground-level measures in the deluged state, an official said .
The SBI has encouraged all its 270,000 staffers to contribute to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF), and the bank would contribute an equivalent amount.
It also announced a waiver of fees and charges on services like loans for flood relief, duplicate passbooks, ATM cards, cheque books and EMI delays, besides making attempts to restore the working of branches and ATMs in the flood affected regions of the state.
Besides, the SBI has decided to waive all charges on remittance to the CMDRF, penalty on non-maintenance of minimum account balance from proceeds of relief fund provided by the government and agencies and if already recovered, such charges would be refunded for customers in the state.
