‘Don’t declare LS election schedule till SBI disclosure’
Days after the State Bank of India (SBI) sought an extension from the Supreme Court to submit data on electoral bonds, a group of former civil servants on Saturday asked the Election Commission (EC) not to announce the schedule for Lok Sabha polls till the bank shares the information as mandated by the top court.
The former bureaucrats, under the banner of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), said that SBI should give the electoral bonds data much before the announcement of the general election.
The Supreme Court had on February 15 scrapped the electoral bonds scheme. It had also directed SBI to furnish data regarding the electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6. The public sector bank had on March 4 moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details of the bonds.
The CCG, which said that it had no affiliation with any political party but believes in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Constitution, noted with dismay that it took the SBI 17 days to inform the Supreme Court on March 4 that they are not in a position to collate the data by March 6.
“For India’s largest bank with 48 crore accounts and boasting high levels of digitisation, a pathetic excuse has been proffered that records were kept manually and hence the extension sought,” it said in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goel.
Former civil servants write to EC saying that announcement be made only after data is furnished
‘Shielding the govt.’
The CCG quoted a letter by Thomas Franco, former general secretary of the All India Banking Officers’ Confederation, which pointed out that SBI had asked the government in June 2018 for a sum of more than ₹60 lakh for development of IT systems for the electoral bonds scheme.
The SBI denying this information and indicating that it would not be available before the general election seems to indicate that the bank is shielding the government in power from any criticism, the letter said.