CHENNAI: With a mandate to achieve 90 per cent DBTL seeding by January 15, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) conducted a camp with additional facilities like photocopy machines, continuous announcements regarding procedures and even facilities to open bank account, here on Sunday. However, despite the arrangements, the turnout was low, officials said.
The camps were held at Avadi, Medavakkam, Pallikaranai, Neelangarai and ECR. Stalls of all three OMCs - IOC, BPCL and HPCL - were placed side-by-side at the camps, while few locations also distributed forms to open bank accounts. Separate staff to assist consumers in filling forms were also present.
“We found that many who applied for DBTL did not have bank accounts. So we thought of including bank facilities, too, during the camp. Moreover, they faced confusions in filling the forms, which we tried to clear by playing an audio clip through the loudspeaker, explaining the procedure,” an Indane official said.
Despite these arrangements, the turnout was a dampener, with only 4,209 forms being received. Around 43 per cent of Chennaiites have registered for DBTLso far, while the State average is 48.5 per cent. “The rest include those who don’t have bank accounts. Today, we had representatives of a bank, in Medavakkam and Pallikaranai, to enable opening accounts,” an official said.