Chennai, April 25 (IANS) With sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu and to prevent further spread, bank branches in Tamil Nadu will function between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. from April 26 to April 30.

The timing will be reviewed after April 30, based on the Covid-19 situation in the state.

The State Level Bankers' Committee-Tamil Nadu (SLBC-TN) on Saturday issued a series of guidelines to its member banks in the state.

In addition, the SLBC-TN has said wherever possible cluster based functioning of branches in consultation with the local administration shall be adopted.

Branches that are routinely facing huge crowds, shall seek the help of police for crowd management, by taking up through the Lead District Manager.

There will be no change in the working hours of administrative/zonal/regional/back offices of the banks where the staff do not have direct contact with the public.

The other decisions are:

-Staff with co-morbidities conditions, pregnant women, visually challenged may be given the option of work from home by the relevant authorities of the concerned banks;

-Aadhar Enrolment Centre functions shall be suspended;

-Branches functioning in the areas declared as Containment Zones, if any, shall continue to be guided by the directions given by the appropriate authorities;

-Banks to ensure that all alternate delivery channels such as bank ATMs/cash deposit machines/Cash recyclers shall be functional;

-Business Correspondents services should be fully functional at all times;

-Bank shall encourage all their eligible staff members to avail of the vaccination facility for themselves as well as for their family members;

-All other procedures to contain the spread of Covid-19 like use of face mask, washing of hands at regular intervals, maintaining social distancing etc shall be strictly adhered to; and

-Member banks are requested to educate and encourage their customers to make use of alternate delivery channels/opt for digital transactions instead of visiting branches physically.

--IANS vj/skp/