Chennai, Sep 23 (IANS): At a time when major political parties in Tamil Nadu alleged that the Central government is imposing Hindi, a doctor in Ariyalur district alleged that he was denied a loan by the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) Manager 'for not knowing the North Indian language'.

The bank manager has been transferred after the incident came to light.

The doctor, a senior citizen C. Balasubramanian also alleged that the Manager of the IOB had treated him and his engineer friend, who was accompanying him, without respect.

The bank has transferred the Manager to the Regional Office in Trichy.

According to Balasubramanian, he was a customer of the IOB for a long time and had approached the Jayamkondam branch and met the Manager Vishal Kamble for a loan to construct a building.

The doctor also showed the manager property documents to be given as the surety for the loan.

As the property documents were Tamil, Kamble allegedly told Balasubramanian that he does not know the language of the state and asked whether the doctor knows Hindi.

According to Balasubramanian, he told the banker that he would explain the documents in English to which the latter did not agree and refused the loan saying 'language problem'.

The doctor said the banker could have rejected the loan for a valid reason. But he said he was from Maharashtra and rejected the loan due to the 'language problem'.

Later IOB transferred Kamble to Trichy district.

According to the IOB, the bank norms do not allow lending to a person who is above 70 years old.