Applying a Circular with Sharp Edges
Read this extract from a circular issued by a district cooperative bank and answer the questions that follow.
'All branches are advised that with effect from 1 July, Kisan Credit Card limits shall be reviewed annually instead of once in three years. Farmers who have repaid at least 90 per cent of their dues and whose accounts are standard may apply for an enhancement without fresh collateral up to ₹1.60 lakh. Branches shall not insist on a no-dues certificate from applicants who have cleared the principal, though interest, if any, must be cleared before disbursement. Photograph and Aadhaar authentication are mandatory for every applicant. Applications received after 31 August will be carried forward to the next quarter.'
Three applications reach the branch in the third week of August: Mohan, who has cleared his principal, owes ₹2,000 of interest, has repaid 92 per cent of his earlier dues and whose account is standard; Devi, who has repaid 85 per cent of her dues and whose account is standard; and Prakash, who has cleared principal and interest but whose photograph and Aadhaar authentication are still pending.
1. Dispose of each of the three applications under the circular, stating the exact clause that decides it.
Read the worked answer
Mohan - sanction, but disburse only after the ₹2,000 is paid. He meets the 90 per cent repayment test (92 per cent) and the standard-account test. The no-dues certificate cannot be demanded from him because he has cleared the principal, but the same sentence ends with a condition: interest must be cleared before disbursement. So the correct action is to sanction and withhold the disbursement entry until the interest is received.
Devi - not eligible for this collateral-free enhancement. Her 85 per cent falls short of the 90 per cent floor. She may still be considered under the bank's normal norms with collateral; what she cannot get is the relaxed, collateral-free route.
Prakash - application incomplete, cannot be disposed of on merit. Photograph and Aadhaar authentication are mandatory for every applicant, and no discretion is given to the branch. Call him for authentication; do not sanction on the basis of a pending KYC field even though his repayment record is clean.
All three arrived before 31 August, so none is carried forward.
2. A covering letter drafted by a junior officer contains this sentence: 'The branch has not insisted on a no-dues certificate, nor it has asked for fresh collateral.' Identify the error and rewrite the sentence.
Read the worked answer
Error: the subject and auxiliary are not inverted after the negative connective nor.
When nor joins two negative clauses it behaves like a negative adverb at the head of the second clause, so the auxiliary must come before the subject - exactly as in a question. The first clause is correct (has not insisted); the second is not.
Corrected: 'The branch has not insisted on a no-dues certificate, nor has it asked for fresh collateral.'
Why this is worth a mark rather than a shrug: the sentence appears in a credit document, and a badly drafted undertaking is a legal risk, not a stylistic one. Two related traps to avoid:
- Do not repair it with nor it has not asked - that produces a double negative.
- Do not substitute or unless you also remove the preceding negative: The branch has not insisted on a no-dues certificate, or asked for fresh collateral is acceptable, because or continues the scope of not.
3. Fill the blank and justify your choice: 'Farmers ____ accounts are standard may apply for the enhancement.'
Read the worked answer
Answer: whose.
The blank needs a possessive relative pronoun linking the farmer to the account - the account belongs to the farmer. Whose does that, and it can refer to persons as well as things, so there is no objection on that ground.
The two attractive distractors both fail:
- Who's is a contraction of who is or who has. Expanding it gives 'Farmers who is accounts are standard', which is ungrammatical. This is the option the paper expects a hurried candidate to pick.
- Which would refer to the accounts as the subject: 'Farmers which accounts are standard' is not English.
Sense check on the whole sentence: Farmers whose accounts are standard may apply - subject farmers, relative clause whose accounts are standard, verb may apply. The clause is defining, so no comma before whose, which also matches the circular's own drafting style and keeps the sentence legally unambiguous.