solar cycle [@dikp99; @nandy02; @chat04; @chou04; @guer07; @nandy11; @chou12; @haz14; @pass14]. Recent observations also strongly favor the Babcock-Leighton mechanism as a major source for poloidal field generation [@dasi10; @munoz13]. In this scenario, the poloidal field generation is essentially predominantly confined to near-surface layers. For the dynamo to function efficiently, the toroidal field that presumably resides deep in the interior has to reach the near-surface layers for the Babcock-Leighton poloidal source to be effective. This is achieved by the buoyant transport of magnetic flux from the Sun’s interior to its surface (through sunspot eruptions). Subsequent to this the poloidal field so generated at near-surface layers must be transported back to the solar interior, where differential rotation can generate the toroidal field. The deep meridional flow assumed in such models (See Fig. 1, left-hemisphere) plays a significant role in this flux transport process and is thought to govern the period of the sunspot cycle [@char20; @hatha03; @yeat08; @ghaz14]. Moreover, a fundamentally crucial role attributed to the deep equatorward meridional flow is that it allows the Parker-Yoshimura sign rule [@park55; @yosh75] to be overcome, which would otherwise result in poleward propagating dynamo waves in contradiction to observations that the sunspot belt migrates equatorwards 