Odisha news: In a shocking incident from Odisha, a 70-year-old woman was seen walking barefoot for several kilometres only to collect her pension from a bank. According to a video which has gone viral on social media, the frail woman can be seen walking barefoot in scorching heat with the support of a broken chair.
The incident happened in the Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on April 17 (Monday).
FM Sitharaman tweet:
Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman immediately responded to the viral video and said in her tweet, "Can see the manager of SBI responding but yet wish @DFS_India and@TheOfficialSBI take cognisance of this and act humanely. Are they no bank Mitra? @FinMinIndia."
Later, SBI officials replied to FM Sitharaman's tweet and said that from next month onwards the pension will be delivered at her doorstep.
SBI clarification on matter:
SBI Jharigaon immediately paid the pension amount by debiting the amount manually from the pensioner’s account. She has also been reassured by the branch manager of the delivery of pension at her doorstep going forward. As a goodwill gesture, SBI has donated a wheelchair to the pensioner to facilitate her movement. While necessary protocols are already in place to address such situations, we have taken further cognizance of the matter and have initiated reiteration of the guidelines to all our BCs/CSPs (Bank Mitra) to contact their link branches in case of any issues faced by them in serving our customers. Bank has also been examining options of installing Iris scanners at our BC/CSP (Bank Mitra) channels to address the challenges faced by our Senior Pensioners/ Customers.
The elderly woman, Surya Harijan, is very poor. Her older son is working as a migrant labourer in a different state. She is staying with her younger son's family and he makes his living grazing other people's cattle. The family has no land to plough and lives in a hut.
The lady went to the bank to get the pension, but she was told that her thumb is not matching the records, and she was forced to return home.
SBI reaction to FM's tweet:
Reacting to the incident, the State Bank of India (SBI) manager has claimed that she is facing trouble in withdrawing money because of her broken fingers and the bank is working to resolve the problem.
"Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. She has been given Rs 3,000 manually from the bank. We will resolve the problem soon," the SBI manager of the Jharigaon branch said earlier.
The Sarpanch of her village also said that they have discussed listing such helpless people in the village and providing pension money to them.
(With ANI inputs)
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