The State Bank of India (SBI) swung into action after 70-year-old Surya Harijan from Odisha's Nabarangpur had to walk several kilometres barefoot under the scorching sun, using a broken plastic chair as support, to collect her pension money.
After video of Surya Harijan went viral, the SBI issued a statement expressing anguish over the incident.
"State Bank of India has always aligned its business goals with national priorities, and focused attention is given to a range of financial inclusion activities," the SBI said.
"However," the bank said, "an unfortunate incident has recently come to light where one of our senior citizen customers faced difficulty in withdrawing her old age pension from the nearby CSP (Bank Mitra) in Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on account of her fading fingerprints not being recognized by the biometric reader at the CSP (Bank Mitra)."
Will give her wheelchair as goodwill gesture: SBI
"As per our laid down protocols, the nearest link branch, 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 delivery of pension at her doorstep going forward," the SBI said.
"As a goodwill gesture, SBI has donated a wheelchair to the pensioner to facilitate her movement," it added.
"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 bank added.
What had happened?
A video of Surya Harijan, a senior citizen from Odisha, had gone viral in which she was seen walking barefoot to collect her pension money from nearby bank branch after her fading fingerprints were not identified by by the biometric reader at the CSP (Bank Mitra).
Earlier the money was given as cash but due to corrupt officials and complaints around them, the govt now transfers the amount to beneficiary accounts. The bank manager has assured that Surya will not have to come to the bank like this anymore, and steps have been taken to ensure that she won't face such issues.