Odisha: 70-Year-Old Woman Walks Barefoot To Collect Pension, Nirmala Sitharaman Pulls Up Bank

A video of a 70-year-old woman walking barefoot to collect her pension from a bank in Odisha went viral on social media

Updated on: 21 April 2023 10:21 am

Nirmala Sitharaman urged SBI to take action

After a video of a 70-year-old woman?who was seen walking barefoot to collect her pension from a bank in Odisha's Jharigaon went viral on social media, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tagged the State Bank of India (SBI) account on Twitter and urged them to take cognisance of the issue.

"Can see the manager of the?@TheOfficialSBI responding but yet wish?@DFS_India and?@TheOfficialSBI take cognisance of this and act humanely. Are they no bank Mitra?" she asked on Twitter, while responding to the video.

Can see the manager of the @TheOfficialSBI responding but yet wish @DFS_India and @TheOfficialSBI take cognisance of this and act humanely. Are they no bank Mitra? @FinMinIndia https://t.co/a9MdVizHim
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) April 20, 2023

In a series of tweets, the SBI responded saying that they are "equally pained to see the video." "Smt Surya Harijan in the video used to withdraw her old age pension from the CSP point situated in her village every month. Due to old age, her finger prints were not matching at the CSP point," they said.

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Madam, we are equally pained to see this video. Smt Surya Harijan in the video used to withdraw her old age pension from the CSP point situated in her village every month. Due to old age, her finger prints were not matching at the CSP point.
— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) April 20, 2023

"She visited our Jharigaon Branch with her relative. Our Branch Manager immediately paid the amount by manually debiting her account. Our Branch Manger has also communicated that her pension will be delivered to her doorstop from next month. We have also decided to handover a wheelchair to Smt Surya Harijan", the bank added in their response.?

The SBI?manager earlier claimed that she was facing trouble in withdrawing money because of her "broken fingers" and that the?bank is working to resolve the problem.