‘Be humane’: FM Sitharaman to SBI after video of old barefoot woman going to collect pension surfaces

New Delhi, April 21

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday pulled up country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), asking it to act humanely, after tagging a video on her Twitter handle of an old village woman, walking barefoot in scorching heat with the help of a broken chair, to collect her pension from the nearest branch.

The woman in the video, identified as Surya Harijan, lives in Odisha’s Nabrangpur district, and stays with her younger son, who grazes other people’s cattle. Her elder son is a migrant labourer in another state.

The family lives in a hut and doesn’t own any land, as per reports.

Sitharaman tweeted while sharing the video, “Can see the manager of SBI responding but yet wish Department of Financial Services (DFS) and the SBI to take cognisance of this and act humanely. Are they no bank Mitra?” The incident took place on April 17.

The SBI responded to Sitharaman’s tweet and said the woman pension will be delivered at her doorstep from next month onwards. It added that she would also be given a wheelchair.

As per reports, the woman is forced to physically collect her pension as her thumb print doesn’t match with her records.

IANS