An elderly woman was seen dragging her 120-year-old bedridden mother to the bank in Naupada district of Odisha. After the bank allegedly asked for physical verification of the 100-year-old beneficiary and refused to release the pension without it, the woman was left with no option but to drag her mother on a cot in the scorching heat.
To assist the poor tide over the coronavirus pandemic, the Centre, in March had introduced Rs 500 per month help for women Jan Dhan checking account holders from April to June under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package deal.
According to the reports, on June 9, the woman went to the native department of the Utkal Grameen Financial institution to withdraw Rs 1500 from the account of her bed-ridden mother. However, the financial institution supervisor instructed her that she needed the physical verification of her mother to withdraw the money.
The incident took place on Wednesday, June 10, however, it got highlighted after the video went viral on social media.
An elderly woman had to drag her 100-year-old mother on a cot to the Bank , at Nuapada District of Odisha, as officials refused access to her Jan Dhan Yojana account without physical verification.The incident took place three days back but videos viral on Saturday pic.twitter.com/gJ5MBPR8jQ
— kalpataru ojha (@Ojha_kalpataru) June 14, 2020
The BJP’s Nuapada legislator Raju Dholakia said he has asked the state’s Naveen Patnaik government to look into it.
Dholakia, on Sunday, said, “We came to know about the incident through the video in which woman was seen being dragged on a cot. She was taken to the bank for the withdrawal of her pension money. I request the government to look into the matter and take strict action”.
Chief Secretary of Odisha has aked the regional managers of all government, private, scheduled banks and RRBs, to provide door-to-door service to elderly citizens.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus cases in Odisha is rising since cyclone Amphan hit the state. According to the health department official, Odisha’s COVID-19 tally on Monday crossed the 4,000-mark as 146 new positive cases have been confirmed.
