100-year-old Odisha woman dragged on cot to bank gets help from IPPB, can withdraw money from home

New Delhi: A few days after news of an old lady in Odisha being dragged to the bank in a cot by her daughter went viral, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad decided to lend help to the family.

On Friday, the minister said that the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) had opened an account for the nearly 100-year-old old woman, identified as Labhe Bag, to help her access banking related services at her doorstep.

Taking to Twitter, the minister wrote: “Had learnt from media about difficulty faced by a very old lady in Odisha in withdrawing cash from her bank account. Happy to share that India Post Payments bank helped her by opening a bank account. Now she can withdraw cash at her doorstep using Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.” 

Had learnt from media about difficulty faced by a very old lady in Odisha in withdrawing cash from her bank account. Happy to share that India Post Payments bank helped her by opening a bank account. Now she can withdraw cash at her doorstep using Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. pic.twitter.com/FPCxyKic6d — Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 19, 2020

The (IPPB) is a government-owned public sector bank through which she can now withdraw cash at her doorstep using Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.

The incident took place on June 9, when a video of 60-year-old Punjimati Dei dragging her mother on a cot went viral. Dei was trying to reach to the Utkal Grameen Bankbranch at Baragaon to withdraw the COVID-19 assistance money of Rs 1,500. The bank had asked for the physical presence of the account holder for a thumb impression and so she proceeded to take her centenarian mother to the bank.

After the video of the incident was widely shared in the social media, on June 15 the bank manager Ajit Kumar Pradhan was suspended following an instruction of the Odisha government.