Bhubaneswar/Keonjhar: A day after a tribal man carried his sister’s exhumed skeleton to a rural bank in Odisha’s Keonjhar district as a proof of death to withdraw her money, the parent bank clarified they had only sought valid documents, even as the incident triggered a row on Tuesday.
A shocking clip of the man carrying the remains to the Maliposi branch of Odisha Grameen Bank on Monday has gone viral on social media.
The parent bank said the incident appears to have arisen due to a lack of awareness and asserted that the branch will settle the man’s claim to withdraw money from his deceased sister’s account on a priority basis as soon as local authorities issue a death certificate. Odisha minister Suresh Pujari said there was a “lack of humanitarian approach” and the government would ensure strict action against the officials concerned, while the Opposition took potshots at the BJP dispensation, pointing out that Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi represents Keonjhar in the state Assembly.
The BJD’s Rajya Sabha leader MP Manas Ranjan Mangaraj termed the incident a proof of “harsh insensitivity of rural banking systems”.
