Senior citizens, including pensioners and local businessmen, on Friday appealed to the authorities to take notice of the installation of a new ATM on the premises of the regional office, alleging that it was intended to facilitate the office staff rather than serving the bank’s customers.
They contended that instead of replacing the frequently malfunctioning ATM at the Community Centre branch, the decision to install a new machine in a residential area was against the interests of the general public.
They highlighted that the State Bank of Pakistan had implemented a policy exempting pensioners from biometric verification due to issues with unreadable thumb impressions.
The bank manager was obligated to accept life certificates, particularly from ailing female pensioners, before processing their payments, they added. However, instead of assisting the elderly, bank officials had begun compelling them to appear in person at the government payment section. A retired banker opined that the receipt of a pension payment cheque should be sufficient for life verification by the branch manager.
However, they lamented that no one was willing to facilitate the helpless elderly pensioners, who could be seen wandering around the Community Centre branch due to biometric verification issues. The pensioners standing outside the bank informed The News that they were being treated as second-class citizens, with armed guards preventing their entry under the pretext of a system link being down.
A retired teacher and pensioner remarked that the bankers sitting in air-conditioned offices seemed to have forgotten that teachers had once educated them to reach their current positions.
The News attempted to obtain a viewpoint from the Chief Manager of the State Bank of Pakistan in Faridabad regarding district-level monitoring of banks, but the operator stated that he was in an urgent meeting.
However, when contacted at the NBP Regional Office concerning the grievances of pensioners and the ATM issue, a senior officer from the operations section informed The News that the new ATM was installed at an approved location as it was specifically purchased by the head office for the RM office.
He further stated that new software for pensioner biometric verification had been implemented at the Community Centre and other branches and that staff had been accommodating pensioners. He added that all operation managers of the branches had already been instructed to facilitate senior citizens, including pensioners, with due respect.
