Miss Alone
Prime VIP
The application of a bank officer, who mentioned “Valentine” as a festival on a loan form, has gone viral on social media.
Twenty-five-year old Digvijay Singh, a probationary officer in State Bank of India in Junagarh at Gujarat, recently applied for an advance festival loan for Rs 42,970, mentioning “Valentine” as the festival. But the bank rejected his request, saying it was an “invalid festival”.
According to Digvijay’s friends, the young man again applied for a loan, this time mentioning “Basant Panchami” as the festival, which was accepted by the bank.
Singh says that he was not seeking publicity when applying for the loan. Though Singh had applied for the ‘Valentine festival loan’ recently, he goofed up in mentioning on his loan application the year for which he was applying for the advance and also the year of his joining.
“It was a mistake… But, it is not a matter worth discussing in the media. I have already explained the matter to my higher authorities and I am not authorised to speak to the media. You may contact my superiors on this matter. However, I wish to put it straight that I did not do it for cheap publicity,” he said when HT contacted him on phone.
He, however, refused to provide numbers of his superiors to HT.
A senior official of SBI in the Junagadh division, under which the branch falls, said on condition of anonymity, “I am not aware of this particular case. But as per our policy, we offer loans only for festivals, and not for days like Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day or Mother’s Day.”
A resident of Ballabgarh in Faridabad district of Haryana, Singh joined the bank in December 2014 as a probationary officer at Chuda, Junagarh branch in Gujarat.
Bank officers are entitled to a maximum of one month’s gross salary as advance festival loan. The interest-free loan has to be returned in 10-month equal instalments.
![[JUGRAJ SINGH]](https://www.unp.me/data/avatars/s/123/123038.jpg?1591210006){kind=avatar}
