Bettiah (Bihar): India may have just found its first digital beggar, a Bihar man who asks for alms and gives the people the option to pay him digitally. Raju Patel, a beggar at Bettiah Railway Station walks with a QR code placard around his neck and a digital tablet. A QR code is a machine-readable optical label by which one can identify the source or receiver of any transaction. Patel is said to be India's first digital beggar and is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India Campaign.
For several years, the beggar has survived on alms. While speaking to ETV Bharat, Patel said that the QR code is useful since he was tired of people telling him that they did not have spare change for him after which he decided to open a bank account and take his begging one step ahead.
The bank, Patel said, wanted his Aadhaar and PAN card. He had the former and got himself a PAN made as well to set the ball rolling. Consequently, Patel opened an account in the main branch of the State Bank of India in Bettiah and got an e-wallet made. Currently, he begs digitally around Bettiah railway station, bus stand, and Kali Bagh temple.
Earlier, he used to follow Lalu Yadav and attend his programmes. He said that Lalu Yadav had given him a food pass so that he did not have to sleep hungry. In 2005, on the orders of Lalu Yadav, he used to get food daily from the pantry car of Saptakranti Superfast Express but when the Railway Minister changed, the pass got cancelled.
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