 "Cabinet reviews Jan Dhan scheme: Over 3 cr accounts opened so far")
New Delhi: The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today took stock of the financial inclusion drive, Jan Dhan Yojana, under which banks have opened 3.02 crore accounts and mobilised about Rs 1,500 crore.
“As of September 8, 2014, 3.02 crore accounts have been opened, of which 1.89 crore are in rural areas and 1.13 crore are in urban areas,” a source said.
[caption id=“attachment_90235” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption]
“Banks have collected deposits of Rs 1,496.51 crore under the scheme so far which works out to Rs 495 per account,” the source added.
Prime Minister launched this ambitious scheme of financial inclusion on August 28.
The benefit of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) can be extended to existing account holders without opening a new account.
The government is giving adequate publicity to the benefit to be extended to account holders, sources added. The main features of the PMJDY scheme include Rs 5,000 overdraft facility for Aadhar-linked accounts, RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt Rs 1 lakh accident insurance cover.
Besides, account holders under the scheme will get life insurance cover of Rs 30,000. This was additional benefit announced by the Prime Minister during the launch of the scheme.
The modalities for the life insurance cover to the account holders are being worked out and given the final shape, sources added.
In order to spread financial inclusion, banks have been asked to open 7.5 crore accounts by January 26. PMJDY scheme envisages to provide one account to 15 crore unbanked households across the country in the first phase.
For this, banks have been asked to set up camps from 8 AM to 8 PM on every Saturday to facilitate account opening.
Two helplines– 1800-180-111 and 1800-110-001 have been set up to answer queries related to the scheme.
The Cabinet was also apprised that the Ministry has started survey of unabnked households and is expected to be completed by October 15, 2014.
Mobile banking for the poor has been made available through National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) for which all banks and mobile companies have come together.
Normal bank transaction are done through any phone. At present, on an average 400 transactions per day are taking place on USSD platform.
The new scheme, sources said, is a significant improvement over the UPA’s financial inclusion programme.
The earlier scheme had no focus on households and no emphasis was given on urban financial inclusion, according to some experts. Besides, they maintained that there was a cumbersome Know Your Customer formality, restricting account opening.
Other deficiencies cited included lack of credit disbursement and 47 per cent of business correspondents being untraceable, resulting in inactive accounts.
The new scheme, sources said, has tried to address all the possible deficiencies and its monitoring would be done at state and district levels.
The ‘mission mode’ approach has been envisaged with the Finance Minister as head of the mission.
PTI
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