'Jan Dhan' will not serve much purpose for the poor: Mayawati

Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday claimed that the newly-launched ‘Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna’ will “not serve” much purpose, as there was a need to give direct monetary benefit to the poor and downtrodden and not merely open bank accounts for them. “By merely getting the bank accounts opened for the poor would not serve much purpose and not provide any monetary benefit to the poor… They would also not get the Rs one lakh of insurance money easily”, Mayawati told reporters in Lucknow. [caption id=“attachment_1688493” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BSP supremo Mayawati. AFP[/caption] “There is a need to provide direct monetary benefit to the poor, who cannot meet their daily requirements”, she said. She claimed that in her tenure as the chief minister of the state, such benefits had been provided through the Mukhyamantri Mahamaya Arthik Madad Yojna. The BSP chief said that schemes launched by different governments at the Centre since Independence for the benefit of SC/STs, OBCs, religious minorities, specially Muslims for their monetary uplift and making them self-reliant, have “either been stopped or put in the cold storage”. “We have a sharp eye on the central government as to what their view is on the welfare schemes for the weaker sections”, Mayawati said. To a question on the recent controversy involving home minister Rajnath Singh’s son and subsequent clarifications on it, Mayawati taking a dig at the rival party said, “You can imagine through this incident what the future of BJP would be”. PTI