Jan Dhan covers 99.7% households Opens 11.5 Crore Acs, Paves Way To Transfer Over `65k Cr Subsidies Banks, primarily the public sector players, have opened 11.5 crore accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), covering 99.74% households and paving the way for transfer of over Rs 65,000 crore of subsidies and other transfers directly into these accounts, the government on Tuesday said. “Most of India today is included in the banking system… Except inaccessible households, bank employees visited every household, and their strike rate is 99.74%,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said, adding that in the long run the initiative will help people to turn to plastic mon ey and reduce the use of cash in the economy . Among the 21.05 crore households surveyed, 20.99 crore have access to bank accounts. Of the accounts opened under Jan Dhan, 51% were held by women, while over 59% were in rural areas. Barring Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Odisha, all other states have reported 100% coverage for households, the government said. Although, a little over Rs 9,100 crore has so far been deposited in 28% of the accounts, the government is hopeful of scaling up that number in the coming months as the benefits, such as cooking gas subsidy, are transferred directly. Financial services secretary Hasmukh Adhia said once fully rolled out, MNREGS alone will result in the transfer of Rs 33,000 crore ayear through bank accounts, while another Rs 25,000-30,000 crore is expected to flow by way of subsidies related to cooking gas. Up to January 14, Rs 6,689 crore have already been disbursed to over 8 crore cooking gas customers, Adhia said in a presentation. While connecting every household with the banking system was the main thrust of the Jan Dhan Yojana, the move will help thousands of crores flow into the formal banking channels, which was so far lying in households with little productive use. Adhia said even Guinness Book of World Records has recognized the achievements made under PMJDY. In its citation, the Guinness Book said: “Most bank accounts opened in one week as part of the Financial Inclusion Campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by the Department of Financial Services, Government of India from August 23 to 29, 2014.”
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 11:14:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015