NEW DELHI: Nearly eight crore people have opened bank accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and government is hopeful that ten crore people will be covered under the scheme by January 26 next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Lok Sabha today.
Jaitley said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the launching of PMJDY on August 15, 2014 and a target to cover 7.5 crore household by January 26, 2015 has been set.
“Government’s target is to cover 7.5 crore household by January 26 and that means our target is to ensure opening of account by 10 crore people. About a day or two ago, 7.98 crore people have opened their accounts and we hope that by January 26, ten crore people will be able to open the account,” he said during Question Hour.
The Finance Minister said government’s target was not villages only but cover every household of every village under the PMJDY .
“Besides, we are trying to open ATM if not a branch in every area and also want to cover every village through business correspondent. Through this way, we want to expand the banking network in the country,” he said.
Jaitley said government will ensure that no one takes wrong advantage of the scheme which is targeted at the weaker sections of the society. The Finance Minister said the beneficiaries would get a RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs one lakh. In addition, there is life insurance cover of Rs 30,000 to those people who open their accounts for the first time and meet other eligibility conditions of the scheme.
“The card holder would also get overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 depending on the repaying capacity of the customer.
These are incentives and we have reached the target due to the incentives,” he said.
Jaitley said life and accident cover is for everyone and that is the right of the customer. In case of other benefits, like loan, banks have been asked to take a liberal approach.
PMJDY envisages universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension.
In case of migrant laborers and others, the simplified KYC norms of RBI require only one proof of address (either current or permanent) while opening a bank account or while undergoing periodic updation.
“Banks have been directed to preferably use Aadhar enabled e-KYC facility in order to open the accounts of all beneficiaries including migrant workers and illiterate persons who have Aadhar numbers,” Jaitley said.–PTI
