Modi launches Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, 1.5-cr bank accounts opened across India in one day
Modi launches Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, 1.5-cr bank accounts opened across India in one day
Friday, 29 August 2014 | PNS | New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (left)
presenting debit cards to some of the beneficiaries during the launch of
the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)’ in New Delhi .
Villagers show their zero balance passbooks given under the Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, near Hyderabad, on Thursday. Photo: P.V.
Sivakumar
A record 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened across the country in a
single day on Thursday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his
Government’s mega scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’, declaring it
was aimed at eradicating financial untouchability by providing bank
accounts to the poor.
The gigantic exercise was launched simultaneously at 76 centres across
the country by 20 Chief Ministers and several Union Ministers, including
Information Minister Prakash Javadekar at Pune, Law Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad at Chennai, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at
Bhopal, Home Minister Rajnath Singh at Lucknow and HRD Minister Smriti
Irani at Surat. In all, 600 programmes and 77,852 camps were organised
on the first day to open bank accounts.
Launching the scheme at Vigyan Bhawan here, Modi said by January 28
next year it will cover 7.5 crore people, who will be provided
zero-balance bank account with RuPay debit card, life insurance cover of
Rs 30,000 in addition to accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh.
Later the account holders will be provided an overdraft facility of up
to Rs 5,000.
“Mahatma Gandhi worked to remove social untouchability and if we want
to get rid of poverty, then we have to first get rid of financial
untouchability. We have to connect every person with the financial
system. And for that, this programme has been given impetus. When a bank
account is opened, it’s a step towards joining the economic
mainstream,” he said.
Modi regretted that even after 68 years of Independence, not even 68
per cent of the population was covered by the banking system.
Describing the occasion as a festival to celebrate the liberation of
the poor from a poisonous cycle Modi said: “Those who open accounts by
January 26, 2015, they will be given life insurance cover of Rs 30,000
over and above the Rs 1 lakh accident insurance. This will help the
family.”
In the third phase, he said, these account holders would also be provided micro-pension facility.
“I believe that when a person opens a bank account, then he or she
takes the first step to get connected with the economic system. Today
1.5 crore families got connected with the economic system. This will
give a boost to the economy,” he said.
Modi said six months after opening the account the account-holder would be able to get a loan of Rs 5,000 from the bank.
The Prime Minister said the nationwide success of the enrolment drive
would give confidence not just to the officials of the Department of
Financial Services and banking sectors, but also to officers across the
Union Government, that they can successfully achieve the goals that they
set for themselves.
“Never before has the Government of India organised a programme of such
scale — over 77,000 locations — with the participation of so many Chief
Ministers, Union Ministers, Government and bank officials,” the Prime
Minister said.
Asserting that the scheme would also help in fighting corruption by
plugging leakages in the Government subsidy scheme, Modi said it was
easy for the rich to get a loan at low interest rates but the poor were
forced to seek loans from moneylenders at five times the rates.
He said a breakthrough was required to overcome the vicious cycle of
poverty and debt, and that a breakthrough had been achieved today.
He said there were similarities between the poor getting access to
mobile telephones, and getting access to debit cards. They both had the
effect of instilling confidence and pride among the poor, he added.
“Now, the poor would be able to do normal bank transactions through
non-smart phones as well because of the introduction of new technology
by the National Payments Corporation of India,” he said.
While the existing banking network would be geared up to open bank
accounts of the uncovered households in both rural and urban areas, the
banking sector would be expanding itself to set up additional 50,000
business correspondents, more than 7,000 branches and more than 20,000
new ATMs in the first phase, he said.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said around 58 per cent of the
population of the country had bank accounts. “In simple words it means
there are still 10 crore families that are away from banking services as
they do not have access to banking services, they are also deprived of
means of savings,” he said. The ultimate motive of this scheme is that
no family should be deprived of this service, he added.
The Finance Minister said mobile banking for the poor would be
available through National Unified USSD Platform for which all banks and
mobile companies have come together.
Normal bank transaction can be done through any phone across the country, he added.
.
10 Facts about Pradhanmantri Jan-Dhan Yojana
The name “Jan Dhan” was chosen through an online competition on the MyGov Platform and
received more than 6000 suggestion from Indian citizens. After
evaluation the jury shortlisted “Jan Dhan” which was suggested by 7 individuals.
The slogan for the Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan mission is expected to be ” Mera Khata – Bhagya Vidhaata” which when translated into English means ” My Bank Account – The Creator of the Good Fortune”:
The Logo of the Mission is depicted below :
The primary aim of the Jan Dhan Yojana is to bring poor financially excluded people into the banking system by providing them bank accounts and debit cards.
Every individual who opens a bank account becomes eligible to
receive an accident insurance cover of up-to Rs 1 Lakh for his entire
family.
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has set an ambitious target of
bringing in more than 7.5 crore un-banked families into India’s banking
system by opening more than 15 Crore bank accounts at the rate of two
bank accounts per household.
Once the bank account has been active for 6 months and has been linked to account holders Aadhar identity ,
they would become eligible for an overdraft of up to Rs 2,500 , which
would further be enhanced by the bank to Rs 5000 over time.
The Jan Dhan Yojana also seeks to provide incentives to business and
banking correspondents who serve as link for the last mile between
savings account holders and the bank by fixing a minimum monthly
remuneration of Rs 5000.
The long term vision of the Jan Dhan Yojana is to lay the foundation of a cashless economy and is complementary to the Digital India Scheme.
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