Banks open 10.3 cr Jan Dhan accounts so far: Secy

Pune, Jan 2: Not leaving any stone unturned in achieving complete success in ambitious financial inclusion scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), the Finance Ministry would enter into 'open challenge mode' for opening accounts under the scheme.

Under this, any financially excluded individual could inform a bank that he or she does not have an account and the bank account would be opened immediately, Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adia said here.

About 98 per cent financially excluded households have been covered under the PMJDY. Now accounts would be opened in 'open challenge mode' so that no one is left out of the scheme, he added.

As per the latest figure, 10.3 crore accounts have been opened under the scheme so far. Banks have achieved the target set by the government to open 10 crore accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) a month before the January 26 deadline. Banks have issued 7.28 crore RuPay Cards as on December 22. During a meeting chaired by Anurag Jain, Joint Secretary (FI) and Mission Director of PMJDY recently, banks committed to cover the gap in issuance of RuPay cards and accounts opened, including of Regional Rural Banks by January 15, 2015.

Banks were also asked to complete issuance of passbook to all account holders, the statement said, adding the issue of settling life insurance claim was discussed at length and the focus was on speedy disposal. "Banks and LIC were asked to make claim forms readily available on their website. LIC was asked to settle the claim within 15 days from the date of receipt of claim, if otherwise in order," it said.

The settlement process should not exceed 30 days in any case, it said. As per the status, 99.73 per cent survey work has been completed and 95.30 per cent household surveyed has been covered. The meeting was attended by executive directors of public and private sector banks, representatives of IBA, NPCI and UIDAI among others, and it was agreed that all banks would take up the task in a planned sweep mode and cover all the households by the end of December.

Thereafter, feedback from the public on the scheme will be sought and opening accounts of left-out household, if any, will be followed. Banks expressed confidence to meet the deadlines barring certain difficult areas in LWE districts, North East, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and areas affected by migration, it said.

In order to achieve universal access of banking, banks have deployed bank Mitras in 1.23 lakh Sub Service Areas (SSAs) leaving a gap of 6,031 uncovered SSAs, it said. Banks were asked to complete deployment of bank Mitras latest by January 15 and display details of the same on their own website as well as on State Level Bankers' Committee. This was to ensure that all Bank Mitra devices are online inter-operable through RuPay cards, it said.

PTI