Deposits in accounts under PMJDY cross Rs 25k-cr mark

New Delhi, Oct 13: Deposit in accounts opened under the government's flagship financial inclusion programme -- Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) -- have exceeded Rs 25,000 crore.

Besides, the PMJDY accounts having balances have now exceeded 60 per cent and the zero balance accounts reduced to less than 40 per cent, Finance Ministry said in a statement.

"Another milestone achieved under PMJDY... deposits in accounts now exceed Rs 25,000 crore, accounts having balances in them now exceed 60 per cent," it added. The accounts that can be opened under PMJDY are Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA) which can be of zero balance, as per RBI guidelines. "However, it has been noticed that good amount of deposit has been made in these accounts," the ministry said.

As on October 7, the deposits collected stood at Rs 25,146.97 crore. Major banks which have contributed to this achievement are SBI (Rs 2,989.18 crore), United Bank of India (Rs 2,644.77 crore), Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 2,104.70 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 1,771.42 crore), and UCO Bank (Rs 1,178.17 crore), the statement added.

PMJDY, a national mission on financial inclusion, was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day - 2014 speech and was formally launched by him on August 28 of same year with the main objective of covering all households with at least one bank account per household across the country. So far, 18.7 crore accounts have been opened under the scheme.

PTI