The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday outlined the next phase of the Jan-Dhan Yojana to include credit, insurance and pension as he complimented bankers for near 100% coverage of households under the massive financial inclusion drive.
The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana is a key policy plank of the Modi administration's vow to eradicate what it calls "financial untouchability". Each bank account comes with an accident insurance cover, a RuPay debit card and a life insurance policy of Rs 1 lakh. Account holders will also be provided an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 later.
"Well begun is half done. The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana provides a platform for changing the economic condition of our people," Modi told bankers in his email.
"We need to build on this success and leverage these accounts to provide our citizens a wide range of credit, insurance and pension services. We also need to maintain high standards of customer service. This is the next phase of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana," the PM said.
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He said the target set for opening bank accounts for all households has been surpassed well ahead of the target date of January 26, 2015. "By opening 11.5 crore new accounts in a very short span, we have achieved a coverage of 99.74% of all households in the country. I congratulate you for your extraordinary efforts," the PM said in his email.
He said doubts were expressed when the drive was launched but the bankers had proved skeptics wrong by achieving "what appeared to be impossible".
"This feat alone should motivate you, as well as others to work to make our dreams a reality," the PM said.
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Modi said the banks should redouble efforts in financial literacy and seeding of Aadhar numbers with bank accounts needs to improve. "Bank Mitras need to be enabled to carry out RuPay card and Aadhaar enabled transactions in villages itself," the PM said.
"I want you to work to ensure that each account holder enrolls for Aadhaar and seeds it in the bank account. This needs to be done for all accounts. I am sure you will do this seeding with the same zeal you showed in driving bank account opening," he said,
He said most development activities were hindered by the single disability of not having bank accounts but now that it been overcome, "benefits have already started flowing to people through some of the "direct benefit transfer" schemes. This not only ensures that benefits reach people directly, but also utilizes your accounts well," he said.
"This is your great contribution to nation-building. We will ensure that many more schemes utilize the DBT platform," he said.
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