Prime Minister's 'Jan Dhan Yojana' to meet target by January 26

New Delhi: The Prime Minister on Thursday launched his ambitious plan of Jan Dhan Yojana. The scheme was introduced by Mr Modi in his Independence day speech that every household will have at least a basic bank account with a RuPay debit card and an in-built accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh as well as an additional Rs 30,000 life insurance cover for those opening bank accounts before January 26, 2015.

Further, an overdraft facility up to Rs 5,000 will also be permitted to Adhaar-enabled accounts after satisfactory operation of the account for six months.
For bank accounts opened under the scheme, no minimum balance will be required.

“While Mahatma Gandhi worked to remove social untouchability, if we want to get rid of poverty 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,” Mr Modi said after launching the scheme in New Delhi.
“When a bank account is opened, it’s a step towards joining the economic mainstream.”

The Prime Minister said though the initial target was to open bank accounts for 7.5 crore families in a year, he had exhorted officials to complete the task well before Republic Day.

The importance that the BJP-led government is giving this scheme can be gauged from the fact that it was simultaneously launched in states by 20 Chief Ministers and several Union ministers, including Prakash Javadekar in Pune, Ravi Shankar Prasad in Chennai, Sushma Swaraj in Bhopal, Rajnath Singh in Lucknow and Smriti Irani in Surat.

Some 77,852 camps were organised by PSU banks on the opening day to open accounts for the poor. The PM said when banks were nationalised in 1969, it was done with the objective of bringing people into the economic mainstream. “But that objective had not been achieved till date. After 68 years of independence, not even 68 per cent of India’s population has access to banking,” Mr Modi said.

He said a breakthrough was required to overcome the vicious cycle of poverty and debt