Rs 1,500 crore deposited in banks under Jan Dhan Yojana: Narendra Modi

New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that around Rs 1,500 crore has been deposited so far in banks under the Jan Dhan Yojana even though people could have opened new bank accounts with zero balance.

The ambitious 'Pradhan Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana' launched by the government last month, is aimed at opening at least one bank account for every family in the country in a period of less than six months.

Addressing about 20,000 NRIs at the Madison Square Garden here on Sunday, the Prime Minister said that about four crore new bank accounts have been opened already under the scheme. He also noted that more than half of the families in the country does not have a bank account.

While people could have opened the accounts with zero balance, they have "deposited Rs 1,500 crore" under the scheme, he said.

Modi also said that his Bohra Muslim brothers know what money lenders can do to people. Bohra Muslims are mainly into business.

While launching the scheme on August 28, the Prime Minister had said it was aimed at eradicating financial untouchability by providing bank accounts to the poor.

On the inaugural day, a record 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened across the country, the largest such exercise on a single day possibly anywhere in the world.

The scheme would cover 7.5 crore people by January 26, 2015, who would 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 would be provided an overdraft facility of up to Rs 5,000.