28/08/2014
New Delhi: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi will on Thursday
launch Jan Dhan Yojana, a
mega financial inclusion plan
under which bank accounts and
RuPay debit cards with inbuilt insurance cover of
Rs 1 lakh will be provided to crores of persons
with no access to formal banking facilities.
Plans are afoot to open as many as 1 crore
bank accounts on the first day of the launch of
the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Besides the main launch in the capital, 76 other
functions are being organised at different
places to mark the occasion. The functions to be
held at state capitals and major district
headquarters will be attended by Union Ministers
and state Chief Ministers.
The Prime Minister has already sent 7.25 lakh
emails to bank officers informing them about
the financial inclusion scheme PMJDY, which he
had announced in his Independence Day
address to the nation.
Public sector banks, according to an official
release, will organise more than 60,000 camps in
rural and urban areas on the launch day.
The scheme seeks to provide two accounts to 7.5
crore identified households by August 2018.
On the occasion of the launch, Prime Minister
will also visit an exhibition on Technology and
Financial Literacy will be organised in the
capital.
A film on 'Financial Inclusion' will also be
screened and the Prime Minister will unveil a
Logo and a Mission Document on Financial
Inclusion. He will dedicate the mobile banking
facility on the basic mobile phone (USSD) to the
nation.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State
for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI Governor
Raghuram Rajan and other senior officials will
attend the function, said a release.
The PMJDY has been conceived as a national
mission on financial inclusion with the objective
of covering all households in the country with
banking facilities and having a bank account
for each household.
The main features of the PMJDY scheme include
Rs 5,000 overdraft facility for Aadhar-linked
accounts, RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt Rs 1 lakh
accident insurance cover and minimum monthly
renumeration of Rs 5,000 to business
correspondents who will provide the last link
between the account holders and the bank.
The first phase of the mission, starting this
month, would end in August next year.
The second phase will start from 2015 till 2018,
covering aspects such as micro insurance and
pension schemes like 'Swavalamban'.
Some of the Phase II activities would also be
carried out in Phase I. In addition, the
coverage of households in hilly, tribal and
difficult areas would be carried out.
While the existing banking network would be
geared up to open bank accounts of the
uncovered households in both rural and urban
areas, the banking sector would be expanding
itself to set up an additional 50,000 Business
correspondents, more than 7,000 branches and
more than 20,000 new ATMs in the first phase,
the release said.
PTI
