Tags:
Journalism of Courage
With over 11.5 crore bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed that banks now must work on promoting financial literacy and enrolling account holders for Aadhaar.
According to latest data, 11.89 crore bank accounts have been opened by Janaury 22 under the scheme and the cumulative balance has crossed Rs 1,000 crore to amount to Rs 1,002.36 crore. Meanwhile, 10.46 crore RuPay cards have also been issued and 4.12 crore accounts have been seeded with Aadhaar numbers. However, 8.06 crore accounts continue to be dormant with zero balance. “We need to redouble efforts on financial literacy. Aadhaar seeding needs to improve further. Bank Mitras need to be enabled to carry out RuPay card and Aadhaar enabled transactions in villages itself. I want you to work to ensure that each account holder enrols for Aadhaar and seeds it in the bank account. This needs to be done for all accounts,” he said in a letter congratulating bank chiefs for surpassing the target of opening 10 crore accounts under the scheme.
Noting that 99.74 per cent of all households in the country are now covered under the PMJDY, he stressed that development activities have been hindered by the “disability” of not having bank accounts.
