Centre credits first tranch of Rs 500 to over 40 mn Jan Dhan women accounts

The Centre credited the first installment of Rs 500 to over four crore Jan Dhan accounts of poor women on Friday as part of a relief package in view of the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Rural Development Ministry said.

The amount is being released by the ministry and will be credited to more than 20.39 crore Jan Dhan accounts of women by the end of April first week, officials said.

Announcing the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) in view of the ongoing 21-day countrywide lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said on March 26 that ex-gratia payment of Rs 500 would be credited to women Jan Dhan account holders for the next three months, starting from April.

"Rural Development Ministry is releasing the lump sum amounts of Rs 500 per woman to Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) account holders for April 2020 and the same have been credited to the designated accounts of individual banks on April 2, 2020," the ministry said in a statement.

Officials in the ministry said the amount was already credited to over 4.07 crore women PMJDY account holders.

In order to maintain social distancing and orderly withdrawal of money by the beneficiaries, the ministry said the government has prepared a schedule of payment withdrawal from banks on the basis of the last digit of the accounts.

The officials further said many of these account holders are also entitled to monthly pensions and other benefits given to the poor.