Karnataka reaches saturation in Jan Dhan Yojana expansion

Since the launch of the scheme on August 28, 2014, banks have achieved a 98.37 per cent progress in the state

Karnataka has been declared as saturated in implementation of the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) by the State Level Monitoring Committee. Since the launch of the PMJDY on August 28, 2014, banks have achieved a 98.37 per cent progress in the state, the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) said.

Banks have completed household survey in all the 7,627 sub-service areas (SSAs) and 4,559 wards in Karnataka state, covering 8.06 million households in SSAs and 5.13 million households in wards (totaling 13.20 million). As against this, banks have covered 7.96 million households in SSAs and 5.02 million households in wards by opening a minimum one account per household, thereby achieving a 98.37 per cent progress, T K Srivastava, executive director of Syndicate Bank and convener of SLBC said.

“The first important milestone of opening at least one bank account in the name of the family head of all the households in the state has been achieved. Now, the important task before us is to ensure that all the accounts opened do not continue with zero balance,” he said at the 130th meeting of SLBC, here on Tuesday. He said the issue of RuPay cards and their delivery, ensuring regular transactions in all these accounts and Aadhaar-linkage for the smooth transfer of funds is the next challenge for banks. Proper support and coordination amongst banks, government agencies, OMCs is imperative for hassle free transfer of funds/benefits directly to the beneficiaries’ accounts, he said.

“I appeal to the banks to extend the overdraft facility to all eligible account holders as per the norms after proper counselling. Banks should make sure that all the BCs appointed are made to function properly and they have the approved handheld device of 1.5.1 version fully active and operational for the AEPS and Rupay transaction,” Srivastava said.

Speaking on the occasion, Latha Krishna Rau, additional chief secretary and development commissioner, government of Karnataka, brought to the notice of the SLBC that the distribution of Rupay cards was inadequate and told the banks to ensure a proper distribution across the state.

She also suggested that the distribution of benefits should not be denied just because consumers are not linked their accounts with Aadhaar numbers.

Since the launch of the PMJDY programme and up to February 14, 2015, the banks have opened 6.22 million basic savings bank deposit accounts in Karnataka. Of these, 3.66 million accounts allow for zero balance and the remaining 2.56 million accounts have a balance of Rs 426.72 crore. The total number of accounts with Aadhaar seeding is 3.57 million. The number of accounts in the rural areas is 3.81 million and in urban areas it is 2.40 million. The banks have so far issued 5.15 million Rupay cards.

Of the 7,627 SSAs allotted, 5,293 are covered under fixed BC locations, 2,302 covered through branches, 5 covered through mobile vans and 27 SSAs are yet to be covered.