Banks in Punjab opened 29.45 lakh a/c under Jan Dhan Yojna

40,481 camps were organised by banks to achieve the number of accounts

Addressing the 131st State Level Bankers’ Committee meet, Gauri Shankar, managing director and chief executive officer, Punjab National Bank, said the state was declared saturated under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

He said to cover about 5.5 million households in the state, a door-to-door survey was conducted by banks with the help of the state government. In the survey, it was found around 4.5 million households were already having bank accounts and 8.6 million households were to be covered.

He said Punjab had organised 40,481 camps. In these camps, nearly three million accounts were opened, covering the entire households in the state. The RuPay cards have been issued in about 1.8 million accounts. Shankar said now the foremost task in implementation of the PMJDY is the appointment of ‘Bank Mitras’. He stressed the need to educate customers about the usage of the RuPay card.

He told all the member banks to put ‘Bank Mitras’ at all identified places to educate and provide uninterrupted services to the beneficiaries.

While reviewing the performance of banks under various key parameters in the Punjab for the period from January 2014 to December 2014, Gauri Shankar said the total deposits in Punjab had increased from Rs 2,22,081 crore to Rs 254,180 crore, an increase of 14.4 per cent. The Total advances during the period from December 2013 to December 2014 have increased from Rs 1,77,911 crore to Rs 1,95,014 crore, a growth of 9.6 per cent.