Jan Dhan Yojana: Banks in Tamil Nadu exceed target

Banks in Tamil Nadu were able to exceed the target set for opening new accounts under the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana.

Chennai-based Indian Overseas Bank opened around 600,000 bank accounts and was confident of exceeding its target to cover 1.1 million.

Indian Bank chairman TM Bhasin said it had opened around 650,000 new accounts across the country.

Against a targeted 125,000 new accounts, State Bank of India had opened 150,000 in the last three days.

The bank has organised 2,000 camps and had approached individuals in rural areas to open new bank accounts. In the last four days, it has issued 137,000 RuPay cards under the scheme, said PS Prakash Rao, chief general manager of SBI.

As part of the programme, the bank's employees approached people to register for the accounts and the response has been good.

Bankers whom Business Standard spoke to said individuals from rural areas already having bank accounts were coming forward to open new accounts.

The other key observation was the misconception on draft facility. Many felt they can avail easy money by creating new accounts. Some sections of people considered their subsidies would be linked to these accounts.