SLBC hopes to achieve target for new bank accounts in state

PM Narendra Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana on Thursday

The State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), Odisha is hopeful of achieving the target for opening of 400,000 bank accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a comprehensive scheme for financial inclusion, by August 28.

“About 235,000 accounts have been opened till August 25 against the target of 400,000 accounts allotted to the state. We are hopeful that the opening of accounts will surpass the target given for the state. The welcome kits containing RuPay card, financial literacy and pass book will be distributed at the events to be organised at the state level, district level and block level on August 28,” said S K Nandi, general manager, UCO Bank cum convener, SLBC, Odisha. More than 5,000 camps will be organized across the state for opening of accounts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana on Thursday at a function in New Delhi. In Odisha, the National Mission on Financial Inclusion with the objective of covering all households in the country with banking facilities, will be launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the presence of Jual Oram, Union minister of tribal affairs.

It is estimated to cover 75 million households in country with at least one account under the scheme.

The mission mode programme will be implemented in two phases. Phase-I from August 15, 2014 to August 14, 2015 envisages universal access to banking facilities for all households in the country, providing basic banking accounts with overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 after six months and RuPay debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and RuPay Kisan card and financial literacy programme. The second phase will start from August 15, 2015 and culminate on August 14, 2018.

SLBC Odisha has asked the bank branches to open 125 accounts each, taking the total number of accounts to be opened to 541,625 by August 28, said Narasingha Swain, chief manager, SLBC. Banks in the state are operating with 4,333 branches.  

Andhra Bank expects to open over 200,000 no-frill accounts across the country on the first day of the launching of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. “We have targeted to open around 275,000 accounts across the country and already opened 150,000 accounts. The number is likely to cross 200,000 by Thursday,” the bank’s executive director S K Kalra said here on Wednesday.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana, announced by Modi in his Independence Day speech, emphasizes on households instead of villages targeted earlier. Similarly, both rural and urban areas will be covered in a mission mode against only rural areas targeted earlier.