No family should be deprived of banking facility in the country: Jaitley

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that the government's aim was to not let any family in the country be deprived of banking facilities.

At the launch of the Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana, here at Vigyan Bhawan, Jaitley said, "It is government's aim to not let any family be deprived of banking facilities."

He claimed that the government which has set a target of 7.5 crore families will be realised by January 26 next year for which he credited Prime Minister's initiatives in this regard.

He rued over the fact that there were still ten crore families who did not get the benefit of banking facilities.

"There are still ten crores of people who are away from banking facilities and hence don't get the overdraft facility or loans and thus remain deprived of the benefits," he said.

The finance minister expressed his happiness over this campaign crossing the stipulated target of opening one crore bank accounts on the very first day of its launch.

"This is a national project whereby atleast 77852 places where banks have put up camps, there are 600 centres where big events have taken place, and ministers of union cabinet, Members of Parliament and twenty chief ministers, members of state assemblies are all involved. We wanted to create a record and take it on a mission mode and hoped to reach one crore target, as of now the news that's coming in we have crossed one crore and touch 1.5 crore families," he added.

He said this was not just opening of a bank account, but along with that one lakh accidental insurance is an added incentive and thus people have joined themselves.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today formally launched the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojanaz' across the nation here, under which the government would provide every household with a bank account and an insurance cover.

Each account holder will be provided with a 'RuPay' debit card and Rs 1 lakh accident cover.

The Prime Minister had made the announcement about the scheme in his Independence Day speech.