74% accounts in Jan Dhan Yojana are with zero balance

Around Rs 5,400 crore have been deposited in banks in over seven crore bank accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana of which 74% accounts are with zero balance, according to an RTI reply.

The data provided by Department of Financial Services says that as on November 7, 2014 a total of 7.1 crore bank accounts have been opened of which 5.3 crore were accounts with 'Zero balance'.

The reply provided to activist Subhash Agrawal said as on November 7, the total balance in these accounts was Rs 5,482 crore. Majority of these accounts, over 4.2 crore, have been opened in rural areas, whereas in urban areas 2.9 crore have been opened.

The highest number of accounts, under the scheme, have been opened by State Bank of India which started over 1.2 crore new accounts followed by Bank of Baroda which opened 38 lakh accounts and Canara Bank 37 lakh accounts, it said.

PMJDY is national mission for financial inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, banking and savings and deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner.

It focuses on coverage of households as against the earlier plan which focused on coverage of villages.

An overdraft facility upto Rs 5,000 would be available to one account holder of PMJDY per household after six months of satisfactory conduct of the account.