Uttar Pradesh garners maximum deposits under Jan Dhan

Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the most deposits in Jan Dhan accounts, followed by West Bengal and Rajasthan.

The total deposits in Jan Dhan accounts stand at Rs 74,610 crore as of December 7, as per Finance Ministry data.

UP has about 3.8 crore Jan Dhan accounts with deposits of Rs 12,021.32 crore. It is followed by West Bengal with 2.44 accounts and deposits of Rs 9,193.75 crore.

Rajasthan comes in third with 1.9 crore accounts and Rs 6,291.1 crore deposits, followed by Bihar (2.62 crore accounts, Rs 6,160.44 crore deposits).

Total deposits in Jan Dhan accounts surged by around Rs 28,973 crore in about a month after the announcement of ban on old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

Despite the surge, about one-fifth of these accounts still have no balance.

Last week, the government said that inflows into Jan Dhan accounts have come down significantly after it warned people not to allow their accounts to be misused for converting black money into white.

After setting a cash deposit limit of Rs 50,000 in these accounts, the government had on November 18 cautioned account holders that they will be prosecuted under the I-T Act for allowing misuse of their bank accounts through deposit of black money in Rs 500/1,000 notes during the 50-day window till December 30.

The directive came against the backdrop of reports that some people were misusing other persons' bank accounts to convert their black money into new denomination notes.