Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner, Vipul Bansal has disputed claims by banks, of bringing every household in the district under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) and opening bank accounts, and said that the claims of 100 per cent achievement is far from reality.
Speaking after releasing the Kalaburagi District Annual Credit Plan 2015-16 on Monday, Mr. Bansal said that the Social Educational Survey undertaken by the State government has revealed that many families in the rural and semi-urban areas are without the bank accounts till date. In one cluster in Chitapur taluk, the enumerations have revealed that out of ten houses, five did not have bank accounts.
The credit plan document claimed that State Bank of India, the leading bank here, facilitated reaching 100 per cent coverage under the PMJDY as on January 28, 2015. When the PMJDY was launched in August 2014, majority of the 4,73,857 households did not have bank accounts and the State Bank group spearheaded the effort for saturation with all other banks in the district, the document claimed.
Mr. Bansal said that the banks should not be under the false impression that by having 4.73 lakh plus accounts in the district does not mean inclusion of all the households under PMJDY. “There are several instances of affluent families having multiple bank accounts each”.
He said that it has become imperative for all households to have at least one bank account since all the welfare measures and subsidies extended by the State and Central governments would be direct and payments would be made through these accounts. To avail the benefits of such welfare schemes, banks should double their efforts to ensure that every household has a bank accounts.
