Chief Minister Raman Singh on Saturday directed the concerned bank officers to open accounts of all the families by December under Prime Minister’s ‘Jan-Dhan’ Scheme.
Singh was speaking at a meeting of senior officers of the State Government and bank officers. He reviewed the progress of the scheme. The CM said that the ambitious yojana is a part of Prime Minister’s top priority schemes and the work of opening bank accounts should be speeded up.
About 31 lakh families out of 56 lakh families have bank accounts under various schemes. The rest of the 25 lakh families accounts will be opened under the Prime Minister’s ‘Jan-Dan’ Yojana.
The scheme was launched on August 28. A large number of accounts were opened during separate camps held in the State. The remaining section of the population will be covered by December-end. Singh directed the bank officers to take a survey and open the bank accounts as early as possible.
He revealed that there are 15 banks covering an area of 1,000 sq km. in Chhattisgarh while the national average is 35 banks. The public sector banks should open more branches in all the districts.
Economic activities in far-flung areas of the State are rapidly increasing and hence there is need for banks in remote areas. It will be profitable for the villagers and also banks can appoint correspondents in remote areas of the State. The post-offices also can be included in the venture.
The Chief Minister asked bank officers to send the details of the bank accounts opened under ‘Jan-Dhan’ scheme to the Revenue Department.
Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue Department, DS Mishra, Panchayat and Rural Development Department Additional Chief Secretary MK Raut, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Aman Kumar Singh, Secretary of Revenue Department Mr.Amit Agrawal attended the meeting.