Union Minister of State for Mines, Steel and labour, Vishnudev Sai on Thursday said that the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna’ will become a milestone in socio-economic development of the country.
Addressing a programme to launch the scheme here on Thursday which had been launched simultaneously across the country, Sai said despite being a new State, Chhattisgarh has achieved significant success in various fields in a short span of 14 years.
However, providing banking services in all villages is yet to be achieved and the ambitious ‘Jan-Dhan’ scheme will prove helpful in this regard, he said.
Highlighting the features of the scheme, Sai said that the account holder will get an insurance cover of `1 lakh and the account if operated regularly for six months, the account holder will be eligible for getting an overdraft of `5,000. The grants received under Government schemes will be directly transferred into the bank account of the beneficiary.
In his address, Commercial Tax Minister Amar Agrawal said that Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister to think about opening bank account for each household in the country and the scheme has been realised today.
He said that about 20 per cent of the population of the country has no bank account and the ‘Jan-Dhan’ scheme will play an important role in economic development of these households as well as the
entire nation. Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand welcomed the guests and threw light on various aspects of the scheme.
He said that the scheme will help in expansion of the banking services to reach the last village and the last person of the State and the country.
The scheme will develop the habit of saving among people who will also get immediate benefits of the Government schemes through their bank accounts, Sai said.
Dhand further said that there are about 20,000 villages in Chhattisgarh but only 1109 branches of different banks. Residents of about 4,000 villages have to travel 10-20 kilometers for banking services. The scheme will prove helpful for such people.
He said that villagers often deposit their savings with chit-fund due to unavailability of banking services and many a times these chit-fund companies do not return their money. The Jan-Dhan scheme will provide financial security to such people.The Chief Secretary explained that the nationalised banks would appoint business correspondents under the scheme.
The Business Correspondent will be selected from the village or a social institution or self help group.
The Business Correspondent will be provided a special machine to provide benefits of banking services. The account holders will also be issued debit cards, he said. Sai also distributed symbolic bank accounts to a few beneficiaries of the scheme on the occasion.
MP Bhushan lal Jangde and Chairperson of Raipur Zila Panchayat laxmi Verma were present as the special guests of the occasion. Chief General Manager of State Bank of India Ritendra Ghosh proposed a vote of thanks.