By Express News Service
Published: 20th December 2014 06:04 AM
BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government has set January 25, 2015 deadline to open bank accounts of all households under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, banks operating in the State have opened 31.49 lakh accounts.
According to the latest data of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), 31,49,866 accounts have been opened with a deposit of `103.07 crore. Of the new accounts opened, 19,81,518 (62.92 per cent) are zero balance accounts.
The banks have opened 22.28 lakh new accounts under the flagship financial inclusion programme as on November 7. The number of new account holders has increased by 9.21 lakh by December 13.
While among the public sector banks, United Bank of India leads the pack having collected a deposit of `25.30 crore, Odisha Gramya Bank, the regional rural bank (RRB), has received a deposit of `23.27 crore by opening 2,95,358 accounts and 59.76 per cent of them are with zero balance, SLBC sources said.
Chief Secretary GC Pati who reviewed the progress of the financial inclusion programme at a high level meeting here on Wednesday, advised the banks and departments concerned to complete household survey at village level by December 24 and meet the target under the scheme by January 25 next year.
Emphasising on augmentation of financial literacy among the rural people on the benefit of Jan Dhan Yojana, Pati said people should be sensitised about safe deposit of their savings in bank and post office accounts and not to believe in false promises about abnormal higher returns against their deposits.
Issues relating to connectivity through broadband in rural areas were also deliberated in the meeting. The Chief Secretary requested BSNL to work out a gram panchayat (GP) wise work plan for providing connectivity to all GPs.
A committee was constituted under chairmanship of Development Commissioner involving the BSNL, BBNL and IT Department of the State Government to expedite the connectivity programme.
It was also informed during the meeting that about 2.56 crore people have been registered under Aadhaar in the State and the data of which are being ported to State Resident Data Hub (SRDH).
Respective departments are developing application software to link to Aadhaar database and authenticate the seeding of beneficiaries on the verifier screen.
The banks have been advised to hold at least one programme on financial literacy each month in each branch. The district lead banks will engage financial literacy counsellors.
Chief Secretary advised the bankers to involve farmer information centres, banking correspondents, block level extension officers, Gaon Mitras and Krushak Sathis in financial literacy programmes.