From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Mar 3: With a high 98.37 per cent coverage, Karnataka has earned the rare distinction of being declared as ‘saturated’ for the implementation of Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

The State-Level Bankers Committee, which met in Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Tuesday, was informed that the State has been declared as saturated in implementation of Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which was launched by BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 28, 2014.

The State-Level Banker’s Monitoring Committee was informed that banks have completed household survey in all the 7,627 sub service areas (SSAs) and 4,559 wards in Karnataka state covering 8.06 million households in SSAs and 5.13 million households in wards (totalling 13.20 million).

As against this, banks have covered 7.96 million households in SSAs and 5.02 million households in wards by opening of minimum one account per household, thereby achieving 98.37 per cent progress, T K Srivastava, executive director of Syndicate Bank and Convenor of SLBC said.

“The first important milestone of opening of at least one bank account in the name of the family head of all the households in the state has been achieved. Now, the important task before us is to ensure that all the accounts opened do not continue with zero balance,” he said.

While addressing the 130th meeting of SLBC, he said the issue of RuPay cards and their delivery, ensuring regular transactions in all these accounts and Aadhaar linkage for smooth transfer of funds is the next challenge for banks.

Proper support and coordination amongst banks, government agencies, OMCs is imperative for hassle free transfer of funds / benefits directly to the beneficiaries’ accounts, he said.

“I appeal to banks to extend the overdraft facility to all the eligible account holders as per norms after proper counselling. Banks should make sure that all the BCs appointed are made to function properly and they have the approved handheld device of 1.5.1 version fully active and operational for AEPS and Rupay transaction,” Srivastava said.

Karnataka’s Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner Latha Krishna Rau, who addressed the members of SLBC, said the distribution of Rupay cards was inadequate and told the banks to ensure proper distribution across the state.

She also suggested that the distribution of benefits should not be denied just because consumers are not linked their accounts with Aadhaar numbers.