New Delhi, Jul 20 (IANS): The government on Thursday urged public sector banks (PSBs) to achieve the targets allocated to them under the various financial inclusion schemes for the current fiscal at the earliest.

In a review meeting undertaken by Banking Secretary Vivek Joshi with heads of PSBs, the special focus was on the progress made under the ongoing Jan Suraksha campaign of Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana in gram panchayats of the country, being held from April 1 to July 31.

Joshi impressed upon heads of the banks to regularly review the progress and ensure achievement of targets of saturation campaign.

Also chairing a review meeting on the progress and performance of the PM SVANidhi scheme, he urged banks to devise the strategy and step up efforts to increase the digital onboarding of street vendors and scale up their digital payments.

PM SVANidhi scheme envisages empowerment of street vendors through hassle-free access to affordable credit and their digital onboarding for their economic development. As of July 19, 53.41 lakh applications have been sanctioned while 50.52 lakh applications have been disbursed amounting to Rs 6,472 crore under the scheme.

The Banking Secretary requested banks to organise workshops, seminars and financial literacy programmes to create awareness among the street vendors about the various features of PM SVANidhi scheme and felicitate street vendors on the basis of performance in digital transactions.