Jan Dhan Yojana targets unrealistic: Congress MP

September 02, 2014 07:10 pm | Updated 07:10 pm IST - PANAJI:

Congress Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik on Tuesday criticised the central government for “unrealistic time frame” fixed for coverage of 45 per cent of non-banked areas across the country under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

The scheme, meant to be a beginning of the end of “financial untouchability in India,” has a target to open 7.5 crore accounts in the next five months.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced Rs.30,000 life insurance cover on accounts opened before January 26 next year.

Addressing a press conference here at the party headquarters, Mr. Naik feared that this pressure on the bankers could lead to enrolment of new accounts of those who have accounts elsewhere and could have been persuaded to open new ones because of the attached insurance cover or simply to meet the target.

Referring to similar concerns reflected in the media by some bankers, Mr. Naik said that this could account for a very significant part of the newly-opened accounts, thus defeating the whole idea behind the scheme.

‘New banking structure needed’

While hailing the objective of the scheme, Mr. Naik said instead of going ahead with this kind of scheme putting unwarranted pressure on the existing banking structure, what is required was creation of new banking structure.

In that context he sought to remind that the UPA government had announced a plan for opening 8000 branches across the country.

The scheme targets would be easily achieved in Goa where the uncovered banking area was around 15 per cent only, Mr. Naik noted.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.