PMJDY brings financial inclusion, but still long road ahead

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has been instrumental in bringing the poor and underprivileged families of the city into the formal financial system by opening zero or low balance accounts, besides an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 after operating the account for six months and an accident insurance of Rs 1 lakh. A householder having a bank account will get wages and subsidies through his account, excluding the middleman. It will inculcate the habit of thrift and ensure a better standard of living.

Nikita Kapur, Chandigarh

Plan has reached out 

to destitute

By winning the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Award for exemplary work, Chandigarh will work enthusiastically to offer financial services to the people in an affordable manner. Yes, it will reach out from Asha to anganwari workers. It has touched or enrolled destitute women and widows. It provides one bank account to the rest of the family.

Opinder Kaur Sekhon, Chandigarh

Will help in financial inclusion

The initiative taken by the government to start the PMJDY to open a bank account with zero level deposit along with insurance coverage and a loan facility of Rs 5,000 will certainly achieve financial inclusion and access to financial services for the common city residents. It will also help transfer subsidies and other benefits directly into the account of the beneficiaries which will check squandering of money by the middlemen. However, when the accounts will run into crores, the loan extended will also be in crores. In light of bad loans, the government and the banks will have to be very careful while extending loan against zero level deposit to avoid a waiver to prevent loss running into crores under the PMJDY.

AS Ahuja, Chandigarh

Awareness made it possible

We should be grateful that Chandigarh qualified for the Prime Minister‘s award for the successfully implementation of Jan Dhan Yojana. This acclaimed achievement has been possible due to the awareness of the public that sought to participate in the government’s social and economic programme with due prudence. Further, the genuine  spirit of this scheme should be translated into reality while granting soft loans to the underprivileged at nominal rates with affordable EMIs for education of children, housing, treatment and  necessary domestic appliances to improve their lifestyle as envisaged under the ‘achhe din’ concept of the government.

Bhupinder S Sealopal, Mohali

Financial assistance regulated

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a boon for all those who earlier dared not cross the threshold of the banks .The plan has not only given self- confidence and self-respect to such account holders, but also made it possible to directly credit benefits like subsidies, grants and other financial services into the relevant accounts without the middleman. Kudos to the Chandigarh Administration for implementing this yojana and ensuring regulated financial assistance to citizens.

SS Arora, Mohali

Divide & rule policy

Winning awards is appreciable but most important is how it benefits the residents of the city and the people of both the states. The divide and rule policy of the Centre has made Chandigarh a bureaucratic capital, that is neither responsible nor answerable to the citizens. As a result, they have failed to develop the city to generate revenue and utilise the finance for development during the last 50 years which adversely affected provision of job opportunities to the youth of the city as well as those from the country-side of both Punjab and Haryana, in their state capital. It has failed to attract FDI. Had this city been under the control of an elected body or any state, the tricity would have been a financial capital, IT and business hub in north India.

Col Balbir Singh Mathauda (retd), Chandigarh

A commendable step

To revolutionise the traditional banking system, PMJDY has provided banking opportunities to the poor sections of society. With this end in view, one account per household with zero balance facility and an Aadhar card link is a step in the right direction. It facilitates an advance of Rs 5,000 after the account is six months old with an accident insurance of Rs 1 lakh. It will definitely speed up the pace of development in the country. Nearly 18 crore accounts with a deposit of more than Rs 22,000 crore is commendable.

Harish Kapur, Chandigarh

Will help in rotating stacked money

The Administration deserves kudos for getting an award of excellence in implementing the PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana. The scheme, no doubt, will create awareness about the banking services among the citizens. But it is doubtful if it will achieve financial inclusion through Jan Dhan Yojana. The city being highly literate and modern is already linked to the banking services except for the people staying in the slums and those who have migrated in recent times. The scheme will surely help the authorities transfer subsidies and cash in lieu of PDS. The insurance cover and overdraft facility to the account holders is another benefit which may help the people through Jan Dhan Yojana. The scheme may also generate interest among the citizens to deposit their savings in bank accounts to help in rotation of stacked money for economic development.

Wg Cdr Jasbir Singh Minhas (retd), Mohali

Take success to a                new plane

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched to provide financial aid to the citizens entitled for it through banks. Keeping this in view, the Chandigarh Administration and the bank’s management worked hard. As a result, Chandigarh was conferred the Prime Minister’s award for excellence. In the second phase now, the Chandigarh Administration should make all possible efforts to ensure that its citizens achieve financial inclusion and are able to access financial services in an affordable manner.

Balbir Singh Batra, Mohali

Financial literacy to get          a boost

Opening an account with a bank will surely be beneficial to the people who previously had no banking account. They shall have access to a formal banking system and the habit of savings can be encouraged. It will increase financial literacy. The real challenge will be to keep the accounts alive, keep a vigil on opening of fake accounts, make overdraft facility financially viable and ensure a user-friendly process of insurance claims.

Kamalpreet Kaur

Ensure accounts are operational

The Chandigarh Administration deserves kudos for bagging the award through sheer hard work. The work done was not difficult but the main task ahead is to see that these accounts remain operational and the meaning of financial inclusion is known to those deriving the benefits. Only then will they get the benefit of the scheme. How to use these accounts for their own benefit like use of credit and debit cards and paying premium for insurance should also be taught to the new account holders.

Bharat Bhushan Sharma

Will be tough on               black money

With the implementation of the PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana, people below the poverty line will also have bank accounts which will help in checking transactions. This will make it hard for the people to accumulate black money by posing as below poverty line and not paying tax. This will boost the economy and thing will be cheaper and become affordable for all.

Pradyumn Gupta, Chandigarh

Banks outperformed          their role

The purpose of the Jan Dhan Yojana is to facilitate the poor in opening a zero balance account in the bank and get Rs 1 lakh insurance cover, besides other facilities like small loans. The banks in the city had been successful enough to outperform their role by opening accounts, exceeding the target given, by including the privileged class. This made Chandigarh bag the award of excellence. Now, it depends upon the sincerity of the banks in implementing the scheme purposefully.

Surinder Paul Wadhwa, Mohali

Well begun is half done

Getting an award for excellence in implementing the PMJYD is a matter of pride for Chandigarh. The success of the scheme can be judged by the number of accounts with zero balance being opened. As far as implementation is concerned, the Chandigarh Administration has to look upon whether the aggrieved are getting an accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and a life insurance cover for Rs 30,000 or not, or if they are getting an overdraft facility from the bank. There is still a long way to go.

Rajendra Kumar Sharma, Panchkula  

 Jan Dhan Yojana promises better days

Comment | Nitin Jain

IT’s almost double. Chandigarh boasts of 21 lakh savings bank accounts for a population of about 11 lakh. While a whopping 18.53 lakh savings bank accounts existed earlier, another 2.23 lakh accounts were opened under the Prime Minister’s flagship Jan Dhan Yojana, launched by Narendra Modi to secure financial inclusion in August, 2014.

For achieving this feat, the City Beautiful bagged another bouquet with the PM himself awarding the UT Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi the coveted Prime Minister’s Award for excellence in Public Administration in the UT category.

Completing the target of one account per household under the national mission to ensure access to all financial services within a record period of seven months, the UT Administration covered almost 2 lakh beneficiaries under the PM’s three different affordable insurance schemes.

To facilitate this, Chandigarh appointed 25 active bank mitras, who managed 40,615 transactions worth Rs 30.28 crore in the last three months. In what may be perceived as a sign of prosperity, out of the  total 2 lakh zero-balance bank accounts, opened under the Jan Dhan Yojana, over 1.6 lakh account holders deposited Rs 59 crore.

Then, almost 2 lakh Jan Dhan bank accounts were seeded with Adhaar, following which the beneficiaries have started getting scholarships, social security pensions and amounts under direct benefit transfer in their accounts.

Out to benefit the account holders further, the UT Administration has proposed waiving of the SMS alert charges for Jan Dhan account holders and a single card for all benefits under various schemes.

How the scheme can benefit the needy is borne out by the case of a woman who died within 15 days of her husband’s death. The man benefited from the social security scheme and his legal heirs were his wife and daughter. With the death of his wife, the only surviving legal heir was his daughter, who was not aware about her father’s insurance cover. However, when this came to the notice of the bank authorities at the time of the settlement of the account, the bank immediately processed the insurance claim and paid the money to the orphaned girl within a week. She got it when she needed it most.