Opening bank accounts for PMJDY Under-performing banks under scanner
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 13 2014 :
The State Government has decided to withdraw money from banks which could not meet the specified targets of opening new bank accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Even though the new scheme introduced at the behest of Prime Minister Naren- dra Modi aims at opening bank accounts for each and every household of the country, half of the State's total households have not yet opened their bank accounts.
Government of India's Department of Finance Services Joint Secretary Anurag Jain held a video conference with officials of the State Finance Department and bank officials today about implementation of PMJDY in Manipur.
The Union Government has already asked the State Government to get all the 5,88,000 households of Manipur opened their bank accounts by January 26 next year.
During the video conference, the Joint Secretary asked the State Government officials to take up stringent actions against nationalised banks as well as private nationalised banks which cannot meet the specified targets of opening new bank accounts under PMJDY, conveyed an official source.
Household survey being conducted by bank has covered only 88 per cent of the total households of Manipur and this annoyed the Government of India very much.
Subsequently, relevant officials of the State Bankers' Committee have been summoned to their head office located at Mumbai.
So far, 2,30,000 citizens of Manipur have opened bank accounts under PMJDY .
The video conference held today discussed about extension of internet service to all bank branches located in the hill areas of Manipur.
Ahead of today's video conference, the Principal Secretary (Finance) convened a meeting of State Government officials a few days back and directed the officials to finish the ongoing household survey by December 24 and complete the process of opening bank accounts of all the remaining households by January 15 next year.
In case the banks could not fulfil the specified targets of opening bank accounts, Government fund deposited in the particular banks would be withdrawn and re-deposited at other banks which perform better.
Apart from the Finance Department, the State Government has directed all Deputy Commissioners of respective districts to monitor the process of opening bank accounts, added the official source.