Centre credits first tranch of Rs 500 to over 40 mn Jan Dhan women accounts

The Centre credited the first installment of Rs 500 to over four crore Jan Dhan accounts of poor women on Friday as part of a relief package in view of the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Rural Development Ministry said.
The amount is being released by the ministry and will be credited to more than 20.39 crore Jan Dhan accounts of women by the end of April first week, officials said.

Announcing the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) in view of the ongoing 21-day countrywide lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said on March 26 that ex-gratia payment of Rs 500 would be credited to women Jan Dhan account holders for the next three months, starting from April.
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"Rural Development Ministry is releasing the lump sum amounts of Rs 500 per woman to Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) account holders for April 2020 and the same have been credited to the designated accounts of individual banks on April 2, 2020," the ministry said in a statement.
Officials in the ministry said the amount was already credited to over 4.07 crore women PMJDY account holders.
In order to maintain social distancing and orderly withdrawal of money by the beneficiaries, the ministry said the government has prepared a schedule of payment withdrawal from banks on the basis of the last digit of the accounts.
The officials further said many of these account holders are also entitled to monthly pensions and other benefits given to the poor.

Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts set to cross Rs 90,000 cr, shows govt data

Total deposits in Jan Dhan accounts are set to cross Rs 90,000 crore with the government making the flagship financial inclusion programme more attractive especially by doubling accident insurance cover to Rs 2 lakh.
According to data from the finance ministry, the deposits, which have been steadily rising since March 2017, have already reached Rs 89,257.57 crore as on January 30, and are steadily rising.

The deposits stood at Rs 88,566.92 crore on January 23.
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched on August 28, 2014, with an aim to provide universal access to banking facilities for all households.
Enthused by the success of the scheme, the government has enhanced the accident insurance cover to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1 lakh for new accounts opened after August 28, 2018.
The overdraft limit has also been doubled to Rs 10,000.
The government has also shifted the focus on accounts from 'every household' to 'every unbanked adult'.
According to the latest data, there were 341.4 million account holders under the PMJDY.
An average deposit in these accounts was about Rs 2,615, compared with Rs 1,065 on March 25, 2015.
Over 53 per cent of the Jan Dhan account holders are women, 59 per cent accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas.
As per the data, 272.6 million accounts holders have been issued RuPay debit cards with an inbuilt accident insurance cover.