LIC will initially foot the bill for Jan Dhan cover, says Sandhu

The Government will, in due course, part-finance Life Insurance Corporation’s efforts in providing life cover of ₹30,000 to each Jan Dhan account-holder, Financial Services Secretary GS Sandhu said.

LIC will initially dip into its own social security-related fund to offer the life cover, and the Government will also pump money into LIC for this purpose, Sandhu told BusinessLine on the sidelines of an Assocham event here on Tuesday.

For the first year, there will not be any fund infusion from the Government and LIC would have to rely on its own internal resources to offer this facility, he said.

Gaining traction The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which was launched on August 28, has received tremendous response with as many as 5.1 crore accounts opened so far.

The most comforting aspect is that banks have succeeded in ramping up their RuPay card rollout in recent days, Sandhu said.

As many as 1.6 crore RuPay debit cards have been issued so far.

Till September 24, only 50 lakh RuPay debit cards were issued under the scheme, raising concerns over the decision by banks to place orders only with two vendors.

But now banks have really started ramping up, Sandhu said, adding that the targets for PMJDY are likely to be met much before January 26 next year.