The Reserve Bank of India has advanced the deadline for banks to complete the process of providing banking services in unbanked villages (with population less than 2,000) to August 14, 2015, instead of March 2016.
Jan Dhan Yojana This move comes in view of the ongoing implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which is a national mission for financial inclusion.
Phase I of PMJDY is being implemented through banks in a time-bound manner for completion by August 14, 2015.
The scheme seeks to ensure access to financial services such as banking/savings and deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner to the weaker sections and low-income groups.
In 2012, the State-Level Bankers’ Committees (SLBCs) were mandated to prepare a roadmap covering all unbanked villages of population less than 2,000 and notionally allot these villages to banks for providing banking services, in a time-bound manner.
The notional allotment was only intended to ensure that all villages have at least one banking outlet for providing banking services and does not deny or bar any other bank from operating in these areas based on the available business potential.
While preparing the roadmap for this scheme through a combination of business correspondent (BCs) and branches, the RBI said it should be ensured that there is a brick-and-mortar branch to provide support to a cluster of BC units — about 8-10 — at a reasonable distance of 3-4 kilometers.
Since PMJDY was launched on August 28, banks collectively have opened 10.36 crore basic savings bank deposit accounts and issued 8.38 crore RuPay debit cards up to December 30.
About 73 per cent of the total accounts opened have zero balance.
The remaining accounts have balances aggregating ₹8,044 crore.