Of the 12.19 lakh people who opened bank accounts in Karnataka under the much-publicised Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the number of first-time account holders will be known only after a few months, bank officials said.
Although the Yojana was meant only for those who did not any have bank accounts, a cross-section of bank managers and officers whom Deccan Herald spoke to said banks opened accounts for anyone who approached them.
The applications will be scrutinised using the existing banking database and in a few months the exact number of first-time account holders will be known.
Extrapolating this across India means that only a certain percentage of those who applied for enrolment under the Yojana will be the real beneficiaries of the financial inclusion plan.
Similarly, only a section of those who applied for bank accounts under the Yojana would come under the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category.
Their numbers would be known only after all applications are scrutinised, the officials said.
The applications of those who already have an account will not be rejected. They will continue to hold a Jan Dhan account but would not get any government benefits.
Bank officials said that they were not asking for BPL cards while opening accounts. Aadhaar card and voters’ identification card (neither mentions whether an individual comes under BPL bracket) would do. In some cases, accounts have been opened on the mere submission of photographs. Incidentally, no initial deposit is required to open the account under the PMJDY.
However, where no documents have been submitted, only a basic savings bank account (with restricted transactions) is opened with the provision to screen it later. These accounts will be converted into normal savings bank accounts after submission of relevant authentication as per the ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) requirements of the banks, officials said.
When contacted, State Bank of Mysore’s General Manager (priority sector, rural banking and financial inclusion), K Lakshmisha, said that account duplications would come to light once they were verified using Aadhaar identifiers.
“If a Jan Dhan account holder has another account, the details of the previous account will emerge on the national payment system portal once the Aadhaar seeding of the Jan Dhan account is done,” he pointed out.
Those who have opened accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme will be given a debit card with in-built accident insurance cover of Rs one lakh. An overdraft of Rs 5,000 will be permitted for Aadhaar-enabled accounts after six months. Those opening accounts before January 26 next year will also get life cover of Rs 30,000.
In all, the target is to open 7.5 crore accounts across the country by January 26. Syndicate Bank General Manager K Preetam Lal stressed that there would not be any overload on banks or pressure on the staff as all accounts were system-driven.