Every Gujarat household has bank account

Gujarat has become the fourth state after Kerala, Goa and Madhya Pradesh to achieve 100% target of opening bank accounts in each household under Pardhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). 

Since August 16, 37 lakh new bank accounts were opened under PMJDY in the state till December 19. According to State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC), all the 1.22 crore households have been covered under the scheme. 

Along with new accounts, around Rs 427 crore has also been received in deposits in the state. According to available data, the nine tribal districts and major tribal regions in Valsad and Surat were among the first to achieve the target of one bank account in each household. 

Porbandar, Mehasana and Gandhinagar were the first districts to achieve 100% target by mid-November. 

However, Vadodara, Rajkot, Morbi and Ahmedabad districts were among the last to achieve the target. 

Among all the banks involved in PMJDY, public sector banks (PSBs) were responsible for opening more than 87% accounts, while private sector banks contributed just about 3%, while the remaining 10% accounts were opened by regional rural banks (RRBs). 

The highest number of accounts has been opened by the State Bank of India followed by Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank among others. 

"In rural areas, including tribal regions, district collectors and self-help groups mobilized people into opening bank accounts, while in urban areas people were less supportive," said a State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) official. 

PMJDY is a national mission for financial inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely banking, savings, deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance and pension in an affordable manner. It focuses on coverage of households as against the earlier plan which focused on coverage of villages. 

Until December 18, according to the finance ministry, 8.78 crore new bank accounts had been opened across the country and over five crore RuPay cards have been issued. 

According to the latest SLBC report, the gross advances of the banks in the state is Rs 3,50,636 crore and gross non-performing assets is Rs 12,234 crore, 3.49% of total advances as of September 2014. 

2nd round of PMJDY to focus on women 

After achieving 100% target under Jan Dhan Yojana, SLBC has now decided to open up second bank account in each household. In the second round, bank accounts of female members of each household will now be opened. "The main target of the scheme was to open bank account of one person in each household. Now that that has been done, we will open bank accounts of female members of each household," said an SLBC official.