Government: Jan Dhan deposits now Rs 64,252 crore

NEW DELHI: Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts now total Rs 64,252.15 crore with Uttar Pradesh leading the list with Rs 10,671 crore in these accounts, the government said on Friday. Since the government scrapped high value notes on November 8, nearly 7 lakh new Jan Dhan accounts were opened and the total addition to deposits has been Rs 18,615.55 crore.
Minister of state for finance Santosh Gangwar told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the number of Jan Dhan accounts totalled 25.58 crore.According to data available on the PMJDY website, there were 25.51 crore accounts as on November 9 with an amount of Rs 45,636.61 crore. "Out of 25.58 crore accounts, 5.89 crore accounts (23.02%) are zero balance accounts. PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) scheme allows all account holders the benefits of zero balance accounts," Gangwar said citing data up to November 16.
In terms of number of accounts, Bihar followed Uttar Pradesh with 2.62 crore accounts totalling Rs 4,913 crore. West Bengal has 2.44 crore accounts with Rs 7,826 crore and Rajasthan had 1.89 crore accounts with 5,346 crore. Gangwar said all state-run banks have denied giving any instructions to deposit Rs 1 to 2 in the zero balance accounts. Reports had indicated some banks were depositing the token amount to cut their number of zero banalance Jan Dhan accounts.
There has been a surge in deposits in Jan Dhan accounts and the government has said that it is keeping a close watch on any spurt. The limit for deposits have been set at 50,000 in these accounts.
"We are getting some complaints, for instance one legitimate complaint, one of the banks has given us details that suddenly money has cropped up in some Jan Dhan accounts," Jaitely had told a news conference when asked about the misuse of some of these accounts.