Jan Dhan accounts swell by Rs 21,000 crore in 13 days

New Delhi: Over Rs 21,000 crore have been deposited in Jan Dhan accounts in the 13 days following the Centre’s move to demonetise old high-value currency notes.

West Bengal leads the pack of states which has seen the highest deposits so far, followed by Karnataka.

Following the currency withdrawal, the total balance has crossed RS 65,000 crore to Rs 66,636 crore. As of November 9, the balance in about 25.5 crore such accounts was Rs 45,636.61 crore.

On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprise move announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and since then, long queues before banks and post offices are seen to deposit or exchange these currencies.

With a view to increasing banking penetration and promoting financial inclusion, and with the main objective of covering all households with at least one bank account per household across the country, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) was launched on August 28, 2014.

Such accounts have a deposit limit of Rs 50,000.

Earlier, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had said the government was looking into sudden “popping up” of money into zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts.

“We are getting some complaints that suddenly mony has popped up in Jan Dhan accounts, so there is a misuse and that is why the rationing in initial days takes place,” he had said.

He had cautioned that the departments concerned would act if anything improper is found in the deposits.