Jan Dhan accounts have seen a huge surge in deposits, with Rs 21,000 crore being parked in such accounts following demonetisation announced earlier this month.
In the last 13 days, banks have been flooded with deposits in Jan Dhan accounts that have touched Rs 21,000 crore, sources said.
On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprise move announced demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes and since then, long queues before banks and post offices are seen to deposit or exchange these currencies.
Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal leads the pack of states which has seen the highest deposits so far followed by Karnataka.
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, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) was launched on August 28, 2014. Such accounts have a deposit limit of Rs 50,000.
Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the government is looking into sudden "popping up" of money into zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts.
“We are getting some complaints that suddenly monies have popped up in the 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 will act if anything improper is found in the deposits.
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MODI APP SURVEY
93 pc support
demonetisation
* Over 93 per cent of the five lakh people who participated in a survey on Narendra Modi App have supported demonetisation, says the PMO
* In his tweet, the Prime Minister thanked people for the historic participation in the survey
* IT and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad read out the survey resultat at Cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening
* In just over 24 hours of the survey, more than 5 lakh people participated and expressed their opinion
* Of the over 5 lakh responses so far, only 2 per cent have rated the move as "very poor" or "one star"
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NABARD to disburse
Rs 21K cr to farmers
>> See pg 8
Can’t swipe and get
cash at petrol-pumps
>> See pg 2
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Most ATMs shut
in Panaji; Rs 100
shortage persists
THE GOAN NETWORK / PANAJI
Even after two weeks of the announcement of demonetisation, most ATMs in Panaji remained shut due to lack of cash.
Few ATMs in suburbs of Panaji had no queue and were not shut either, which was very unusual. When checked, it was informed these ATMs had only Rs 2,000 notes and therefore people avoided going there.
People don’t prefer withdrawing Rs 2,000 notes because it becomes very difficult to use them as Rs 100 notes are not available in sufficient number, still. At the same time, most people in Panaji are yet to see new Rs 500 notes.
The ATM of HDFC Bank on 18th June Road had Rs 100 and Rs 2,000 notes. Similarly, mobile ATM outside State Bank of India’s branch on 18th June Road also had Rs 100 and Rs 2,000 notes. But, these ATMs were exception cases.
As there is a lack of Rs 100 notes, people are getting more and more desperate to withdraw cash only in Rs 100 denomination. A woman said, "I needed Rs 2,500. But, I withdrew Rs 1,500 first and Rs 1,000 later. Had I tried withdrawing Rs 2,500 in one go, the machine would have given me one Rs 2,000 note for which getting change is very tough."
