By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 17, 2014: THE Government has decided that the following facilities available to those account holders who have opened their accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) would also be extended to the existing account holders subject to submission of an application by the account holder(s) to the concerned bank branch:

(i) For issuance of RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs.1 lakh;

(ii) For issuance of an overdraft facility of Rs.5000 after satisfactory operations in the account for some time.

The plan (PMJDY) inter-alia, envisages Universal access to banking facilities under which all the six lakh villages across the entire country would be mapped, organised into Sub Service Areas (SSAs) of 1000-1500 households and allocated to the Banks to provide at least one fixed point Banking outlet in form of either a branch or a Business Correspondent (who is named as Bank Mitra). The other components of the plan are providing at least one Basic Banking Account to each household with RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh; an overdraft facility of Rs.5000 after satisfactory operations in the account for six months. Further, an additional life insurance cover of Rs. 30,000/- is also available to accounts opened up to 26th January, 2015, for which detailed modalities are being worked-out.

The Government has asked the banks to extend overdraft facility of Rs.5,000 as above to only one member, preferably lady of a house-hold.