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The Centre has directed all state governments to open bank accounts for workers of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) under the Jan Dhan Yojana. These workers would be subsequently enrolled under the new insurance and pension schemes.
Officials said states have also been directed to ensure that all payments under the programme are made through banking correspondents wherever possible. A letter to this effect was sent to the states on May 21. The directive was issued after the Prime Minister's Office reviewed the progress of MNREGS earlier this month.
According to the ministry of rural development, there are almost 280 million workers under the rural job scheme.
Earlier this month, the government launched two universal insurance and one pension scheme. Under the Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojana, the government provides an insurance cover of Rs 2,00,000 for a nominal premium of Rs 12 a year; under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, an accidental insurance of Rs 2,00,000 is provided for an annual premium of Rs 330 and under the Atal Pension Yojana, a pension of Rs 1,000-5,000 a month is provided after the beneficiary completes 60 years.
The rural employment guarantee Act, passed by the previous government, promises at least 100 days of assured employment to beneficiaries.
A recent Business Standard analysis showed that the number of people working under the scheme and the work provided have been dwindling in 2015. For January-March 2015, the government provided 347 million person-day of work, less than half of the work provided to the poor in rural India in the corresponding period of 2014 and just below 60 per cent of the work provided in January-March 2013.
The person-day of work generated in three weeks of April 2015 was 24.67 million, less than 14 per cent of the work generated in four weeks of April in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Jan Dhan Yojana to ensure the unbanked population have bank accounts. According to official records, till May 13 more than 150 million new accounts were opened under the scheme.
