The Finance Ministry has asked banks to expedite issuance of RuPay debit card under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PYMJDY).
"Banks were asked for early issuance of pass books and RuPay Debit Cards to customers and organise one month as 'RuPay card activation Month' to increase activation of RuPay card," an official statement said.
In a review meeting of PMJDY held recently, all the banks have been advised to cover the gap including of their Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) by December 15.
As per status presented in the meeting, banks have opened 8.39 crore accounts under PMJDY and have issued 5.32 crore RuPay cards leaving a gap of 3.07 crore.
It was discussed that Aadhaar numbers have been seeded in 30 per cent of account opened under PMJDY, it said.
Banks were asked to aware the customers for Aadhaar seeding and to use various channels including SMS, internet Banking and ATMs for seeding of Aadhaar numbers, it added.
The meeting chaired by Anurag Jain Joint Secretary (FI), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance banks were asked to make efforts in area of financial literacy in coordination with various agencies and existing Financial Literacy Centers to spread awareness on PMJDY and use of RuPay cards etc.
Executive directors of the banks who participated in the meeting were also asked to arrange for sensitising of their staff members and training for Bank Mitras among others.
During the review, special focus was given on completion of household survey work and coverage of all uncovered households. It was informed that 97 per cent survey work has been completed.
It is found that out of 20.28 crore households, 17.28 crore households have been covered including persons already having bank accounts.
Banks were asked to complete the remaining survey work by December 10, it added.
It was decided that strategy should be framed in such a manner so as to cover remaining uncovered 3 crore households by December 26.
Thereafter the same should be duly publicised through local media that all uncovered households as per survey have been covered and public feedback should be obtained for information about uncovered households, if any, it said.
"For this purpose, information may be given by a person who doesn't have bank account himself or anybody having this knowledge by contacting toll free numbers," it said.
"This process should be carried-out in close supervision and coordination of local district administration. Complete saturation of uncovered Households should be achieved by January 26, 2015," it added.
