In 2 weeks, Rs 900 cr deposited in Jan Dhan accounts

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 4

Many of the Prime Minister-initiated zero-balance ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts in Punjab have got a lot of money after the November 8 demonetisation move.

Even while the Centre has been warning people in general and unscrupulous elements in particular not to use these zero-balance accounts for converting black money into white, a whopping Rs900 crore has landed in ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts of the poor in Punjab.

As such heavy deposits have raised eyebrows, tax sleuths are likely to examine the possibility of ‘misutilisation’ of bank accounts of poor people by the wealthy for parking their black money.

Financial experts too have advised people not to let their accounts be ‘misused’ by others.

But the poor people owning these accounts could come out with a simple-yet-potent explanation — if they were subjected to scrutiny — that the notes are their ‘long-term savings’ that were lying at their homes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already expressed his doubts over the possibility of misuse of ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts that were opened with zero balance.

Punjab has 51.24 lakh ‘Jan Dhan’ bank accounts of which 30.47 lakh are in rural areas and the remaining in urban areas.

Statistics of the Union Finance Ministry showed that there were as many as 51.07 lakh ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts operational in Punjab on November 9, a day after the currency note ban was imposed, with a total of Rs1,737 crore deposited in those.

The amount swelled to Rs2,673 crore by November 23. In other words, Rs936 crore was added within two weeks.

More than 17,000 new accounts were opened after November 9 and their number rose to 51.24 lakh by November 23.