All Jan Dhan bank accounts be linked to Aadhaar: PM

All Jan Dhan bank accounts should be linked to Aadhaar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday while asking bankers to speed up this process and redouble efforts on financial literacy.

He wrote an email to all bankers to appreciate their "exceptional work" done to implement the Jan Dhan Yojana and said 99.74 per cent of all households in the country have been covered, surpassing the target.

The government will ensure that many more schemes utilize the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) platform, he said.

"It gives me great pleasure to have seen the exceptional work done by you all in ensuring the success of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The target set for opening bank accounts for all households has been surpassed well ahead of the target date of 26 January, 2015," he said in the email.

"By opening 11.5 crore new accounts in a very short span, we have achieved a coverage of 99.74 per cent of all households in the country. I congratulate you for your extraordinary efforts," the Prime Minister wrote.

Contending that the bankers had proved sceptics wrong, he said it should motivate them further.

"We need to redouble efforts on financial literacy. Aadhaar seeding needs to improve further. Bank Mitras need to be enabled to carry out RuPay card and Aadhaar enabled transactions in villages itself," he told the bankers.

"I want you to work to ensure that each account holder enrols for Aadhaar and seeds it in the bank account. This needs to be done for all accounts. I am sure you will do this seeding with the same zeal you showed in driving bank account opening," he added. Jan Dhan, a major financial inclusion scheme, was launched by the Prime Minister on August 28 last year.

Noting that "well begun is half done", Modi laid out a roadmap for the future as he said the Jan Dhan Yojana provides a platform for changing the economic condition of the people.

"We need to build on this success and leverage these accounts to provide our citizens a wide range of credit, insurance and pension services. We also need to maintain high standards of customer service. This is the next phase of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana," he said.

Underlining that most development activities are hindered by the single disability of not having bank accounts, he said, "We have now overcome this disability. Benefits have already started flowing to people through some of the Direct Benefit Transfer schemes. This not only ensures that benefits reach people directly, but also utilises your accounts well."

In words of encouragement to the bankers, he said, "You will recall that when we started this Mission, many had doubts about our ability to achieve this task in a limited time span of five months.

"However, you have proved sceptics wrong and achieved what appeared impossible. This feat alone should motivate you, as well as others to work to make our dreams a reality."

He said this was their great contribution to nation-building and thanked them for being a part of this huge national mission through which "we shall be able to help every citizen of India achieve a better quality of life."