Government plans to link insurance scheme with Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna from May

New Delhi: The 21 crore Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) accounts and Aadhaar will be used to ensure the poor get cashless treatment of up to Rs 1 lakh at hospitals under an insurance scheme announced in the budget.

Minister of state, finance, Jayant Sinha announced this on Civil Services as government plans to increase transactions under PMJDY. “This will be the first product to be launched on what we are aiming as a social security platform.

Any BPL person going to a hospital can identify himself by Aadhaar number and get cashless treatment of up to Rs 1 lakh through the PMJDY account. He will not have to dip into his meagre savings,” Sinha said. Secretary, financial services, Anjali Chib Duggal said the insurance scheme will be linked to PMJDY from May. Incidentally, the districts of two opposition-ruled states are set to win on Thursday the PM award for best implementation of PMJDY — North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal and Assam’s Nagaon.

The third winner for PMJDY will be Chandigarh. A presentation made before Sinha on Wednesday at Civil Services Day said average balance in a PMJDY account as on date stood at Rs 1700, the number of zero balance accounts had dropped to 27% and 95% accounts of all PMJDY accounts were opened by PSU banks. RBI deputy governor Urijit Patel credited PSU banks for the same and said private sector banks were ‘found wanting’ in this regard.