Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram (Express photo/File)

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday targeted the BJP-led central government over its flagship programme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), stating that the scheme is “another jumla” of the government.

“Jan Dhan Yojana is another jumla and an exercise in mass deception by PM Modi and his government. The funds were supposed to be cost-free for struggling banks, but they are required to bear the cost of the accounts. SBI alone has spent Rs 775 crore as on 31 December 2016 for maintaining the accounts. In any event, there are no comparable benefits to the customer,” Chidambaram said.

“It is now common knowledge that the Jan Dhan accounts were used to launder money after demonetisation. A humongous sum of Rs 42,187 crore was deposited in Jan Dhan accounts between 8 November 2016 and 30 December 2016. Initially, the Finance Minister threatened legal action (12 November 2016), but the Finance Secretary ruled out any investigation on the grounds it would be a ‘time consuming process’. United Bank of India alone had 11,80,000 Jan Dhan accounts with over Rs 1 lakh so-called ‘savings’,” he said.

The former Finance Minister said that it was the UPA government that “sowed the idea of financial inclusion” by introducing the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) and that this scheme was renamed as PMJDY. “When the Modi sarkar speaks of Jan Dhan accounts, it conveniently and deliberately ignores the 25 crore accounts created before 2014. Why?.”

Chidambaram said Jan Dhan Yojana is an “elaborate exercise in deception”.

He pointed out that by “December 2016, 24 per cent of the accounts were zero balance accounts” and that “no data is available for the subsequent period.” “Of the remaining accounts, 15-20 per cent have a ‘balance’ only because bank managers were encouraged to deposit Re 1 in the account! According to a Ministry of Finance answer, 6.1 crore Jan Dhan accounts — or one out of five — are ‘inactive’,” he said.