CPI(M) General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury. CPI(M) General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre over the Indian Express report on zero-balance Jan Dhan bank accounts.

“Is all policies of this government PR, and all economic data a Jumla? The Jan Dhan scheme is latest example,” he tweeted.

Quoting the Indian Express report, Yechury said: “75% of all accounts were zero-balance in Dec 2014, showcasing govt failure. To dress up govt failure, banks forced to deposit Re 1.” Additionally referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise during election campaign of 2014 that after black money is returned to India, every citizen will get Rs 15 lakh, Yechury said that ‘most poor people opened bank accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana expecting that money but they received Re 1 instead’.

An investigative report by this newspaper showed banks, where Jan Dhan bank accounts were opened, were depositing Rs 1 in these accounts to reduce the number of zero-balance accounts in the country.

As many as 20 branch managers and officials told The Indian Express, on the condition that they not be identified, that there is “pressure” on them to show that zero-balance accounts are falling in number. “There was a perception that so many zero-balance accounts means no one is using them, so there was pressure on us to change that,” said one official.

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