As per the new rules, any Jan Dhan account holder can avail overdraft facility up to Rs. 2,000 without any conditions attached to it. (Reuters)

The massive financial inclusion programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been showing signs of some success in terms of changing the user behavior in rural and semi-urban areas as three fourth of over 33.5 crore accounts have reported at least one transaction in the last two years.

In August this year, the government expanded the scope of its flagship financial inclusion programme – Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana – to cover every unbanked adult against the earlier target of covering every unbanked household.

The government also decided to offer micro credit and pension schemes to the workers in unorganised sector through these Jan Dhan accounts. These services will be offered through fixed point banking correspondents (associates appointed by banks).

It also increased the in-built accidental death insurance cover for RuPay card holders from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh per card holder.

Under the expanded benefits, the government also doubled the amount for overdraft facility (unsecured credit) offered to the account holders from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 and also relaxed the maximum age from 60 to 65 years.

As per the new rules, any Jan Dhan account holder can avail overdraft facility up to Rs. 2,000 without any conditions attached to it.

In order to fulfill the criterion of some saving behavior, Jan Dhan account holders do not have to deposit any money themselves. If a Jan Dhan account holder has received any assistance or subsidy into her bank account under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes of the government then it will be considered a valid transaction for extending the overdraft facility to that account holder.

As per the latest information given in the Lok Sabha, banks have so far sanctioned overdraft facility to 65.47 lakh account holder till the first week of this month and 30.75 lakh account holders or 47% have already availed overdraft facility involving a sum of Rs. 340.19 crore.