BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday tried to corner Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the huge cash deposits in Jan Dhan accounts post demonetisation.
With Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informing Parliament that about `714 crore has been deposited in Jan Dhan accounts during November 10 and December 25, 2016, the surge in deposits now raises question about the depositors and the source of their funds, Pradhan said.
Suspecting that chit fund money has found its way to Jan Dhan accounts, the Union Minister said each of these accounts will be investigated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not spare anybody who will be found guilty of parking their ill gotten money in these accounts, he added.
“The real motive of the Chief Minister requesting the Prime
Minister to allow deposits of demonetised currency notes in district central cooperative banks is now exposed,” Pradhan said.
As several senior BJD leaders, including MLAs and MPs, are under CBI scanner for their alleged links with chit fund scamsters, investigation into the Jan Dhan accounts having deposits of huge amounts of money will prove to what extent the BJD Government is transparent, he added.
Deposits in Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in the State has swelled to `2,675 crore after demonetisation. As per the data of the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), total deposits in these accounts were `1,744.68 crore as on September 30, 2016.
The SLBC report said 1.13 crore Jan Dhan accounts were opened till September 30 last year. In the period following demonetisation, the total number of such accounts have gone up to 1.21 crore, an increase of eight lakh accounts. About 27 lakh accounts were opened without any deposit. The SLBC is in the process of collecting bank-wise data about the deposits made after the demonetisation. There is no information about the quantum of deposits in the zero balanced accounts, SLBC sources said.