New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched three social security schemes, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
The poor need empowerment, not aid, said PM and thus one of the schemes includes a Re 1 per day insurance cover.
Rs 15,800 crore has been deposited in the 15 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened in four months and the scheme to provide cooking gas subsidy directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries has helped stop pilferages and leakages worth hundreds of crores of rupees, said PM Modi.
“I told the poor, this nation, this government and our banks are for you… Poor do not want ‘sahara’. We need to change how we think. The poor need ‘shakti’,” he said at the event, also attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.Â
Modi said 80-90% people in the country neither have insurance cover nor any possibility of pension.Â
The three schemes will come into force from June 1.
In the first seven days of the trail-run, banks have enrolled 5.05 crore people, including 42 lakh from West Bengal, said PM.
The schemes were simultaneously launched at 115 locations throughout the country.
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(With inputs from PTI)