Modi to unveil ‘JanSuraksha’ insurance schemes for poor today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch ‘JanSuraksha’ schemes in the city on Saturday, targetting the poor and unorganised sector who are neither covered by any form of insurance nor get pension.

“After the huge success of the JanDhan scheme under which 15 crore bank accounts were opened, the government will unveil three social security schemes under the JanSuraksha programme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the schemes here on Saturday,” Hasmukh Adhia, financial services secretary with the Finance Ministry, said. 

The schemes will be simultaneously launched at 115 places across the country by ministers.

“This will be Modi’s first visit to West Bengal, after becoming the PM and he would announce two insurance and one pension schemes,” Adhia said.

The insurance schemes are – Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (accident insurance) and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana (life insurance), while the pension scheme has been named after former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee as Atal Pension Yojana.

He said in India, less than 20 per cent of the population was covered by insurance of any form, while the rest were uninsured, particularly the poor.

“The target is to provide 100 per cent insurance coverage,” Adhia said. Tomorrow’s programme would also be attended by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Governor KN Tripathi and MoS for Finance Jayant Sinha. Under the accident insurance scheme, any person within the age bracket of 18 to 20 years would be able to enrol, for which the annual premium amount would be Rs 12 giving a coverage of Rs 2 lakh.

Adhia said for joining any of the schemes, a person needs to have a savings bank account number from which the premium amount or contribution towards pension would be debited.