Although close to 4 crore bank accounts have been opened under the Jan Dhan scheme so far, there is a huge backlog in the issuance of the Rupay cards by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) which is the sole issuer of ATM cards for these new accounts.
Over the weekend, financial services secretary G S Sandhu had said that banks had opened 4 crore accounts so far and mobilised about Rs. 3,700 crore as deposits in these accounts.
“Although the number of accounts opened are very high, about 20 lakh (RuPay) cards have been issued so far,” said National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) managing director and chief executive A P Hota.
He said there is a lag in production of cards which usually requires three weeks to get cleared.
“Personalisation (of cards) takes time because the name has to be embossed on the card. This is such a big order coming all of a sudden. Nobody expected that in one go so many accounts will be opened,” Hota said.
