Jammu, Nov 11: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, Tuesday chaired a comprehensive review meeting of the Finance Department to assess the progress made in promoting financial inclusion and extending coverage of key welfare and social security schemes across J&K.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Finance, Santosh D. Vaidya; MD, J&K Bank; Secretary, IT; Secretary, School Education; DG, Budget; DG, Economics & Statistics; MD, Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (BOCWWB); representatives of other banks besides other senior officers.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary emphasized the importance of mobilizing all eligible beneficiaries, particularly those in the unorganized sector for enrolment under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan (PMSYM) scheme, which provides a guaranteed monthly pension of Rs3,000 to unorganized workers after attaining the age of 60 years.
He directed the concerned district administrations to take proactive measures for achieving universal enrollment by designating local Labour Offices, EPFO and ESIC offices as facilitation centres to create mass awareness and assist in registration under the scheme.
Dulloo further instructed the Finance Department to share comprehensive datasets of eligible beneficiaries, including building and construction workers, MDM workers, street vendors and others, with the banks to expedite their enrollment without delay.
Taking note of the district-wise performance, the Chief Secretary urged officers to adopt a targeted and coordinated approach to bridge the gap between current coverage and the national averages under each of the financial inclusion and welfare schemes. He underscored the need for clear identification of target groups, defining outreach strategies, and assigning specific institutional responsibilities to ensure focused saturation across the UT.
Providing an overview of the progress, Principal Secretary, Finance, informed that the department has identified nearly 5.46 lakh unorganized workers to be targeted for enrollment under PMSYM. He also highlighted significant achievements under various financial inclusion initiatives.
These includes 77,208 new enrolments under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), taking the total to 23.13 lakh accounts, 4.30 lakh new enrollments under Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), taking the total to 27.64 lakh accounts and 1.57 lakh new enrollments under Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), raising the total to 11.06 lakh accounts across the UT. Over 33,500 new subscribers were added under Atal Pension Yojana (APY), bringing the cumulative total to 2.81 lakh, he added
It was explained during the meeting that these flagship schemes APY, PMJJBY, and PMSBY form the backbone of the Government’s social security and insurance architecture, aimed at providing affordable and accessible coverage to all sections of society:
It was divulged that the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) ensures a guaranteed monthly pension between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 at age 60, with more than 43% of its 2.15 crore national subscribers being women. Similarly Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) offers life insurance coverage of Rs 2 lakh for individuals aged 18–50 years at a nominal premium of Rs330 per annum.
Additionally Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) provides accidental insurance coverage of Rs 2 lakh (for death or full disability) and Rs 1 lakh (for partial disability) for citizens aged 18–70 years, at a premium of only Rs12 per annum.
The meeting also reviewed the progress under the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCWW) Welfare Board, under which 5.90 lakh workers have been registered till October 2025. Moreover, the Social Welfare Department has extended old-age, widow, and disability pensions to nearly 8.6 lakh beneficiaries across the UT thereby bringing the beneficiary ratio to around 600 per 10,000 population in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Chief Secretary commended the efforts made so far and called for intensified and coordinated action at all administrative levels to achieve full saturation under all welfare and social security schemes in a time-bound and mission-mode manner.
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