MUMBAI, July 20: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to give a big boost to the ongoing financial inclusion drive by unveiling a comprehensive programme, to be announced at the Red Fort in his address to the nation on the Independence Day.

The proposed comprehensive financial inclusion programme envisaging insurance and pension cover, apart from a default cover for lenders is likely to envisage opening 15 crore more bank accounts, 12 crore of which will be in rural areas over next four years, according to a note sent to the Indian Banks Association (IBA) by financial services Secretary G S Sandhu.

According to the note, Modi’s new comprehensive financial inclusion programme has three major shifts from the one pursued by the previous government.

First, the earlier efforts at financial inclusion had villages as the unit for coverage while the present plan focuses on coverage of households. Secondly, only rural areas have been the focus so far while both rural and urban areas have been included now, says the ministry note.

Thirdly, the present plan is proposed to be implemented as a ‘mission mode’ project. It envisages a comprehensive coverage of all excluded households by a six-pillar approach in two phases, according to the note.

The first phase of the programme, which begins from August 15 this year and ends August 14, 2015 will provide basic banking accounts with overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 and RuPay debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and creation of credit guarantee fund for coverage of defaults in overdraft accounts, according to the ministry.

The second phase, which will begin on August 13, 2015 and conclude by August 14, 2018, will cover micro-insurance and unorganised sector pension schemes like Swavlamban.

When contacted, IBA said already state-owned banks, insurers and regulators are working overtime to ensure a smooth kick-start.

“We are currently busy chalking out the modalities of implementation of the project, which will be implemented in the entire country after it is declared by the Prime Minister on August 15,” IBA Chairman K R Kamath, who is also the Chairman of Punjab National Bank, told.

It’s a good scheme as it envisages going beyond the geographical boundaries and promises of connecting each and every household, he said, adding more than being commercially viable, it is important to link every household with the banking system.

“Through this programme, we are looking at providing two

savings bank account facility—one each for the husband and the wife—to all those households which not served by the banking system so far.

“Of course, these basic banking accounts will come with some in-built overdraft facility and RuPay debit cards with an inbuilt accident cover of Rs 1 lakh. We are awaiting the final announcement of the scheme by the Prime Minister,” Kamath explained.

Inclusive pension is also one of the pillars of the proposed comprehensive financial inclusion programme.

“Pension under ‘the mission mode’ will lay emphasis on this facility for the lower income segment and the unorganised workers,” Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) acting Chairman R V Verma said.

“We will seek to achieve and expand the scope of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) to serve the disadvantaged sections of the population through active involvement and participation of all categories of intermediary institutions like banks, NBFCs, MFIs, NGOs, corporates and annuity service providers, Verma added.

Though micro-insurance will come in the second phase of the programme, insurers have already started working on it.

“While the already existing 4,000 micro offices of the four PSU general insurers would be strengthened, over 2 lakh existing business correspondents will be asked to sell micro insurance products to ensure the last mile connectivity,” New India Assurance Chairman and Managing Director G Srinivasan said.

“Though micro-insurance will come in the second phase only, we have already started working on it,” he added.

The premium for the low-cost insurance products, which is to be paid by the beneficiaries or from subsidy under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana scheme, will range between Rs 100 and Rs 300 per annum, New India Assurance general manager K Sanath Kumar said.

Nabard will provide the initial Rs 1,000 crore to create a credit guarantee fund to cover possible defaults on overdraft accounts under the scheme, a Nabard official said.

Several rounds of meetings have already been held by the Department of Financial Services with all the stakeholders of the programme, including state-owned banks, insurance companies and pension regulator PFRDA.

The banking sector would be expanding itself to hire an additional 50,000 business correspondents (BCs), launch over 7,000 branches and more than 20,000 new ATMs in the first phase, Sandhu told the IBA, adding that around 50,000 BCs are likely to be appointed in rural areas for the programme alone. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, July 20: Mercy petitions of six death row convicts including Surendra Koli, found guilty in the sensational Nithari serial rapes and killings, have been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Besides Koli, mercy pleas of Renukabai and Seema (Maharashtra), Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik (Maharashtra), Jagdish (Madhya Pradesh) and Holiram Bordoloi (Assam) have been rejected following recommendations of the Home Ministry, official sources said.

42-year-old Koli, who brutally killed and later axed children in Nithari locality of Noida in Uttar Pradesh, was awarded death sentence by a lower court which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court in February 2011.

In a case that outraged the nation, Koli was found guilty of serial rapes and murders between 2005 and 2006 at his employer businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Nithari. Remains of several missing children were found near the house.

While 16 cases were filed against Koli, he has been awarded death sentence in four of them so far and others are still under trial.

Sisters Renukabai and Seema along with their mother and another accomplice Kiran Shinde, kidnapped 13 children between 1990 to 1996 and killed nine of them. However, the prosecution could prove only five murders. The two sisters were given death sentence.

The case against the mother had to be abated as she died in 1997 while Shinde turned an approver in the case.

The two sisters used to kidnap children from localities of poor people in the areas of their operation and force them to commit thefts, lift goods and snatch chains.

But when the children grew old enough to understand

things, they were brutally killed. Some were found with their heads smashed, strangulated, thrashed with iron rods and thrown on railway tracks.

The Supreme Court had confirmed the death penalty of the two sisters on August 31, 2006.

In January, the Supreme Court had ruled that “inordinate and inexplicable” delays in hanging are grounds for commuting a convict’s death penalty and had spared 15 death row convicts from execution.

The third case pertains to the gruesome killing of a girl child in village Asra of Maharashtra in which the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Wasnik in October 2012 for sexually abusing and murdering the victim.

The President also rejected mercy petition of Jagdish who was convicted for murdering his wife and five children (four daughters and a son, all aged between one and 16 years).

He was sentenced to death by Additional Sessions Judge of Manasa on April 24, 2006. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2009.

Jagdish submitted that he was in an unsound state of mind and that his death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment as the capital punishment was not executed for over three years.

However, the apex court said that in Jagdish’s case there was not much of a delay from the time of his conviction till the dismissal of his appeal on September 18, 2009.

The mercy petition of Bordoloi, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005, was also rejected.

Bordoloi carried out the execution of three men of the same family in a gruesome manner in broad daylight in front of the villagers in an effort to protect his supremacy in the village.

On November 26, 1996, Bordoloi, along with 17 others, attacked the hut of Narayan Bordoloi who was staying with his brother, wife and two sons. When Narayan locked the hut from inside, the accused and his men set the hut on fire.

Narayan’s brother and elder son tried to escape through a hole in the wall. However, Bordoloi and his men pushed the boy back into the fire. Narayan and his son were charred to death while his wife sustained serious burn injuries.

Bordoloi did not stop at this. He later dragged another brother of Narayan, who was staying nearby, and sliced him into pieces in front of the villagers. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, July 20: The top brass of Income Tax department and CBDT will strategise steps for revenue collection post the budget announcements during a two-day conference beginning here tomorrow.

The conference of the Principal Chief Commissioners, Principal Directors General, Chief Commissioners and Directors General of the IT department will be inaugurated by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely who would, for the first time on a large scale, be talking to the direct taxes revenue collection arm of the government.

“The conference would set the ball rolling for strategising the revenue and IT collection work done by the tax department across the country. High-level deliberations will also take place during the two-days which will also see the firming up of the annual action plan as finalised by the government for the department,” a senior Finance Ministry official said.

During the meeting, an annual affair of the IT department and its apex policy making body– the Central Board of Direct Taxes, measures related to non-intrusive and technology based revenue collection would also be discussed.

Top officers of the department will also discuss threadbare the challenges and accountability of the assessing officer after which the CBDT will announce the formation of the high-level committee which will scrutinise all IT cases emerging out of the retrospective amendment of the Act.

The formation of the committee was announced by Jaitely in his budget speech.

The Finance Ministry had said among the major issues to be discussed during the conference would be on “non-filers monitoring system, data warehousing and business intelligence, role of directorate of intelligence and criminal investigation in the changing scenario, search, seizure and surveys– study of effectiveness among others”.

Apart from the IT and CBDT brass, senior officials of the Finance Ministry would also be part of the discussions.

Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman would close the conference on July 22 even as senior advocate Harish Salve would deliver a lecture on taxation and legal matters. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, July 20: An expenditure of at least Rs 17.60 lakh was incurred on the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, an RTI reply has found.

The reply provided by the President’s Secretariat said approximate cost incurred on the arrangements of the oath-taking ceremony, attended by 4017 guests, related to tentage, stage, furniture and other allied items is Rs 17.6 lakhs.

In its response to activist Ramesh Verma, the Secretariat said that it does not maintain the records of expenditure function-wise.

“Hence the information sought for cannot be provided. It is informed that the expenditure on functions in incurred by the spending units from the annual budget allotted to respective head of accounts,” a reply from CPIO Saurabh Vijay said.

The activist had sought to know from the President’s Secretariat “head-wise” details on the expenditure incurred on the oath-taking ceremony of Modi and total number of persons who attended the ceremony.

Modi took oath of office on May 26 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended by Presidents, Prime Ministers and senior leaders of the SAARC countries among other dignitaries. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, July 20: To check infiltration bids, nearly 2,000 additional Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and special surveillance equipment have been deployed along the international border in Jammu region for effective domination of the areas.

The additional man-power, surveillance equipment,vehicles and other infrastructure support have been moved into the border along Pakistan to strengthen intelligence network, coordination with sister agencies and conduct special operations along the border.

Home Ministry officials said vulnerability mapping of the Border Out Posts (BOPs), which are sensitive with regard to infiltration, have been carried out and the additional resources have been deployed there.

Continuous efforts are being made to deploy the latest surveillance equipment, fully fitted with day and night vision devices, for further enhancing the border domination, the officials said.

The Home Ministry has also directed for effective domination of the border by carrying out round-the-clock surveillance of the borders through patrolling, border ambushes and by deploying observation posts all along the international border.

The riverine segments of international border being patrolled and dominated with the help of water crafts and speed boats of BSF’s water wings, the officials said.

Security forces have killed five infiltrators and apprehended 13 others in Jammu and Kashmir this year so far.

In 2013, 39 infiltrators were killed and 16 others were apprehended in the state. A total of 16 infiltrators were killed and nine others were apprehended in Jammu and Kashmir in 2012. (AGENCIES)