A delegation of Left Front MPs and MLAs from West Bengal called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday and sought a high-level probe into the chit fund scam in the State. It demanded immediate steps for attaching property of the culprits and for refund of the depositors’ money.
In a five-page memorandum, the delegation, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Surjya Kant Mishra, urged that investigation be carried out by the CBI with the involvement of the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office and stringent action be taken against the perpetrators of the fraud.
The leaders urged that the government make its small saving schemes move attractive for investors and restore the commission given to agents so that people are not forced to take recourse to park their hard-earned money in dubious schemes.
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Net collections under the government’s small savings scheme in West Bengal had come down from Rs. 8,409 crore in the last financial year of the Left Front government in the State [2010-11] to minus Rs. 165 crore between April and December last year, the memorandum said.
The delegation, which included senior CPI(M) leader, Sitaram Yechury, and the former State Finance Minister, Asim Dasgupta, called for early presidential nod for the Bill passed by the Assembly for protecting the interests of depositors in financial institutions and for soft loans to the victims of the scam to reconstruct their lives.
There was need to rejuvenate the movement of self-help groups and elected cooperatives and a massive campaign to get people to keep their savings in the government’s small savings schemes in nationalised and cooperative banks instead of irregular financial entities, they added.
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PTI reports:
The delegation also called on President Pranab Mukherjee and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.