Political heat soars over chit fund scam

Cong demands Naveen's resignation, BJD says demand unjustified

The political heat over the multi-crore chit fund scam in the state continued to soar high with the opposition Congress targeting chief minister Naveen Patnaik for phenomenal growth of some unscrupulous firms, which have duped lakhs of small investors in the state, over past few years.

Referring to the presence of the chief minister in the launching ceremony of a TV channel by Seashore group two years back, Union minister Srikant Jena accused Patnaik of playing the role of "brand ambassador" for this scam-tainted firm and demanded his resignation. He said, Patnaik's presence in the function had lent credibility to the operation of the company, facilitating its duping of people.

He also attacked the ruling BJD government for entering into agreements with Seashore company for management of a number of public assets, including nine Primary Health Centres (PHCs) under PPP (public private participation) mode.

Responding to the charges, state finance minister Prasanna Acharya said, ""Public representatives are often invited by the companies on launching ceremonies. It is not the duty of the Chief Minister to verify the credibility of each and every company before attending such functions. If that be the case, then the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would have given resignation at least 10 times". He said, nine ailing PHCs were handed over to Seashore group as per the existing PPP norms and no extra expenditure was incurred by the government in the deal.

Jena also demanded that the state government must engage a high level agency to enquire the chit fund scam which should be monitored by a sitting High Court judge or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).The Odisha government, however, has decided to dispose off cases related to chit fund scam by a fast track court to bring quick redressal of investors' grievances. For this, special prosecutors will be appointed.

"The state government will enquire into alleged involvement of politicians, officials and journalists in the chit fund scam and whoever found guilty will be punished. Properties of all fraudulent companies will be confiscated and depositors' money will be returned. We expect all this to happen in six months. The Bill passed by the state government to deal with cases of financial fraud is pending President's assent which we hope to get soon", said finance minister Prasanna Acharya.

The Bill - Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishment) -2011 after obtaining the Presidential assent will enable the state to initiate punitive action against the offenders.

The minister said, so far 180 cases have been registered against 85 companies and 176 people have been arrested for swindling money of innocent depositors. The fraud cases have been assessed to be worth Rs 138 crore.That apart, the economic offences wing of Crime branch has lodged 27 cases against 24 companies for offences of a similar nature.