Left Front, Trinamool clash over chit fund mess

Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) The Left Front here Monday accused the ruling Trinamool Congress and its general secretary Mukul Roy of misleading the people over the chit fund mess in West Bengal and demanded a probe by a high-powered inquiry committee.

"The All India general secretary of Trinamool Congress (Mukul Roy) is repeatedly saying that the Left front government has given the licences to these organisations. If a lie is said 100 times it cannot turn into truth," Left Front chairman Biman Bose said here.

Lakhs of depositors vented their anger across the state against the chit-fund fund company Saradha Group, which is virtually on the verge of collapse. There were incidents of clashes between the agents and the depositors who demanded their money back.

The depositors, mostly poor people in villages and small towns, had put their hard-earned money with the company's chit funds lured by the promise of high interest rates.

Bose called for stricter punishment for the guilty for duping depositors.

"A high-powered inquiry committee should be formed to probe how it happened, how and who all are involved, everything should come to light, and ultimately the guilty should be punished," he said, demanding that the state and the central governments should jointly deal with the situation.

"A Left Front delegation, headed by Surya Kanta Mishra, will give a deputation to the central government in Delhi," he said.

"The state and the central government should acquire the assets of the chit-fund group and immediately take measures to return the money to the depositors who have lost their money," he said.

The Left Front also alleged that the state government was coming up with the ordinance just to delay the process of arrests of the culprits as it will take a lot of time.

"The ordinance cannot be implemented unless it gets the assent of the governor and the president. Therefore, this is a dillydally attitude by which the state government could rescue (Saradha Group promoter) Sudipto Sen," Bose alleged.

A few days ago, the Banerjee government ordered the arrest of the group's chairman and managing director Sudipta Sen for defaulting on repayments.