'Mamata trying to save culprits in chit-fund mess'

Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) Launching a blistering attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal, the CPI-M Monday charged it with trying to save the culprits involved in the chit fund mess by setting up a commission.

The government set up a high-powered commission, headed by a former Calcutta High Court judge, and a special investigation team to unravel the chit fund mess in the wake of the Saradha Group going bust, affecting lakhs of depositors and agents.

The opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), however, accused the Trinamool Congress government in the state of trying to buy time in the process and save the culprits involved in duping depositors.

"She (Banerjee) said which is lost (the money of the depositors) is lost. This was her message to the people! That means forget about the money which you people have lost in the chit-fund mess," Leader of the Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra alleged in a press conference, just after Banerjee announced the setting up of a probe commission.

Mishra also took a dig at Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, for planning to bring in an ordinance to tackle chit-fund companies, saying it was for "buying more time" in the process.

"An ordinance will come up. After that it will go to the president for his assent. Then she (Banerjee) will do something. She would not do anything before that. In the meantime the culprits will runaway with the depositors' money," the CPI-M leader said.

Earlier, lakhs of depositors vented their anger across the state against the chit-fund funded 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.