Everyone knew that the bomb was ticking. But, there was not much action to curb the mushrooming ponzi schemes that were collecting thousands of crores from hapless investors across West Bengal since 2007-08.
Some promised to grow money by 34 times in 25 years by investing in teak bonds. Others offered to double money in 15 months by investing in the potato trade. As a result, investments in small savings came down from approximately Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 200 crore in the first half of 2012-13.
Now the State is faced with unprecedented social unrest. The trigger came with the collapse last week of one of the most prominent organisations, the Saradha Group, which alone is estimated to have mopped up over Rs 20,000 crore.
First came closure of Saradha’s huge media operations — managed by a Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP — on April 1. Group Chairman and Managing Director Sudipta Sen had been absconding for the last few days and a “look out” notice has been issued by the state intelligence agencies.
Now, lakhs of people across the State are looting and ransacking Saradha’s offices in frustration and blaming the Trinamool leaders for the crisis. At least one agent from Burdwan has committed suicide. Many others (agents) are on the run.
Hundreds turned up at the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee demanding justice, on Friday. On Saturday, they besieged the Trinamool headquarters in the city.
“Senior leaders were found gracing programmes organised by Saradha or appearing on their television channels. We were confident of the State Government backing the group,” Abdul Kalam from Baruipur district of South 24 Parganas district told Business Line .
Kalam, along with some 30-odd agents, have been on the run since past week, having failed to return crores of rupees to investors. “I have already defaulted in paying Rs 2 crore worth investment; another Rs 4 crore is due for maturity by end of this year. I am now accused by fellow villagers of cheating”.
Trinamool General Secretary and former Union minister Mukul Roy, however, denied the party’s involvement with the Saradha group. “We are not involved. The presence of leaders at programmes organised by Saradha does not mean we have endorsed their activities,” Roy told media persons.
Clearly on the back foot, the Trinamool blamed the former Left Front Government for the mushrooming of such schemes. However, neither the Left Front nor the Congress is ready to buy this logic. “The Centre had been alerting the State to take action against Saradha and other ponzi schemes. But, the State Government didn’t act. On the contrary, such organisations flourished,” State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharjee said.
CPI(M) Politburo member Md. Selim said that the Left Front Government brought a Bill to control growth of “chit funds” in 2010. The bill is still awaiting Presidential assent.