CPI-M questions Mamata's policy to pay back Saradha depositors

CPI(M) today raised questions on Mamata Banerjee government's policy to pay back depositors hit by Saradha ponzi scheme and demanded CBI probe into the scam.
"I wonder under which law the depositors are being paid back by the state government when assets and properties of Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen are yet to be seized. The entire issue should be probed by the CBI," senior CPI-M leader and former Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said today.
"According to Calcutta High Court directive entire property and assets of Sen should be first seized and the depositors should be paid back later from the sale proceeds of those properties and assets," he said.

The state government should follow the directive of Calcutta High Court and seize the Saradha group chairman's properties and assets immediately before giving away cheques to depositors.
Since Sen's properties are there in different states, the Supreme Court and the Centre, besides SEBI, could play their roles in the matter to expedite the process of paying back the depositors, he added.
On West Bengal's debt burden for which the erstwhile Left Front government has been blamed by the Trinamool Congress, Dasgupta said the amount was Rs 1,92,000 crore when LF lost the assembly polls and TMC government took over on May 13, 2011. "But West Bengal was third in debt burden that time after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Why is TMC doing politics on this?"

He blamed the Centre's policy on deposits under small savings scheme, in which West Bengal topped in the country, for the inflated debt burden.
"Since Trinamool Congress was also a partner of the government at the Centre that time, it was also responsible for that policy on small savings which made heavy the state's debt burden," Dasgupta added.