)
Giving hope to lakhs of depositors defrauded by ponzi schemes of the collapsed Saradha Group, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the state government would start distributing compensation from September 30.
The state government would make a beginning by giving compensation to 1,000 duped investors from the Rs 500 crore corpus fund at a programme at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in Kolkata on September 30, the Chief Minister said here.
The government would try to give compensation to another one lakh depositors in the following 10 to 12 days, she said.
The government hoped to give compensation to another three to four lakh depositors after Diwali, Mamata said.
Blaming the erstwhile Left Front government for the crisis, she said, "People have been cheated. This happened during the earlier regime."
After the Saradha Group collapsed in April, the Chief Minister had announced a Rs 500 crore fund to compensate the poorest of the defrauded depositors.
Of this, Rs 150 crore was to be raised by increasing taxes on tobacco products.
The state government had set up commission headed by Justice (Retired) Shyamal Sen to look into the grievances of the depositors and so far it had received over 18 lakh applications from those cheated.
The collapse of the Saradha Group and other small chit fund companies had left a trail of suicides by investors and agents in the state.
The opposition Congress and Left parties have demanded a CBI investigation into the scam.
