Chit fund scam: Small depositors to get refund soon, says minister

Bhubaneswar: The State government will soon refund the money to small depositors duped in the multi-crore chit fund scam in state, informed Odisha Finance Minister, Sashi Bhushan Behera today.

"The process of identification of small depositors has started and very soon they will get their money back," the minister assured.

There are 1,16,504 small depositors listed in the Justice MM Das Commission's interim report, informed sources.
While the Finance department has written a letter to the district collectors regarding the identification of investors and refund process; except for Rose Valley Chit Fund, identification of investors of 16 more chit fund companies has not started yet, informed sources.

On the other hand, Congress MLA, Anshuman Mohanty, said, "The state government has broken the rules since the beginning in the chit fund case. The corpus fund which has been set up using public's money is only a tactics to delay the proceedings."

"No one has received the money till now. Ruling party MPs and MLAs are also involved in the scam. This is just eyewash," he added.

Similarly, BJP MLA, Pradip Purohit said, "The state government has been saying this for a very long time that they will return the money to the affected investors. They have again started to say the same thing to gain political mileage just before the elections."