New format ready; chit fund victims can now apply for refund offline too

Bhubaneswar: Almost seven months after the Odisha government decided to refund money to the people who have lost their deposits in the multi-crore chit fund scam in the State, it finalized the application format to complete the refund procedure.

Official sources said, the format will be notified officially very soon.

“Since all the panchayats don’t have access to internet, I have asked officials to receive application from depositors offline also,” Finance minister Pradeep Amat said.

Initially, the format will be used to get refund from Rose Valley chit fund firm.The format will be used for other Ponzi firms at a later stage, sources added.

However, to clarify the ambiguity while giving back money to the depositors, the government has sought some more information in the new format.

The new format requires depositors to provide information on legal heir in case of depositor’s death, permanent and present address and income/pan card details of the depositors. It also requires them to submit an affidavit agreeing to face criminal proceedings if they furnish wrong information in the format.