From Our Correspondent
AGARTALA: Tripura Assembly on Monday witnessed uproarious scenes as opposition legislators struck to their demand for protection of depositors’ interest at any cost.
Shortly after question hour, opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath raised the issue of recent crackdown on Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCS) including Rose Valley, one of the biggest money marketing farms in the Eastern India.
Slamming the government for mushrooming of NBFCs, Nath alleged it was the state government which had issued trade licences to different chit fund companies.
“All the chit fund agencies landed in the state with the active cooperation from the state government. Now, the government is keeping distance from such companies”, he said. Expressing concern over fates of lakhs of depositor following raid at Rose Valley’s regional office, he wanted to know the state government stand on the sensitive issue.
In his reply, Finance Minister said the Rose Valley has been doing the business without permission from the RBI and SEBI since long time.
Asserting that the company could not receive public deposit without permission from the appropriate authority, Chowdhury said the Rose Valley authority could not reply on huge amount of deposit.
According to him, the Rose Valley had collected Rs. 196.88 crore till April this year of which only Rs. 86.70 crore has been given to its depositors after maturity. However, it could not show where the remaining money- Rs. 110.18 crore was deposited.
Chowdhury said the entire matter has gone to the court after registration of cases against Rose Valley.
“The government has never compromised with the chit fund farms and the government will take all possible steps to safeguard the interest of depositors”, he said.
However, opposition MLAs were not satisfied with the statement and demanded specific assurance from the Chief Minister.
As Sarkar remained silent, Congress MLAs rushed to the well and raised slogans for specific assurance from the Chief Minister to protect the interest of depositors.
Since the situation was going out of control amid slogan, Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath adjourned the House till 2 pm.