The West Bengal legislative Assembly on Thursday passed the anti-chit fund Bill — approved earlier by the Centre — but not before the Opposition condemning the new legislations as a “mechanism to give escape route to the guilty and victimise those who oppose Government.”
The new law christened West Bengal Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Bill was passed in the State Assembly, Finance Minister Amit Mitra said adding the new law proposed stringent punishment, including fine, jail or both for those involved in financial crimes as money laundering and chit fund business.The Bill was earlier approved of by the Centre with minor changes which were introduced by the State, sources said.
Criticising the Bill, State Opposition leader Surya Kanto Mishra said the new law had left ample scope for the cheats to slip through the legal lacunae.This, particularly because the new law empowers designated officials or authorities to take action within a stipulated period of six months against those involved in the chit fund business he said. “This will give them ample time to down their shutters, sell out their business and properties and decamp with the booty,” he said, adding that “the Government had from the beginning no intention to bring strict law in real sense of the term because many of its functionaries are involved in the chit fund scam.”
Bengal had been plagued by a host of chit fund scams, including the multi-crore Saradha, MPS and Rose Valley scams, that accounted for more than `80 thousand crores. It had affected about 25 lakh people.The Mamata Banerjee Government had been hit hard by the multi-crore scam with a host of its senior leaders, including Ministers like Madan Mitra, MPs like Kunal Ghosh and MlAs either going to jail or being grilled by the CBI and the ED on the issue.