AgriGold victims to go on fast tomorrow for compensation

The promise of unconditional financial support from the State government to the kin of AgriGold victims, who committed suicide or died of heart attacks after the management failed

VIJAYAWADA: The promise of unconditional financial support from the State government to the kin of AgriGold victims, who committed suicide or died of heart attacks after the management failed to reimburse the deposits, has only remained on papers. “The government is not inclined to resolve the issue quickly. In these nine months, only 11 families out of 146 have received the proposed compensation from the government,” said AgriGold Customers and Agents State Welfare Association (AGCASWA) secretary V Tirupati Rao. 

In a cabinet meeting held in March, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that he will pay `5 lakh compensation to the families of the victims and directed CID officials to provide a data of customers and agents to the Finance Department. With officials demanding kin of the deceased victims to submit an FIR and a post-mortem report for the release of compensation, it became a herculean task for some to submit the reports. “After the scandal surfaced, many customers died of heart strokes, either in their houses or at the places where they staged protests. Instead of supporting the families, the government is humiliating them by demanding an FIR and postmortem to release the ex-gratia,” said Tirupati Rao. 

The association members further said agents and customers are going to stage 48-hour Satyagraha Deeksha in Vijayawada on Monday. “With fear taking the better of them, depositors committed suicide. The government should take responsibility of their families,” said association honorary president Muppalla Nageswara Rao.  AgriGold which was set up in Vijayawada in 1995 as a Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) headed by chairman Avvas Venkata Rama Rao, collected as much as `14,000 crore from 40 lakh depositors in eight states. “Tempting customers with the bait of higher returns, the company collected this money,” Nageswara Rao explained.  

Compensation delayed
CID officials claim more than 20 lakh depositors attended verification process. 
There are 19.52 lakh victims in AP alone to whom the AgriGold owes H3,966 crore

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