BHUBANESWAR: The state government has refunded Rs 47.07 crore to 1,26,137 small depositors who were duped by chit fund companies, within a year.
This achievement of the BJP government is in sharp contrast to the performance of the previous BJD government which refunded only Rs 119 crore to 2,79,109 small depositors over a span of 10 years from 2014 to 2024.
The expeditious disbursement was possible after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi directed to simplify the refund process and it’s decentralisation to the district level, said the Chief Minister’s Office.
The chief minister has further assured that another five lakh small depositors will get refund of their money in the next three to four months. Majhi had during the budget session of the Assembly told the house that the state government was working out a set of guidelines to streamline the refund process for chit fund depositors.
In its interim report to the state government, the Justice MM Das Commission of inquiry probing the chit fund scam had recommended compensation for 4,97,844 small investors while naming more than 450 companies for cheating the investors.
Although the exact number of depositors affected in the chit fund scam is yet to be made public, some reports said around Rs 4,600 crore deposits were collected from the state by the chit fund companies.