VIJAYAWADA: Home Minister Mekathota Sucharita on Tuesday said the government was making efforts to seize the assets of scam-hit AgriGold and hand them over to the court.
Speaking at a meeting held in the party office by the party’s AgriGold Badithula Basata Committee, she said that the government released a GO on October 18 sanctioning Rs 263 crore to help the AgriGold victims, who have deposits below Rs 10,000 each. The remaining AgriGold victims would be repaid soon. With this, 65 per cent of the depositors in the State would be benefited.
The Home Minister said AgriGold, established in 1995, had 32 lakh depositors in AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Rs 6,380 crore was collected from the depositors.
As the deposits were not returned even after the expiry of the due date, the depositors booked cases against AgriGold in several police stations. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had met the AgriGold victims during his padayatra before the elections and included their demands in the party manifesto. After becoming Chief Minister, Jagan, in his first Cabinet meeting, said the State government would sanction Rs 1,150 crore to the AgriGold victims.
She said though the previous TDP government had promised to extend a helping hand to small-time depositors, it failed to do so. “The State government has come to the aid of depositors of the scam-hit company. There is no such precedence anywhere in the country,” she claimed.
AgriGold Badithula Basata Committee coordinator L Appireddy and others were present. Expressing their happiness over the sanction of funds for repaying their deposits, the depositors said they would be glad to receive the aid from the Chief Minister personally. Sucharitha said she would take the issue to the notice of the Chief Minister.
To a question, the Home Minister said the crime rate in the State has come down.