Mamata launches safe investment scheme, urges to shun chit fund cos

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today urged people to shun depositing any money in dubious finance companies and hoped the state government’s safe saving scheme would become a national model to fight against such firms. “People should stay away from chit fund companies and not invest any money with them,” she said at the launch of the safe investment scheme here. [caption id=“attachment_1215025” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mamata Banerjee. PTI. [/caption] The Chief Minister had announced a safe investment scheme for the common people after collapse of the Saradha group that duped thousands of investors. She said already 1.5 lakh depositors have been compensated for their deposits with the Saradha group and another 70,000-80,000 depositors will receive their compensation shortly, and that the safe saving scheme could become a model in the country. The state government will not touch this money (the deposit under safe investment scheme) for any general usage to ally fears that the fund may get channelised to the state coffers, she stated, while handing over deposit certificates of the scheme to a few depositors marking commencement of the scheme in which only United Bank of India has so far joined. The nodal agency for the scheme is West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation Limited (WBIDFC), a deposit taking NBFC. Depositors will get interest between 9 and 9.25 per cent depending on the maturity of one and five years. The minimum and maximum deposit is Rs 1,000 and Rs 25,000. WBIDFC Managing Director Asok Kumar Das said so far around Rs 10 lakh has been raised from 400 odd depositors. With Rs 800 crore net worth the corporation can raise deposit to the tune of a maximum Rs 1,200 crore, according a senior WBIDFC official. PTI