Tripura Congress seeks resignation of minister Bijita Nath for 'involvement in chit fund scam'

Agartala: The Congress in Tripura on Monday demanded the immediate resignation of social welfare minister Bijita Nath, who received a CBI notice for interrogation in connection with the Rose Valley Group chit fund scam. [caption id=“attachment_3744017” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Bijita Nath. TSPCB website[/caption] The minister said she had received the CBI notice on Saturday in which it was said that a CBI official would meet her at her official residence on 29 June. Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Gopal Roy said that Nath should either resign herself or Chief Minister Manik Sarkar should dismiss her for the sake of an impartial investigation by the CBI. “We were also surprised that the CBI official would question her in her residence. We demand that the CBI question her in its office,” Roy, an MLA and spokesman for the party, said. Roy said that more than 14 lakh depositors in the state had been cheated by 142 different chit fund groups in the state over the last two decades due to indulgence by the Left Front government. He demanded that the state government make arrangement for return of their deposits. The Left Front government brought a bill named ‘Tripura Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 2000’, but formulated the rules only after seven years in 2007. “During the seven years time, the chit fund companies looted the people of Tripura in various ways. Why the government delayed the process of formulating rules for seven years?" he wanted to know. In 2008, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had inaugurated Rose Valley amusement park at Amtali here, Roy pointed out, saying that the Congress would organise “massive movement” in the coming days if their demands were not fulfilled.