Scurry to Shyamal Sen to save life-long earnings - North Bengal office of default commission receives 234 applications on first day

Siliguri, May 10: People from different walks of life, from a temple priest to retired government officials, submitted applications to the north Bengal office of the Shyamal Sen Commission that began functioning here today. On its first day, the commission received 234 applications from investors and agents of Saradha Group and other chit fund companies. The commission was set up by the Mamata Banerjee government to determine the cause of the default crisis, volume of funds, identity of the investors and other stakeholders, and the compensation that investors would get. The office has eight counters manned by two persons each and is located on an unused building constructed by the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority at Himanchal Bihar near here. The total number of staff deputed to the office is 25, many of whom are retired government employees. “I have deposited Rs 2.75 lakh in Saradha from my earnings as the agent had promised a higher return. Earlier, I had invested Rs 50,000 and received Rs 62,250 after 15 months. Today, I came here to appeal to the commission to refund my entire investment,” said Premananda Koyal, sporting a saffron kurta and dhoti. Koyal is the priest of a temple in Mekhliganj and runs a grocery shop as well. Biswanath Chakraborty, a retired government employee, had even sold off his land to invest in various money-mobilising companies. “In total, I made an investment of around Rs 70 lakh in different chit fund companies as they promised better returns. Considering the pathetic rate of interest offered by banks and the postal department, retired persons like us are left with no option but to invest in these companies,” said Chakraborty, a resident of South Santinagar in Siliguri. He is a retired wireless operator of the state civil defence department. “I sold my land and received Rs 52 lakh. Added to it, I had my provident fund, gratuity and some of my savings in the past four-five years. So far, I have received around Rs 15 lakh as interest from the monthly income scheme I have with Saradha. However, I am yet to get the remaining portion of my money,” said the 68-year-old. Among those who queued up in front of the commission office were agents of Saradha and other companies. They submitted applications to the commission on behalf of their clients. Suparna Pal, an agent of Saradha from East Vivekanandapally here, said: “I have been working as an agent of Saradha for the past four years and have collected Rs 75 lakh from over 50 people. They include retired government officials and handicapped women. Some of my clients had even sold off their houses to invest in the company. I also made a personal investment of Rs 50,000.” Suparna said ever since the default crisis had broken, she was being flooded with queries from her clients. “These people are contacting me everyday and demanding their money back. I am not in a position to return their money. I came here today with their applications. I felt that I should at least render this service so that they need not come to the office. I will submit all applications with relevant documents and return the receipts to them.” A group of Saradha agents from Kishanganj in Bihar, located around 100km from here, had also swarmed the office premise today, not knowing that the commission has the mandate to receive complaints from within Bengal only. “Saradha has more than 1,200 agents in Kishanganj and collected around Rs 20 crore. We fear arrest and want to file our complaints with the commission,” said Abdul Rehman, an agent. Of the 234 applications received by the commission today, 84 were from Darjeeling district, 52 each from Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, 31 from Malda, 11 from South Dinajpur and four from North Dinajpur.