-The Hindu Kolkata: The agitation against fraudulent deposit-taking companies continued to spread in the State with the police intervening in some places to prevent the situation spinning out of control. There were instances of agents heckling investors. Demanding that their money be returned, a group of investors protested outside one of the companies at Lake Town near the city on Saturday. At Salt Lake nearby, another company faced the ire of anguished...

-The Telegraph Two companies running investment schemes have been shut down in Bengal within 48 hours of little more than an assertion by the chief minister, raising questions why the Trinamul government dragged its feet on Saradha by citing lack of legislation and complaints. Police have sealed some offices of MPS Greenery Developers Ltd and Prayag Infotech Hi-Rise Ltd following complaints of cheating. Both figure on a list of companies against which...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Sluggish economy and soaring personal aspirations are teaming up to create fertile ground for quick-rich chit fund schemes and non-banking finance companies such as the now-infamous Saradha to mushroom, but rules to give Jharkhand investors the much-needed safety net are hanging fire since over a year. Jharkhand Assembly had early last year forwarded rules framed by the state's institutional finance department for the President's consideration under The Chit Funds...

-PTI Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has sought to blame the Centre for the chit fund scam, has claimed that the central government reduced the rate of interest in small savings to drive depositors towards ponzi schemes. "It is because the Centre has reduced the interest rates in small savings in the post office, poor people and those who have retired keep their money in these chit funds with...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Saradha group's collapse has possibly bankrupted lakhs of small investors robbing them of their life svaings, and has rendered thousands of its agents jobless. The scam highlights the failure of the government and its regulatory agencies to reign in the mushrooming chit fund companies in West Bengal. It also brings under the scanner the Trinamool Congress' proximity with the tainted group. In the wake of the...