-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...

-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...

-The Business Standard A trail of unfulfilled promises follow her in rural and urban Bengal The furious letter-writing since 2010 about the chit fund industry in West Bengal suggests that everyone knew the industry was going to implode. Bengal has one of the highest rates in small savings, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Somen Mitra wrote to the prime minister in 2011. The state buys the highest number of new life insurance policies, and...

-CNN-IBN Kolkata: The West Bengal chit fund is getting bigger each day. It has now turns out that ponzi schemes in the state financed not just media houses but Tollywood films as well. In the past four years, at least one in three films has been produced by groups that run ponzi schemes. Rose Valley, a deposit-taking company which is now under the MCA scanner, has produced 18 films including three National...

-The Indian Express In the wake of the collapse of the saradha chit fund company, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry has asked all television channels - general entertainment as well as news and current affairs - to furnish details of their shareholding pattern and equity structure. This includes the saradha Group. According to sources, the ministry's letter, sent on Friday, asks channels to inform whether there had been any changes in their...