Kolkata: As the Calcutta High Court begins hearing pleas seeking a CBI probe into the Sharada group chit fund scam on Tuesday, CNN-IBN has found that it is unemployment and stunted industrial and agricultural growth in the state that is forcing people to invest in ponzi schemes.
Seventy-year-old Sunil Sarkar recounts how he found his son Jayanta Sarkar's body at the terrace hanging by a rope. Jayanta, who was allegedly murdered, was one of the owners of Hello India Express Ltd, a fund that went bust. His partner Indrojit Roy committed suicide the next day. His family says it was all a fallout of the Saradha chit fund bust.
Jayanta's wife Papiya Sarkar said, "It's all because of Saradha, there was a panic in the market since January since the employees of Saradha weren't getting paid. Investors were panicking and the collection was shrinking."
Chit funds have long functioned in Bengal. It's a system that thrives mostly on small depositors from rural areas with abysmal banking facilities and financial illiteracy. The RBI says Bengal ranks among the states with the lowest financial inclusion....
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09:11 AM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines employees, who haven't received their salaries for months, adopted a unique form of protest. They booed Royal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli at the Delhi airport on Tuesday. Virat is the captain of the team owned by Vijay Mallya who also owns Kingfisher airlines. Kingfisher Airlines, once India's second-largest airline, is behind on salary payments and has grounded its fleet. Over 80 pilots and 270 Kingfisher engineers...
11:40 PM, May 07, 2013
Yavatmal: Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has ordered the Maharashtra Government to file an affidavit on a PIL which alleges corruption committed in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Agency (MGNREGA) scheme in the district in 2011-12. The division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice AB Chaudhari on Friday ordered the government to file an affidavit on the PIL by July 22, 2013. The PIL was filed...
02:05 AM, May 07, 2013
Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Thursday said the state would adopt zero tolerance towards corruption. "Anyone found involved in corruption, including government employees, would be dealt with strictly," the chief minister said while laying the foundation stone of a bridge on the Lander rivulet on the Sohari-Chaksarai road in Una district. The bridge will be constructed at a cost of Rs.3 crore. He said the government would...
05:10 AM, May 03, 2013
Jaipur: Samajwadi Party in Rajasthan on Sunday alleged irregularities in a housing project for Central government employees and demanded a CBI probe into the matter. The company, which was given tender for the construction in 2007, committed a scam worth Rs 200 crore in connivance with the Central Government Employees Welfare Housing Organisation (CGEWHO) officials by inflating cost of the project, SP's state vice president Anil Shekhawat alleged. "The company...
02:43 AM, Apr 29, 2013
Bangalore: Lashing out at the BJP government in Karnataka for ushering in the "anti-climax" for the state, Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday said that in comparison the Congress government led by SM Krishna, had taken the state to a position of "climax" in terms of development. "During 1999-2004 when there was a Congress government headed by SM Krishna, the focus of the globe was on Karnataka, the type...
02:00 AM, Apr 28, 2013
Chennai: Members of Tamil Nadu stuntmen's association won't work in any other language films unless Film Employees' Federation of South India (FEFSI) helps them arrive at mutual understanding over ongoing tussle between action artistes from Tamil and Telugu film industries. Tamil stuntmen demand equal distribution of work. "We demand equal participation in work when we do films in other languages. If we are doing films in other languages, then we...
05:24 PM, Apr 24, 2013
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has tabled its report on the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, as it was utilised across India. CNN-IBN has accessed the report which says only 30 per cent of 129 lakh works worth over Rs 1.26 lakh crore approved in 14 states were completed. ...
11:49 PM, Apr 23, 2013
New Delhi: Downplaying CAG's report on the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said that it is a performance and not a financial audit. Ramesh said, "It is CAG's job to find shortcomings and if they don't show, it means they are not doing their job." Ramesh further said that the audit was conducted only after the government requested for it. The clarification comes after...
03:50 PM, Apr 23, 2013
New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has tabled its report on the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, as it was utilised across India. CNN-IBN has accessed the report which says only 30 per cent of 129 lakh works worth over Rs 1.26 lakh crore approved in 14 states were completed. Barely 30 per cent of NREGA works completed, while Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh used only 20...
12:37 PM, Apr 23, 2013
New Delhi: Over 50 million subscribers of the retirement fund body EPFO will be able to apply online for transfer and withdrawal of their provident fund from July 1, a move aimed at speedy settlement of claims. "We have decided to set up a central clearance house which will be operational on July 1. This will enable subscribers to apply online for settlement of the withdrawal and transfer of funds...
05:38 PM, Apr 18, 2013
Jammu: After asking his partymen to switch to election gear, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is also working president of his National Conference (NC), reiterated on Wednesday his government's commitment to filling vacancies on a fast-track basis. Addressing a public meeting in the border town of Mendhar in mountainous Poonch district, 220 km north-west of Jammu, Abdullah said: "More than 70,000 vacancies in government departments will be...
07:05 AM, Apr 18, 2013
Srinagar: Several contractual employees in the Jammu and Kashmir government were injured in protests on Wednesday. They employees were protesting against the termination of their services. The violence took place when the protestors were stopped by the police at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The contractual employees clashed with police when the latter stopped them from disrupting traffic. The employees said they would have no work and their families would suffer...
10:19 PM, Apr 10, 2013
Shillong: Admitting that Meghalaya faces a growing unemployment problem, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday said the jobless youths in the state were many more than those recorded in the employment exchange register. "There is a growing unemployment in the state and this is reflected in the register of the employment exchange," he said in his reply to the motion on the policy of the government to tackle unemployment in...
04:30 AM, Apr 10, 2013
Toronto: Canada is investigating a report that its largest bank is using temporary foreign workers hired by outsourcing company iGate, which has most of its operations in India, to effectively replace existing staff, a situation the government said it would not accept. A Conservative government minister revealed the probe on Saturday after a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC story said Royal Bank of Canada was planning to...
08:53 AM, Apr 08, 2013
Washington: Unemployment rate in the United States dropped to 7.6 per cent in March, as against 7.7 per cent the previous month, with addition of some 88,000 jobs, according to latest job figures on Friday. "Both the number of unemployed persons, at 11.7 million, and the unemployment rate, at 7.6 per cent, changed little in March," the Department of Labor Statistics said. Among the major worker groups, unemployment rates for...
07:19 PM, Apr 05, 2013
Over 50 lakh Central Government employees and 30 lakh pensioners could get a huge relief on Tuesday as the Union Cabinet is likely to approve a proposal to increase dearness allowance (DA) to 80 per cent from the existing 72 per cent. The increased dearness allowance could be applicable from January 1, 2013. ...
12:10 PM, Apr 02, 2013
Chennai: For a second time within two weeks, the Tamil film industry will join hands to observe a day long fast on Tuesday against the reported genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The first fast was observed March 19 here. While the Tamil Nadu Film Directors Association (TANTIS) and Film Employees' Federation of South India (FEFSI) spearheaded the earlier fast, the 'Nadigar Sangam' - also known as South Indian Film...
10:44 AM, Apr 01, 2013
Dushanbe: India on Friday raised its concern with Saudi Arabia over its policy of reserving 10 per cent jobs for locals, a decision which will hit over 3 lakh low-and semi-skilled workers from India with a sizable number coming from Kerala. Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamad, who is in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, to attend the Asian Development Dialogue, on Friday met Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah...
01:47 AM, Mar 30, 2013
New Delhi: Thousands of Indian workers are likely to lose their jobs after a workforce nationalisation law came into effect in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The Nitaqat law makes it mandatory for local companies to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers. Reports say the plan threatens the livelihood of nearly two million expatriates, a majority of them Indians. Both the Kerala and Andhra Pradesh governments have urged...
12:07 PM, Mar 29, 2013
