Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi meets people at BJP office in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 7: The state government is taking a firm stand against fraudulent financial companies, job placement concerns and fraudulent gas agencies in the state.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Modi told reporters that till date, the state financial institutions directorate has recovered 798 cheques worth Rs 2.10 crore belonging to 1,231 investors who were duped by 18 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). During its investigations against charges of financial forgery, the directorate took those companies to task.

“Around 15 years ago, the state government had received a number of complaints regarding NBFCs and subsequently formed a commission named Non-Banking Financial Enquiry Commission under the chairmanship of Justice Nagendra Rai in 1997. After it submitted its report in 2000, an act called Bihar Protection of Depositors Act, 2002 was enacted in 2002, which primarily aimed at protecting small investors. Later, a corresponding set of rules was made in 2004 according to which the state finance department constituted financial institutions directorate and we invited investors duped by fraudulent companies. We received complaints from 13,596 investors against 334 NBFCs for an overall loss of Rs 19.07 crore till September 30, 2008,” said Modi.

Among the large capital fraudulent companies, complaints were received against BARL India from 181 investors for a total amount of Rs 4.03 lakh, while 420 other investors complained against Llyod Finance for Rs 50.27 lakh. The highest number of complaints were received against Escorts Finance limited from 582 investors for a total amount of Rs 1.5 crore.

“Two courts are to be set up in Patna and Muzzafarpur for conducting trials in the cases associated to NBFCs. The alleged fraudulent NBFCs also include seven co-operative societies which usurped Rs 1.87 crore. As NBFCs are registered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), we have requested RBI to give us the names and addresses of the board of directors of 263 such institutions,” said Modi.

“Recently, we have also received large number of complaints regarding organisations duping people with promise of jobs. The state labour department is taking care of the issue. Similarly, there have been few cases of bogus gas agencies, which have been sent notices by the department of food and civil supplies. Also, errant builders would be brought under the scanner using provisions of the proposed apartment rules for the state,” said Modi.

Moreover, he iterated on strict action against those who are not paying holding tax in the state capital.