Agartala, April 30: The Tripura Assembly today witnessed unruly scenes over the continuing depredations of deposit collecting companies in the state.
Till the collapse of the Saradha Group in West Bengal earlier this month, Tripura had altogether 90 such organisations operational in the state but over the past fortnight, 31 have closed shop, leaving thousands of small depositors in the lurch.
The issue came up today in the state Assembly during zero hour as officiating leader of the Opposition Ratanlal Nath stood up to ask chief minister Manik Sarkar what action was being initiated by the Left Front government to rein in such companies in Tripura.
The chief minister replied that the state government had been keeping a strict vigil on the activities of these companies through regular police action, raids in offices and arrests when needed. “We will continue our vigil while waiting for an omnibus deposit collection control act which the Centre alone is empowered to pass in Parliament,” said Sarkar. This provoked a cacophony of protests from the Opposition bench as Congress MLAs accused a section of leaders and workers of the ruling CPM of being involved with these companies.
Nath then specifically asked whether the state government would order a CBI inquiry into the activities of these companies, on the lines of what the Assam government is planning to do.
In his reply, the chief minister said the Assam government had decided on a CBI inquiry in a specific context and the state government was not ruling it out. “At present, our police force is active to keep the deposit collecting companies in a leash and if necessary we may also go for a CBI inquiry in case the matter is found to have inter-state dimensions; so it is possible but we will wait only till our police inquiry or monitoring is over,” said Sarkar. The issue subsequently fizzled out.
The chief minister indicated that his government is planning to reshape the curriculum of Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) at the school level to have lessons imparted to students on prevention of violence against women and domestic violence.
While speaking during a programme at Kabiraj Tilla Higher Secondary School in south Agartala, Sarkar deplored the “alarming erosion of moral values among students” and said the school education system should be structured in a manner that will make students sensitive to crucial issues like violence against women and domestic turmoil, which can easily influence the minds and values of impressionable students.
“We will soon begin the process of consultation with TBSE authorities and experts on education to reform our school syllabus suitably to incorporate these vital issue,” said Sarkar.
