Bhubaneswar, May 20: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today urged Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to expedite presidential assent to the Bill — Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (In financial Establishment).

In his letter to Shinde, Naveen said recently many incidents had come to light regarding unscrupulous financial entities having duped millions of small investors across Odisha of their hard-earned savings. “These fly-by-night operators, taking advantage of the prevailing regulatory weakness and gaps, lure the unsuspecting public by promising extraordinary high returns, mobilise their savings and then shop after a period of time,” he said.

Naveen also said that to curb the menace, the Assembly had passed the Bill on December 17, 2011 and sent for the President’s approval. But, it is yet to get the assent.

“According to our constitutional scheme, the Bill requires the President’s assent. Accordingly, it was sent to the ministry of home affairs on April 3, 2012. The Centre has sought clarification on December 27 last. The state government has submitted its compliance to the ministry,” Naveen said.

The Bill contains extensive safeguards to protect the small investors from the malpractices of fraudulent financial entities. It speaks of awarding jail to the owner of the fraud deposit collection companies.

Earlier, Union minister of chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena said: “Nearly 20 lakh people of Odisha have been conned. Balasore district is the worst affected. People responsible for the misery of the poor investors should be brought to book. The state government should recommend a CBI inquiry which can unearth this scam.”

Reacting to Naveen’s letter, the BJP’s Odisha spokesperson Suresh Pujari said: “Naveen has finished his duty by writing letter to the Centre. However, the problem of the poor investors is yet to be addressed. The state should set up a corpus fund to bail out the investors from the crisis.”

Today, the investors, cheated by the Bengal’s Saradha Realty in Puri, organised a rally and submitted a memorandum to the district collector. In Bhubaneswar, the investors met the crime branch officials.

The crime branch has moved to the registrar of companies to cancel the licence given to the another deposit collection company Sea Shore, which has allegedly taken away Rs 600 crore from the market.