Chairperson of the Joint Action Committee for Salai Depositors, Wahengbam Joykumar, on Sunday alleged that a competent authority of the department of Art and Culture, government of Manipur refused to furnished the JAC with information with regards to the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act (BUDS), 2019.
Speaking to the media at a press meet at Manipur Press Club on Sunday, Joykumar said that the Right to Information (RTI) application was filed to the state public information officer, deputy secretary of Art and Culture, government of Manipur for obtaining information under section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 on August 22 about action taken reports against unauthorised collection of deposits, societies.
He even filed an application to the commissioner of art and culture, government of Manipur after being aggrieved from refusal of RTI reply on September 23 but no action is being taken up, he said and called on the competent authority to furnish the information of RTI.
Joykumar informed that in 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had written to the commissioner of revenue, government of Manipur that in Manipur there are eight unauthorised collections of deposits. Those entities are Lamjingba Finance, LRS Financial Services, Manipur Development Financial Investment, Birla Emporium Private Ltd, Korou Finance, Lamjingba Nidhi Ltd, Semfu Enterprise Nidhi Ltd, Panthoibi Housing Finance Ltd, Salai Holdings Private Ltd. They all should take action under BUDS Act, 2019, he said.
They run an unregulated deposit scheme and collect deposits from the general public. And it is reported that some of the financial institutes were banned and hence, the RTI was filed to get information, he said.
He mentioned that under BUDS Act, the state government should pay back the amount of money withdrawn by the functionaries but that the state government has neglected the grievances of victims, and urged the government to look into the matter.
