By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 19, 2019: Hundreds of duped chit fund investors, who were on an indefinite sit-in dharna here demanding refund of money on Tuesday, postponed their strike till February 22 following assurance by the state government to fulfill their demands.

The government also agreed to soon release the White Papers on the progress and development on the refund of money to cheated depositors.

State Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera said that Odisha government has already begun the process of refund to small depositors.

“A thorough identification of the depositors is going on due to which the process is getting delayed, but the allegations that no one (duped investors) has been refunded yet is false,” said Behera who met a representative team of the Chit Fund Khyatigrasta Milita Manch and discussed ways how to resolve the issue.

“The State government is aware about the demands (of the the duped investors) and supported it. The government will soon release a White Paper mentioning the steps being taken in this regard so far,” senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha, MP Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, told reporters here soon after the meeting.

The State government has also decided to speed up the identification process for the benefit of small investors. “A meeting will be held with district collectors on February 22 to decide the final action plan on how to intensify the entire process,” Patnaik added.

Jayant Das, Convener of the Chit Fund Khyatigrasta Milita Manch, who earlier in the day told they will continue their protest till the government refunds money, said they will decide the future course of action after February 23. “We are postponing our strike till February 22 as the government has assured to look into our demands. We will decide about our next steps only after February 23,” Das added.

The State government had set up Justice M.M. Das Commission in July 2013 to verify and return deposits collected by different chit fund companies.

The commission had submitted its first interim report in May 2016.

Submitting its sixth interim report earlier in the month, Das had told that 3.61 lakh small investors, around 50 per cent of the total, have been identified so far and it may take 2-3 more years to identify the other victims.

The commission identified small investors, with below Rs 10,000 deposits, to return their money on a priority basis.