West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is in trouble for the latest findings about the link between chit fund company Saradha and IRCTC. Recent investigations have revealed that Saradha's tourism arm, Saradha Tours and Travels Pvt Ltd was allowed to become an agent of IRCTC without providing any bank guarantee or security deposits.
The tourism arm of Saradha was established in 2007, and over the next two years they posted losses of Rs 61 lakh. However, they bagged the IRCTC agency contract in 2010. Being a loss-making company, how could they bag the agency rights without any security deposits, asks a Bengali newspaper in its report. There are also questions about how a newly-founded company got the contract, pipping other eminent brands.
The CBI is now planning to quiz both Saradha chief Sudipto Sen and Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Basu to understand how this was made possible. When the deal was finalised between IRCTC and Saradha, Mamata Banerjee was the Railways minister.
Right after the contracts, Saradha Tourism's profits rose to Rs 13 lakh in 2011, and rose to Rs 35 lakh in 2012. The CBI suspects that the Railways contract helped them earn the trust of people and collect more money for the chit fund scheme.
Saradha Tourism had begun with a share capital of Rs 1 lakh, and the shareholders were Sudipto Sen, his wife Priyanka and son Subhojit. The CBI says that though there is no rule on how big a company has to be to get the Railways contract, a company with share capital of Rs 1 lakh, and running on losses would certainly not fit the bill.
BJP state president Rahul SInha had asked for a white paper from the state government on the investigations and had also asked the chief minister to speak out on her alleged links to the company.
Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury had also asked for the resignation of the chief minister saying she should face an enquiry for the alleged links.
Trinamool MP Mukul Roy had said that it did not happen under his tenure as railway minister, but later went back on his words.
But that is the exact point that the opposition party members are making. If Roy is not responsible, some one must be. How about the then railway minister take some responsibility for it?
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