Despite the Central government having increased the upper limit from Rs10,000 to Rs50,000 per person to refund money to depositors of the Sahara group of cooperative societies, the cooperation ministry has replied to the central information commission (CIC) that the refunds are being given depending on the availability of funds and they are helpless in the matter of providing information to affected individuals who are seeking information regarding their claims under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Central information commissioner (CIC) Vinod Kumar, on Wednesday, 19th December, accepted the reasons given by the cooperation ministry but admonished its central public information officer (CPIO) for his dereliction of duty in not attending the CIC hearing personally.
RTI applicant Mr Debnath filed an application as he had not received any return from Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd on his investment of Rs44,000 made on 31 December 2018, which had already matured three years ago on 30 June 2020.
Before procuring the information under RTI, Mr Debnath had approached the RBI on 8 December 2022, as Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited did not respond to his communication of 8 July 2022. RBI forwarded his grievance to the central registrar of cooperative societies (CRCS) refund portal and asked RTI applicant Debnath to follow up with this body. However, mum has been the word from CRCS.
Mr Debnath also made efforts to register his complaint to the prime minister office’s grievance cell for redressal of his issue but he received a generalised response from CRCS.
Finally, he sought information under the RTI Act from CRCS which is as follows:
• Please furnish actual progress made on my request till the date of your reply.
• Please inform names, designations and office addresses of the officials with whom my request was lying during this period and date-wise period with each official and action, if any, taken by him/ her.
• Please give evidence of receipt and despatch of my request in the offices of each of these officials.
• Please provide me the certified copy of records containing reasons for the delay in attending my said request.
• Please provide me also signed and stamped copy of all correspondence till date in the matter of my request, including memos, emails, covering letters, etc. for forwarding my request.
• Please also furnish a copy of all their remarks, feedback, reports etc. in the matter.
• In case the status of my request is closed, please furnish the closing remarks of the officer concerned.
• Please inform me, according to your rules or citizens charter or any other order, number of days in which such a matter should have been dealt with and resolved. Please also provide a copy of these rules, as applicable.
• Please inform when the issue (with Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited) is expected to be resolved in true sense.
• Please inform also kind of attempts being made by CRCS (till date) to resolve the issue.
• Please inform total number of complaints registered with CRCS regarding Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited in last five years and current status of the same.
The CPIO of CRCS replied thus: “…this office has received/ is receiving large number of representations of non-repayment of matured deposits on daily basis, directly or through various agencies. Due to huge volume, it is not possible to maintain list of such representations.
“…keeping in view, the large number of complaints, CRCS took hearings of the 4 Sahara group cooperative societies and directed to streamline the redressal grievance system and to repay the deposits to the investors (order sheets available on website mscs.dac.gov.in).
“Meanwhile, the Supreme Court vide Order of 29th March 2023, has ordered for transfer Rs. 5000 crore from Sahara-SEBI Account to CRCS for refunding to the legitimate depositors of Sahara group of cooperative societies.
“Modalities and guidelines to invite claims and ascertaining the genuineness of the claimants are being formulated. After, formulation of guidelines, the same will be published in newspapers and claims will be invited. After that you may submit your claim through the prescribed medium.”
The claims are to be given to the genuine depositors of four multi-state cooperative societies of the Sahara group, namely: Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd., Lucknow, Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd., Bhopal, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd., Kolkata and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd., Hyderabad.
The note given by Mohammad Naseem, CPIO cum-under secretary, cooperation ministry, instead of physically attending the second appeal hearing, sent a written note to CIC Vinod Kumar Tiwari stating that “the entire process of disbursement through the portal is being conducted under the monitoring and supervision of hon'ble justice (Retd.) Shri R Subhash Reddy.
“Subject to fund availability, the payment to the genuine depositors against their verified claims is credited in their Aadhaar seeded bank account and they are intimated the status through SMS/ portal accordingly. It is pertinent to mention here that a re-submission portal has also been launched for depositors to re-submit their claim applications in case of any deficiency informed to the applicant through the portal. Since the whole process is digital and paperless, only claims filed online through the portal are entertained. Accordingly, the applicant may be requested to file his claim through the above portal.”
CIC Tiwari dismissed the second appeal by admonishing the CPIO of the cooperation ministry for his absence during his hearing. He wrote in the order that “The commission observes that though a sufficient reply has been provided to the appellant, it is noted that the respondent has neither appeared before the commission nor has informed the commission regarding the reason for his absence. Thus, the commission takes grave exception to the absence of the CPIO during the hearing despite service of the hearing notice and his conduct is admonished for the same.”
(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife. She is also the convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book "To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte" with Vinita Kamte and is the author of "The Mighty Fall".)
I came across your post regarding the RTI from Bishwajit Debnath regarding Sahara Refund.
My papa who is 95 yrs had a fd if 87 k..I have submitted all the details on the portal..
But the CRCS technical team is telling that Sahara office did not upload the AOF on time so we can't clear the FD .
Though everything is correct..
In Neesa Leisure ltd no action in sight,with 11 years wait all hopes lost.