Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday launched the transfer of funds to the genuine depositors of Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies through CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal in New Delhi.

In his address, Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government was committed to protecting the rights of every poor and middle class person of the country and to address the problems of the poorest and underprivileged section of the society. The Ministry of Cooperation has achieved a big success in this direction today.

He added that all the agencies have done commendable work to get back the deposited money of depositors in record time, with this the depositors are getting back their money. At the time of launch of CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal on July 18, 2023, it was informed that the amount would be paid to the genuine depositors within 45 days of registering on the portal, but the committee constituted by the Supreme Court and all the agencies of the Government of India, working together, have done commendable work in record time.

The process of transfer of funds has started in less than a month, due to which Rs 10,000 are being deposited to bank accounts of each of 112 beneficiaries. Shri Shah said that this initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation has instilled satisfaction and confidence in the minds of crores of investors.

Shah said that at the time of the formation of the Ministry of Cooperation, the ministry had various challenges like the task of restrengthening the cooperative structure, making timely changes in the cooperative laws made about 75 years ago, and re-establishing the lost faith in cooperatives among the public.

He said that the The Ministry of Cooperation has worked to solve all these challenges. The efforts were made to help crores of investors of the country to refund crores of rupees stuck in the four co-operative societies of Sahara Group since last about 15 years. Shri Shah said that around 33 lakh investors have been registered on the CRCS-Sahara refund portal.

He said that about a year back, the Ministry of Cooperative started a series of meetings to refund the money of investors stuck in four cooperative societies of Sahara Group. By bringing all the stakeholders together, the Ministry of Cooperation along with all the departments filed a petition in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court gave a historic judgment that a committee headed by a former Supreme Court Judge will be formed and the process of refund to genuine depositors to be done in a transparent manner.

He said that today 112 investors with an amount of Rs 10,000 are being paid as the small investors have the first right on the amount to be refunded. But in the coming time, all the investors will get their money back for sure. He said that the release of the next instalment of payment will take even less time as the audit process has been completed.

Shah said that it is the responsibility of the country’s government and administration to secure the deposits of every citizen of the country and return their stuck deposits by using the rights under the constitution to enact law.

Shah assured the investors of cooperative societies of Sahara Group that the Modi government is making constant efforts to get back every single Rupee of their hard earned money.

Today, in the first phase, 112 depositors of Sahara Group’s cooperative societies paid Rs 10,000 each through their Aadhaar linked bank accounts. Based on the analysis of the first stage, “SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)” is being prepared by the auditor with the help of Amicus curiae for verification of claims.