kolkata the small savings figures in the state have been plummeting at a dangerous pace in the state and while skimming through these figures over a 10year period along with some statisticians it was clear to trinamool mp somen mitra that chit funds were proliferating that was in september 2011 when he blew the whistle and wrote to prime minister manmohan singh warning him about the dangerous times ahead in the state as the storm over saradha group going bust raged all over the state with news of suicides and suicide attempts pouring in mitra told toi that he had forseen this situation and that it does not surprise him there is no rocket science involved in this he said the state which had one of the highest small savings rate in the country is now registering an alltime low where is all the money going its clear that people with small incomes are now being lured by chit fund companies this takes me back to my experience of the mid 70s till the 80s when chit fund companies like sanchayita sanchayani and janapriya went phut we were going the same way but we took time to recognize it mitra said mitra said he has closely studied the incentive schemes that the chit fund companies have been floating to encourage agents to collect small savings from people the moment you collect a total deposit of rs 100000 you get an incentive of more than rs 10000 the formula is such that the chit fund companies are able to use only 50 of each deposit in the financial market against which they promise a doubled return after six years is this ever possible such a racket has to go bust mitra explained even before the saradha groupbacked fund went kaput mitra routinely got complaints from poor people of his diamond harbour constituency that they were not being given the returns promised to them this is just the tip of the iceberg wait till you see a death procession he said he feels all the chit fund companies that are in the market now have cleverly tried to gain public sympathy by advertising all over the media about the fact that they have real estate ventures and interests in housing and hospitality films music and media can anyone start a film city in a remote place why did anyone not react and look at the highprofile brand ambassador promoting that dont you think that the attempt at roping in celebrities by chit fund companies is just to attract false faith he added he said most of the firms claims were false most of them do not have the hotels or housing complexes that they show in these advertisements they just show plans and pictures drawn up by architects or just false pictures taken from somewhere else