People who deposited all of their savings into the Bikash Multipurpose Cooperative Society (BMCS), with a hope to get rich in a short time, are now wandering about the office every day to get back their money.
As the multipurpose cooperative society founder is very close to the ruling party Awami League, the affected depositors do not dare to file cases, as well as general diary, against him.
Former vice-president of Brojo Mohon College students’ union and president of upazila unit Awami League, Anwar Hossain who is commonly known as VP Anwar established the BMCS in the BM College area in 2005.
According to these clients, the multipurpose cooperative society has collected Tk100 crore from them since its inception.
During collection of money, the BMCS official pledged to clients they would provide high interest rates for deposit and low rates for distributed loans under easy terms and conditions which greatly appealed to the low-income groups.
Bishu Ghosh, who was present at the demonstration, said: “BMCS’s promise to double our deposit and a return on our investment in a short time was appealing.”
Bishu added: “I deposited Tk6 lakh into the BMCS as its offer was lucrative.”
Rana Talukder, who deposited Tk2 lakh, said the NGO stopped giving clients any interest or profit two years ago. The BMCS officials are threatening clients who want to get their profit and interest against their investment, or to withdraw their deposits, he said.
Barisal District Officer of Cooperative Directorate Ruhul Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune that the BMCS had registered to work as a cooperative society, and not as a bank. He said they would look into the matter.
Kazi Nurul Alam, general manager in-charge of Bangladesh Bank, Barisal Branch, said: “As BMCS is not a bank, the Bangladesh Bank has nothing to do with this matter.”
Secretary of the citizens’ alliance Barisal Nagorik Parishad, Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, said it is the government’s duty to see whether people are being defrauded or not.
Anwar, who is also an activist of Awami League district, said: “When I became sick, and could not supervise the BMCS’s activities the last four years, some field-level supervisors and workers failed to collect a return on the loan and on the invested amount from the field, which created problems.” The investment will be returned when the funds are collected from the field-level investments. The clients only need to wait patiently, he said.
The administration, law enforcement, and Bangladesh Bank authorities however have not shown any vigilance in this matter.
