Firing one more salvo at the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress government, former Minister and Congress leader H.K. Patil on Sunday said the efforts by the State government in dealing with the woes of IMA investors were insufficient. He urged the government to implement provisions of the Centre’s The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance 2019 to protect investors.

Mr. Patil, whom the Congress sources describe as an unhappy leader after being denied Cabinet berth, has written a four-page letter to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, outlining details of the Ordinance and stringent punishment entailed under it.

The letter, which Mr. Patil released to the public through his Twitter handle, is the second such instance in the recent past. Earlier, soon after the Cabinet decided to sell 3,667 acres in Ballari to JSW Steel, he had tweeted against the government’s decision.

Citing several similar instances in the past, Mr. Patil said the previous governments failed to take adequate action against companies committing fraud on gullible investors for lack of strong laws. Over the last three decades, victims of such frauds have not recovered their money and perpetrators of these crimes have not been punished, he said.

‘Social responsibility’

While the coalition government has the social responsibility of rebuilding the lives of victims, the current measures taken by the government are not enough, Mr. Patil said in his letter. He said the government’s efforts to implement the Ordinance should instil confidence among the public. “The Chief Minister should supervise the government’s efforts and ensure implementation of provisions under the Ordinance to help depositors recover their money in the next 100 days,” he said.

However, senior police officials who are investigating the IMA case said section 2 (4) (e) of the Ordinance explicitly excludes limited liability partnerships (LLPs) from being considered as deposits, and incidentally IMA was run through LLPs.