Modi government one-scam-a-day government: Congress

New Delhi : Dubbing the Modi government a 'one-scam-a-day government, the Congress on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley break their silence on different bank frauds, including the latest in ICICI and IDBI banks.

The opposition party said bank scams had become the order of the day under the watch of the Modi government and it should be named as ‘one-scam-a-day government'. 

"Nearly Rs 70,000 crore has been lost in bank scams in three-and-a-half months," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

"In the last 24 hours, there has been an IDBI scam of Rs 772 crore. Today, we saw how the lack of oversight, conflict of interest, gross impropriety, non-disclosure of personal interest, failure to safegaurd and implement banking rules and regulations led to exposure of Rs 2,849 crore for ICICI Bank. Who is involved?" Surjewala asked. 

"The fingers of suspicion is being raised at the very management of the ICICI Bank. We demand Modi and Finance Minister to break their ‘maun vrat' (silence) and tell us what action they are going to take against those involved in the scams," he said.

Surjewala said: "How will this money be protected and recovered? People today feel that their money is not safe in banks as the government remain a mute spectator to plundering and loot of public and private sector banks."

The Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday it had imposed a penalty of Rs 58.9 crore on the ICICI Bank for non-compliance with its directions on direct sale of securities.

The CBI filed three cases to probe alleged fraud totalling Rs 743 crore committed by various persons by defaulting on loans of IDBI in Andhra Pradesh between 2009 and 2012 by availing of Kisan Credit Card and pisciculture loans which later became non- performing assets.