Jewellers cheating public with gold schemes

Kodad (Nalgonda): Many of the women who have invested in various types of gold schemes run by the jewellery shops were getting night mares as they found themselves cheated by either shop agents or owners.
Several women of Nalgonda, Khammam, Warangal and Krishna districts have become members of gold schemes here in the town, in many cases without their husband’s knowledge.
The jewellers would entice the wannabe buyers with various deposit schemes like daily, weekly and monthly and collect amount ranging from Rs 10 per day to Rs 1,000 a month. For example: If a member deposits Rs 1,000 per month under the scheme and it will become Rs 20,000 for 20 months. At the end of 20 months, the member will be given an additional amount of Rs 1,500. The member can buy gold worth Rs 21,500 and he has to pay the extra amount if the purchase amount exceeds the limit.
There will be monthly draws and if a member’s name is picked in the draw then he or she need not pay the remaining installments.
Almost 40 per cent of gold shops in the town are running gold schemes. But the members were facing two types of problems with the gold schemes.
The agents employed by the gold shop owners to collect money from members were reportedly not remitting the same amount to the shop. When a member after completion of said period contacts the shop owner to claim the amount, he/she was told that their amount was not remitted. When the members argue that they have paid the amount regularly, the shop owners simply tell them to enquire with the agents.
And the agent’s phone will be switched off. In other cases, the members, who paid the amount directly in the shops, accused that the shop owners have sold them low quality gold ornaments, not worth Rs 20,000. The gold has no purity since the ornament has more than the permissible level of copper in it.
The members are not even getting Rs 15,000 when they try to sell the ornament, which they bought for Rs 20,000, in other shops. The jewelers are exploiting the women’s weakness for gold and cheating them in the names of schemes.
A victim of gold scheme, Vijayalakshmi of Gattu Singaram of Khammam district, said that she had invested her savings without her husband’s knowledge, even though she is not a resident of Kodad. She paid the amount regularly to an agent and when contacted the shop owner told her that he has nothing to do with the amount paid to the agent. Another victim, Jilla Venkataramana said that she had invested in the scheme through her relatives in Kodad. She paid the subscription till the last month. Now the shop owner is not returning her investment amount and moreover, the shop remains closed always.
Another victim, Battani Yashoda of Nelakondapalli in Khammam district, said that she enrolled in the scheme to buy ear studs for her grand-daughter. When approached the shop owner at the end of the scheme, she was told to come along with the agent. But, the agent never answered her phone and thus her amount went waste leaving her depressed.
CPM Kodada divisional secretary Juttukonda Basavayya accused the police of not initiating action against the gold shop owners, who are running schemes and cheating gullible public of not only Kodad but also those in other districts in the name various gold schemes.

Purna Chandar rao