Parliament has announced the ministries whose Demands for Grants will be discussed in detail in the Lok Sabha (after April 12 when Parliament reconvenes). They are:
Defence
Rural Development
Tribal Affairs
Water Resources
External Affairs
Road Transport and Highways
Together these ministries have asked Parliament for a total of Rs 289,938 crore (Rs 175,772 crore for Defence alone) – which is slightly over a quarter of the total expenditure budgeted by the Central Government for 2010-11.
The Rajya Sabha does not discuss demands for grants but has announced a list of ministries whose functioning it will review after the recess. They are:
Home Affairs
Tribal Affairs
Defence
Power
Chemicals and Fertilizers
Petroleum and Natural Gas
Youth affairs and Sports
Women and Child Development
Consumer affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
The Andhra Pradesh government issued an Ordinance on October 15, 2010, which stipulated conditions for the microfinance activities in the State. This Ordinance was ratified two months later on December 15, 2010 by the lower house of the Andhra Pradesh assembly. The key features of the Bill are: •All MFIs should be registered with the district authority. •No person should be a member of more than one SHG. •All MFIs shall make public the rate of interest charged by them on the loans extended. •There would be a penalty on the use of coercive action by the MFIs. •Any person who contravenes any provision of the Ordinance shall be punishable with imprisonment for a period of 6 months or a fine up to the amount of Rs 10,000, or both. The State assembly accepted most of the features from the earlier Ordinance in the Bill. However, the demand for a cap on the interest rates charged by the MFIs for the loans extended to the SHGs was rejected during the ratification.
