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The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister recently remarked that the Rajya Sabha should be abolished. This is not a new thought. In 1954 and 1973, resolutions were moved in the Lok Sabha seeking to abolish the Rajya Sabha. Both these resolutions were unsuccessful. Attempts to abolish the Rajya Sabha have also been made by introducing private member bills in the Lok Sabha. These private member bills seeking constitutional amendment were introduced in 1971, 1972, 1975 and 1981. None of these Bills was passed by the Lok Sabha.
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.
