Will amend law to rein in microfinance companies: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Jan 25 (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the state government would amend the existing laws related to money lending business and introduce new legislation to protect the interest of the genuine borrowers.
In the wake public outrage against the alleged harassment by micro-finance companies to recover money from borrowers, Siddaramaiah chaired an emergency meeting with his deputy D K Shivakumar, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Home Minister G Parameshwara, Law Minister H K Patil, senior government and top police officials.
Representatives of the microfinance companies association, regional officers of the Reserve Bank of India and NABARD officials were also present.
Later, briefing reporters, the CM said he took the opinion of the microfinance companies as well as the RBI officials.
"After taking their view, we told them that we won't say not to give loan or do not recover money from borrowers but while recovering money you should not torture and harass people," Siddaramaiah said.
While recovering money, RBI guidelines should be followed by the micro-finance institutions. The central bank should also monitor the violations of these guidelines, he added.
"We are going to amend the existing laws and also bring new legislation to protect the interest of the genuine borrowers of the micro finance institution and other private money lenders," he added.
The Chief Minister added he told the companies not to charge interest more than the prescribed rules.
"After 5 PM, no one should go for recovering money. We have opposed outsourcing the recovery work," he said.
"What happens is, it is outsourced and rowdies are roped in. This should not be done. We will take stringent action against violation of rules for recovering money,” Siddaramaiah warned.
The meeting was convened after many people allegedly died by suicide, families fled their homes and women staged protests against the harassemnet by microfinance companies across the state.
The menace is more prevalent in the rural areas.
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Govt clears procurement of ammunition for Pinaka rocket systems
New Delhi (PTI): The government is learnt to have cleared a proposal to procure ammunition for Pinaka multi-launch rocket systems at a cost of Rs 10,200 crore, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi on January 13 said that two Pinaka contracts -- one for high explosive pre-fragmented ammunition and another for area denial munitions -- are set to be inked before end of the current fiscal.
The people cited above said the procurement has been given the required go ahead.
The two types of ammunition are being procured for around six Pinaka regiments that the Army plans to deploy to bolster its combat prowess along the northern frontier with China.
The Army already has four regiments of Pinaka rocket systems.
While the Pinaka MK-I rocket system has a range of around 40 km, the Pinaka II variant can hit targets at a distance of 60 km.
The Army is enhancing the combat prowess of its artillery units along the frontier with China by procuring an array of weapons systems including an additional batch of 100 K9 Vajra howitzers, swarm drones, loitering munitions and surveillance systems.
