This was indicated by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Chief Minister K. Rosaiah during a telephonic conversation recently. Disclosing this at a media conference here on Monday, Minister for Rural Development V. Vasanth Kumar and Minister for Agriculture N. Raghuveera Reddy said Mr. Mukherjee informed that the Centre had finalised a plan in consultation with the RBI to introduce the Micro Finance Regulation Bill in the forthcoming session of Parliament and bring MFIs under the purview of NABARD.
Mr. Vasanth Kumar said in reply to a question that he had called for a detailed report on the charge that some women committed suicide and others left their villages following harassment by SKS Micro Finance.
Refuting a charge levelled by TDP leaders linking AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and MFIs, the two Ministers said just because he was seen in a photo along with MFI representatives, one could not draw an inference like this. TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu was seen in photos along with Ramakrishna Goud, Krishna Mohan, ‘Krushi’ Venkateswara Rao and Krishna Yadav, they said. They said several MFIs like Share, SKS, Spandana and Nirmal were established during Mr. Naidu’s tenure as Chief Minister.