New Delhi: Against the backdrop of recent chit fund controversy in West Bengal, a Parliamentary committee on Friday slammed such schemes with demands for putting in place a single regulator to oversee their functioning or scrapping them altogether. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance closely scrutinised the functioning of such schemes which recently led to a series of suicides in West Bengal.
Senior officials from RBI, CBDT, SEBI, Corporate Affairs Ministry and Finance Ministry, who appeared before the committee, admitted poor coordination and lack of regulation to control the flourishing chit fund business in the country. While agreeing that thousands of investors are being duped, they told the committee that the major onus lied on the states to regulate the schemes.
Accusing the Centre of giving conflicting data, a member later said while government claims that the scheme is functioning in 15 states, in reply to a question in Parliament, it has informed that chit fund business was flourishing in 17 states and six Union Territories. Committee Chairman and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha suggested that the 1982 Act regulating the chit fund business in the country be repealed through an ordinance, sources said.
He was of the view that the chit fund business should be scrapped to protect innocent investors. While most members, cutting across party lines supported his idea, some others said repealing the Act would not ensure that chit fund companies stop functioning....
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07:40 PM, May 17, 2013
Barcelona: Barcelona will be without goalkeeper Victor Valdes and defender Eric Abidal for Sunday's match at Atletico Madrid. The Spanish club said that Valdes has not recovered from a left-foot injury that kept him out of last weekend's game also. Abidal will be sidelined after hurting a muscle in his left leg during Friday's training session. Abidal recently returned from a liver transplant. Barcelona can clinch the Spanish league title...
05:18 PM, May 11, 2013
Kolkata: Chit fund company Saradha group's chief Sudipta Sen was on Thursday sent to 9-day police custody, along with two of his close aides - Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chouhan. The Bidhan Nagar police had sought a 14-day extension of their custody. The Saradha group allegedly duped lakhs of investors in a chit fund scheme. The police have unearthed 254 bank accounts and close to 200 properties of the...
04:46 PM, May 09, 2013
Damascus: Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi escaped an assassination bid when a bomb exploded near his convoy in Damascus. The attack killed at least five people and left several others injured including the country's interior minister. The Prime Minister was not hurt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide attack. The UN has condemned the attack and the civil war, which has claimed more than 70 thousand...
07:33 AM, Apr 30, 2013
London: Six major Vodafone investors said $100 billion was not enough for the British company's stake in its US joint venture with Verizon Communications, and urged the latter to come up with an offer of at least $120 billion. Their comments followed a Reuters report on Wednesday that Verizon had hired advisers to prepare a possible $100 billion bid to buy Vodafone's 45 per cent stake in their Verizon Wireless...
06:54 AM, Apr 27, 2013
Madrid: As well as putting Barcelona a step closer to winning La Liga, Saturday's 1-0 home win over Levante showed that defender Eric Abidal is fit enough to play a full match after making a remarkable recovery from a liver transplant. The former France international played at centre back alongside Adriano, the first time the 33-year-old has completed 90 minutes in more than a year, and proved he is a...
03:15 PM, Apr 21, 2013
Madrid: FC Barcelona defender Eric Abidal explained that he is still unsure about his future at the football club. The French international returned to action in Barcelona's 5-0 home win over Mallorca a fortnight ago and 402 days after undergoing a liver transplant as he had been diagnosed with a liver tumour in 2011, reports Xinhua. He did not play in Barcelona's Champions League game against Paris Saint Germain (PSG)...
05:46 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Jabalpur: Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday issued notices to seven persons, convicted in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, following a petition filed by the CBI demanding their retrial. Justice MA Siddiqui issued notices to all seven convicts, seeking replies within four weeks. The CBI in its petition is demanding the retrial of all seven for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304-II of Indian Penal Code. Assistant...
12:45 AM, Apr 13, 2013
In this season of scams, a new one has been unearthed, this time in West Bengal and a senior state government leader is said to be allegedly involved. ...
07:50 PM, Apr 02, 2013
In this season of scams, a new one has been unearthed, this time in West Bengal and a senior state government leader is said to be allegedly involved. According to a CBI probe, Rs 200 crore, meant for fixed deposits, were siphoned off from four state government departments into hundreds of fictitious accounts. The CBI probe points to the involvement of a senior Trinamool Congress politician. ...
06:51 PM, Apr 02, 2013
Even though the government-approved new pictorial warnings on tobacco packets were to be implemented April 1, 2013, a survey by a health organisation said on Monday that no tobacco products in the national capital carried the new warning. ...
05:52 AM, Apr 02, 2013
Artificially ripened Alphonso mangoes worth Rs 1.25 lakh were destroyed by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) at a local fruit market here, official sources said on Saturday. Around 1,400 kilos of Alphonso mangoes worth Rs 1.25 lakh were seized from a shop at Sharadchandra fruit market here on Thursday as they were being ripened artificially using calcium carbide, FDA sources said. ...
08:16 PM, Mar 23, 2013
Barcelona fullback Eric Abidal has taken part in his first training match since undergoing a liver transplant last April. ...
11:15 PM, Mar 19, 2013
Salgaocar FC defeated Sporting Clube De Goa 2-0 to top the points table while Prayag tasted their first success. ...
08:22 PM, Mar 11, 2013
"We have been hugely impressed by the quality of the bid presentations made by the bid committee. Across the board, they have just been excellent," an IOC official said. ...
04:21 PM, Mar 07, 2013
MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi was on Saturday detained by the Karnataka police in Bidar for allegedly organising a rally without permission. The police also claim that Owaisi was carrying a weapon. ...
11:32 PM, Mar 02, 2013
The Obama administration, in coordination with some European allies, is for the first time considering supplying direct assistance to elements of the Free Syrian Army as they seek to ramp up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and end nearly two years of brutal and increasingly deadly violence. ...
12:16 PM, Feb 27, 2013
The US has welcomed the Syrian Opposition leaders' decision to attend the Rome Summit, as it insisted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go. Syrian National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib has said that the opposition groups will attend the Friends of Syria conference in Rome on February 28. ...
11:40 AM, Feb 26, 2013
The second round of 2G spectrum sale is virtually set to be a flop show as there is no applicant for GSM band of radiowaves while Sistema Shyam is the only firm for CDMA band at close of deadline on Monday for applying to take part in the auction. While no application was received for the GSM band spectrum at the close of deadline, Russian Sistema's Indian joint venture, Sistema...
07:29 PM, Feb 25, 2013
