Dr Vina Mazumdar, prominent academic, a pioneer in Women’s Studies in India and a leading figure of the democratic women’s movement, died in New Delhi on May 30, 2013. She was the secretary of the first Committee on the Status of Women in India, whose report on the conditions of women in the country made a direct contribution to the development of the women’s movement. We pay tributes to her memory.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), attended the funeral of Dr Vina Mazumdar.
STRUGGLING masses of Tripura set a new record in the history of struggles on May 28. Braving the burning heat of May and incessant rain in different parts of the state, more than 1,76,000 people courted arrest participating in the mass Satyagraha movement at the call of the CPI(M). The thundering call of the fighting masses was loud and clear: the Congress government should immediately respond to the urgent demands or quit office.
THE Maoists have killed 24 persons in an ambush on the convoy of Congress leaders in Darbha in the Jagdalpur district of Chattisgarh. Among those killed were the Congress PCC President Nand Kumar Patel and Mahendra Karma. The others killed were Congress workers and police personnel. Former Union Minister V C Shukla was seriously injured. The Maoists have declared that they deliberately targetted these Congress leaders to be killed.
THE Finance Commission is one of the grandest institutions conjured up by the Indian Constitution. Its role is to overcome a basic anomaly in India’s federal structure, arising from the fact that while the state governments have the responsibility of carrying out substantial development expenditure, the revenues at their command are meagre compared to those of the centre. A Finance Commission therefore is constituted once every five years to decide on the magnitude of devolution of resources from the centre to the states and their distribution across states.
THE ministry of petroleum, after its change of guard from Jaipal Reddy to Veerappa Moily, has been batting for a much higher price of natural gas. This is being supported by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, while it is being opposed by the ministry of power and the ministry of fertiliser, both pointing out its enormous impact on fertiliser subsidies and electricity prices.
