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.
