Sukma attack: Naxals kill 9 CRPF jawans, 6 injured: Top 10 developments

Nine CRPF personnel were on Tuesday killed after suspected Naxals blew up their mine-protected vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, around a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district. Officials said the incident took place around 12:30 PM along the Kistaram-Palodi road of the district when the troops of the 212th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were out on an operation.

At least nine men have been killed, while two other jawans suffered injuries after the mine-protected vehicle was blown up by multiple improvised explosive devices (IEDs) concealed under the dirt track, a senior official said.

Top 10 developments
1. Naxalites struck in a stunning fashion
The incident took place near Gollapalli on Kistaaram-Palodi road in Sukma district---about 500 km south of state capital. The incident took place today morning when CRPF jawans from the 212 battalion deployed in the area were returning to Palodi camp after an operation.
The blast injured six CRPF personnel, of which four are said to be critical. Injured personnel are being airlifted to Raipur. Soon after the incident, reinforcements were rushed to the spot, around 500 kms from state capital Raipur.
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Opposition resorting to desperate measures to come to power: Rajnath Singh

Elections 2017 - Lashing out at both of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) political rivals in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday dubbed the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as parties resorting to 'desperate' measures to come to power.

"Out of desperation, the BSP has gone to the limit of appealing for votes on a communal basis," Rajnath Singh told media.

"It was the desperation of the SP which made it get into an alliance with the Congress. The SP has accepted that it is now weak. That is why it allied with a party like the Congress," he added.

Drawing a mathematical analogy, Singh said the SP-Congress alliance will be considered as null only because adding two minuses leads to a minus only.
"SP and Congress alliance is an opportunist one, but the blunder here is that a minus added with another minus is equal to minus only," he said.(Read More)

CCPA recommends tabling of Budget on February 1

Latest Business News - The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday did away with the long-winded first week of the Budget session of Parliament. This year, the Budget will be tabled on February 1.

The Rail Budget 2017 will form a part of the finance Budget, while the President’s address to the two Houses and the Economic Survey will be tabled on January 31, the first day of the Budget session.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, met on Tuesday morning to decide on the early presentation of the Budget.

The practice until now was to devote a day each for the President’s address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, the Railway Budget, the Economic Survey and finally the Union Budget. The Budget was usually tabled on February 28 and was passed by end-May.

The early tabling of the Budget ends a 70-year tradition. It would also mean that the entire exercise should end by the end of the financial year on March 31, to enable tax proposals to come into effect from the beginning of the new financial year.(Read More)

Budget Session likely to begin on Jan 31, Budget to be presented on Feb 1

Economic News - As part of a major overhaul of the budget process, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) on Tuesday recommended advancing the holding of the Budget Session from January 31 followed by the presentation of the Union Budget onFebruary1.

Both the address of the President and tabling of the Economic Survey are likely to take place on January 31. The first phase of the Budget Session will run till February 9.

The CCPA, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, met in the capital and made these recommendations to President Pranab Mukherjee. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also attended the meeting.

Early presentation of the Budget 2017 would mean that the entire exercise is over by March 31 and expenditure as well as tax proposals will come into effect right from the beginning of the new financial year, thereby ensuring better implementation.

As per the earlier practice, the budgetary exercise was completed only by mid-May and with the monsoon arriving in June, most of the schemes and spendings by states did not take off until October, leaving just half-a-year for their implementation.

In September 2015, ending a nearly a century-long practice, the Cabinet had decided to scrap a separate budget for the railways and merge it with the General Budget, presentation of which was decided to be advanced to spur spending and boost the economy.

Earlier, the Budget approval process usually happened in two parts extending to the second or third week of May, hampering early implementation of schemes and spending programmes.(Read More)