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Journalism of Courage
In a welcome exception to commissions seeking one extention after another,the Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi Commission for Centre-State Relations has completed its task ahead of the stipulated three year period. The Commission is set to submit its report to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram next week.
On April 19,Chidambaram will receive the first copy of the 1500 page,seven volume report that makes wide ranging recommendations in areas of internal security,Articles 355 and 356,the financial relationship including transfer of funds between Centre and the States.
According to sources,the Commission wrote to the Home Ministry in the last week of March that a copy of the report,signed by all the members,was ready for submission one month before its term was due to end.
The commission was constituted on April 27,2007. This is in sharp contrast to the 17 years that the Liberhan commission took to go into the Babri Masjid demolition and the Justice Sarkaria Commission,the earlier Commission on Centre State relations had also taken five years to complete its task.
The Commission has not only come out with a 1500 page report but supplementary volumes that are huge comprising responses of important stakeholders like political parties,state governments,central government ministries,constitutional experts and civil representatives.
