Seems that the Planning Commission has been appointing consultants without approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet and giving each of them Rs 10 million to spend. ( HT, July 11 ). The article does not say what they have been spending on ( foreign trips, shopping for luxury goods, dancing girls? ). There are 51 such consultants on the panel in May 2011, that is Rs 510 million of taxpayer money. Apparently rules were changed to " accommodate those whose appointment was in violation of the existing parameters " ( uncles, paramours, cousins? ). Of course, the country desperately needs such geniuses to cogitate on all the problems facing us. Double digit inflation, uncontrolled terrorism, exploding population, neighboring countries trying to destroy us etc etc. What better time to be enjoying a gift of Rs 10 million. We have not forgotten the delegation of 123 led by the Deputy Chairman, that attended the mother of all junkets, the World Economic Forum at Davos costing around Rs 1 billion. Meanwhile the Supreme Court has rejected an application for a CBI probe against Union Cabinet Minister, Kapil Sibal for allegedly lowering a penalty on Reliance Communication from Rs 500 million to Rs 50 million. Instead of relying on the Solicitor General, Subramaniam to defend him he appointed Rohington Nariman, a senior corporate lawyer. Mr Subramaniam resigned his post to " protect the dignity of this office ". Mr Sibal is obviously not confident of the competence of Mr Subramaniam, in which case how was he appointed the Solicitor General in the first place. We hope Mr Sibal is paying for his own defence and not us. Some hope!