January 31, 1997

In a mood of reproachful retrospection, India turned the clock back nearly half a century today with an emotional ceremony at a sacred Ganges site to scatter some of Mohandas K. Gandhi's ashes, long left forgotten in a provincial bank vault. For a few hours, this city was host to events that seemed borrowed from the days after a Hindu nationalist assassinated Gandhi in New Delhi on Jan. 30, 1948.

Fed Chief Seeks Curbs In Price-Indexed Benefits Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, urged Congress to move quickly to limit cost-of-living increases for Social Security and other benefits.

National Governors' Association opposes Pres Clinton's plan to set firm limits on Medicaid spending; governors contend that plan will shift costs to state and local governments that they cannot afford; their views are significant because state and local governments pay 42 percent of Medicaid costs: $67 billion of $159 billion last year; bipartisan opposition to Federal cap represents political setback for Clinton's Medicaid proposal (M)

Judge Leonard N Arnold approves abortion request of prison inmate Sonya Jackson, after taking unusual step of appointing lawyer for her fetus; ACLU objects to appointment of legal guardian for fetus (New Jersey Daily Briefings)

Internal Justice Dept investigation into FBI crime laboratory has uncovered numerous complaints by laboratory employees about handling of forensic evidence in Oklahoma City bombing case; some workers say their superiors had engaged in sloppy, improper or unscientific practices in case; lawyers for defendants Timothy J McVeigh and Terry L Nichols have suggested that they will challenge Government's forensic evidence in separate trials scheduled to begin this spring (M)