Controlled Cloth

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Grams Econweekly Editor Krishna Raj Assistant Editor Rajani X Desai Editorial Staff Colin de Souza, Ashok Rao, A A Dalvi Controlled Cloth THE acrimonious debate going on between the National Consumers' Co-operative Federation and the Indian Cotton Mills Federation brings out the fact that the problems of production and distribution of controlled cloth remain unsolved. The government has recently taken a number of steps which, it no doubt hopes, will make the scheme more effective than it has been so far. It is said to be even, considering raising the price of controlled cloth by as much as 80 paise per square metre, or by almost 50 per cent over the present, level. It has also agreed to phase out the proposed increase in the quota for production of controlled cloth from 800 million square metres to 1,200 million square metres and to shift the responsibility for producing 25 per cent of the enhanced quota to the handloom sector. All this has, however, failed to satisfy the mills who continue to complain about the unremunerativeness of controlled cloth, and about accumulating stocks.