NEW DELHI-Prices and the Poor

NEW DELHI Prices and the Poor B M THE Prime Minister called for a "deliberate policy" of public control on incomes and prices in her key-note address to the Jawaharnagar session of the AICC. What exactly she had in mind was not spelled out by hen But her anxiety over the rise in prices in recent months was evident enough and she pointedly related her idea of public control over incomes and prices with the price rise of certain com- modifies which she held to be entirely unjustified. That the pattern of income distribu- has a close bearing on the general level as well as the relative structure of prices is incontestable. But the question is what will be the order of priorities which should govern the application of public controls for holding the price-line and for regulating income distribution and the pattern of consumption. Government policies have clearly suffered from serious distortions and limitations in determining the right order of priorities.