Communist Parties-Unity Moves

lag behind in the extension of postal services.
In keeping with current political fashions, the emphasis on telecommunication development is justified in the annual report on the ground that "telecommunications provide the basic- infrastructure for developing rural areas and opening of backward areas for economic development". What is more, if the report is to be believed, this appears to be also one,of those fortunate cases where both social and private cost-benefit calculations appear to justify the same course of action. The department's calculations show postal services to be continuously in the red, while telecommunication services con sistently yield a profit. In 1976-77 the department produced an overall surplus of Rs 100 crores, made up of surplus of Rs 132 crores on telecom- munication services and a deficit of Rs 32 crores on postal services. Even a cursory examination of the statistics provided in the annual report shows that the large surplus on the telecommunication services is made possible partly at least by the low cost of capital, as measured by the dividend to general revenues paid by the department on its dividend-hearing capital outlay. As at the end of 1976-77 the telecommunication services accounted for over 91 per cent of the department's total dividend-bearing capital outlay