Jute Industry s Economic Crimes

(By a Special Correspondent) A REAL critique of the political economy of India can be extrapolated from the series of six reports on the jute industry by the Sixth Lok Sabha Committee on Public Undertakings chaired by Jyotirmoy Bosu. A very brief summary of findings would read: Government intervened in the industry in the early 1970s in order to regulate the jute juggernaut. Some five years later an examination of a whole series of operations shows that "jute traders and the jute industry continue to hold the lever everywhere". Whether it is prices paid to the ' grower or taxes due to the exchequer, official agencies have at best been ineffectual and at worst