NEW DELHI-Hot Air on Public Distribution

NEW DELHI Hot Air on Public Distribution B M THE much-advertised expanded production- cum-public distribution scheme of Mohan Dharia, holding the portfolio of civil supplies in addition to external trade in the Union Cabinet, is ready to be launched from July 1. The .scheme is claimed to have been given final touches at a conference with the state chief ministers and civil supplies ministers at the same time as the more pressing problem of coping with police unrest was discussed in the capital. In the context of a marked spurt in prices and thriving black market even while the traders too have chosen to take to the agitational course, direct intervention of the government in the market on the scale on which it is planned to be done will be widely welcomed. But the question is whether Dharia's scheme will really work for the purpose for which it is ostensibly designed.