WEST BENGAL- Diminishing Returns from Blaming Centre

'lazy' way to raise resources, On the last occasion when it was so used (with even greater severity than now) in February 1979, the impact on prices was immediate. The graph given in the Economic Survey (p 36) is telling; it shows prices rising from March 1979, after a period of stability for the preceding four and a half years. And they have not looked back since then. A somewhat similar lift in prices is occurring now. The 1979-80 Budget created an inflationary expectation, and it encountered the misfortune of a poor monsoon. One shudders to think that that story may repeat itself this year. One hopes not.