54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST shops has also been increased. Quantitatively the rise has been conspicuous in the case of coarse grains and rice. In the case of rice, the issue price went up from Rs 58-70 in 1966-67 to 120-160 in 1973-74 per quintal. In comparison to this stand the issue price of wheat which has registered an increase from Rs 55 to 78-84 during 1966-67 to 1972-73. The consumer of coarse grains and rice pays a price including distributive costs and margins, the consumer of wheat pays a subsidised price. A major part of the food subsidy has been spent on wheat wh 3se percentage in the foodgrains production is roughly only 20 per cent. An elaborate public distribution system of grains and other essential commodities of mass consumption has been accorded a crucial role in the Fifth Plan. But the present management of the food economy seems to undercut this assumption. The rice trade takeover has been abandoned. Apart from this, from the present indications it seems that the food portfolio is shifting from the Centre to states. It is reported that there will be state food corporations and the practice of the entire surplus mopped up by the states going to the central pool is likely to be abandoned. As such the centre will distribute, whatsoever is available to it, equitably among deficit states. All these clearly indicate that the Congress party cannot bring about an iota of change in this country. Of course, certain populist slogans were mouthed when the ruling classes found that it could no longer fool the people in the old way while the class alliances remained the same. The failure on the food front, especially of the wheat trade takeover clearly proves that without a change at the roots of the political and economic structure, such policies ably carried out by people's democracies in other countries cannot succeed here. The rise in prices of wheat and coal after its nationalation is a glaring example of this. GEORGE THOMAS 1 V M Dandekar and Neelakant Rath, ^Poverty in India", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol VI, No 1-2, Bombay 1971. ' Pranab K Bardhan, "On the Incidence of Poverty in Rural India", EPW^ Annual Number 1973. 1 Agricultural Prices Commission Report, Government of India, 1971-72, pp 5-11. • Approach to the Fifth Plan, Government of India, New Delhi 1973, p 53. 1 APC Report, op. cit.