42 SOCIAL SCIENTIST sector spinning mill with 25,000 spindles atRaiganj in West Dinaj-pur. Apart from the cooperative spinning mills, the two government-controlled spinning mills at Kalyani and Habra also cater for the needs of the handloom industiy. Added to these, 12 National Textiles Corporation mills and four mills under the Industrial Reconstruction Corporation supply a part of the yarn produced by them, along with 18 private cotton mills in working condition in the state.3 Yarn prices in the open market have been abnormally high from 1971 because of a big shortfall in supply. This forced the central government to put controls on the price and distribution of yarn. In 1971 the government initiated two schemes—the yarn pool scheme and the voluntary scheme—through which 775,000kg of fine and coarse count yarn were distributed in West Bengal.4 With the shortage becoming more acute in 1973, a complete statutory control over distribution and price of cotton yarn was imposed by the government of India with effect from March 1973 • The responsibility of distribution of yarn to both handloom and powerloom weavers was bestowed on the Apex Society. Retail sale of yarn was regularly conducted through retail yarn depots. Failure of Tarn Control Apart from the yarn allotted by the government of India, 386.000 kg of stocks declared by yarn dealers were also distributed to the consumers against permits. The distribution of staple yarn under the voluntary scheme was in operation in the same year and the Handloom and Powerloom Deve^pment Corporation was appointed as the only state nominee for the lifting and distribution of the yarn against the allotment by the Man-made Fibre Spinners Association, Bombay, Irrespective of the fact that control over yarn price and distribution can be effective in eliminating the dominance of private yarn traders on local and regional yarn markets, there are certain basic difficulties in implementing yarn price control. They are: a) A uniform price formula for a count of yarn cannot be a solution even for a monthly period since the price of yarn of different mills is not the same during!any monthly period for even comparable yarn counts due to different cost of raw material and quality of finished products. b) Controls may lead to the deterioration in quality of products. c) Under the control system mills are reluctant to supply