Forty Years Ago, September 7, 1980: Assam Talks

Sugar Is Risky

A curious situation has arisen on the sugar issue in Delhi. According to a wholesaler, retailers are refusing to lift the commodity and prefer to tell their customers that sugar isn’t available. The retailers are hesitant to deal with sugar in view of the formalities involved in selling it and out of fear that they may be prosecuted under the Essential Commodities Act. A shopkeeper who did not want to be named said that there were too many risks associated with selling sugar including the stipulation that the sale should be to a genuine person.

Wrong Call

The Ministry of Communications is bent upon buying the crossbar technology for telephones from Sweden at a cost of Rs 60 crore. A factory to manufacture crossbar lines will be set up in Rae Bareilly and is expected to be completed by 1986, by which time all such factories in the world would have closed down because the technology is antiquated.