Two large headlines in today's newspaper. One said that the government is going to increase taxes on new cars and on petrol. New cars will cost 8% more and a cess of Re.1 will be added to petrol. These new taxes will raise Rs. 50 billion which will be used to improve public transport in large cities in India. Alongside this piece of cheering news is another headline which says that Rs. 315 billion have been stolen from the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the last two years. The other name for PDS is Rationing and this was started in the 1960s when there was famine in India and we had to be rescued by the US (PL480). At that time everyone had a ration card and gradually this functioned as an identity card and proof of address and was required for obtaining a passport, car registration and in other interaction with govt. agencies. From the beginning it was ridden with corruption. The quality of rice and wheat was so poor that we found them inedible and ration shop owners used to mix gravel with rice resulting in many a broken tooth. As the green revolution succeeded anyone who could afford it started buying rice and wheat from the open market. A few years ago the govt. decided that rations would be only for the genuine poor. As we can see they have been stealing from the poor and one of the worst states is West Bengal where the commies are always going on about the poor. In the last three years the Central Govt. has been Congress supported by the Communists and they have been adding taxes frantically while the plunder goes on. No sharam, no izzat.