Just a day after finance minister Chidambaram warned steel and cement manufacturers of tough measures if they did not desist from cartelization, government has done an extraordinary about-turn and said no evidence of such practices has come to light as yet. The extraordinary sequence played itself out within the space of a couple of days. Intervening during the debate on price rise in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Chidambaram said cement and steel firms were "behaving like a cartel' and added that the government planned to "break this logjam'. Outlining the government's resolve, the FM said, "If their behaviour does not change, the government will not hesitate to take tough measures.' The tough talk was widely reported by the media. But on Thursday, minister of state for steel Jitin Prasada in a written reply said that there was no evidence of cartelization by steel makers and neither was there any proposal for a regulator. "Steel prices are determined by market forces, such as demand and supply... no evidence of cartelisation by steel companies in determining steel prices has been brought to the notice of the ministry of steel,' the minister said. The junior minister, recently inducted into the government, added, "At present, there is no formal proposal for setting up of a regulatory authority to contain steel prices in the country.' The reply noted that prices of bars, rods and structurals had come down by Rs 4,000-5,000 per tonne between March 25 to April 12. As the steel sector was deregulated, prices were determined by an interplay of market forces. The completely contradictory assessments make for interesting analysis. Are steel prices, as the MoS steel has said, being truly determined by perfect market conditions? Or is there a degree of manipulation? The written reply reads like a template official response: where the government instinctively dismissed any suggestion of wrong doing. On the other hand, the FM's position was perhaps based on real time information about the market. It was also a political response as he promised to take steel and cement firms to task, seeking to assuage concerns over the rising prices. On the other hand, the written reply is careful in noting that no information on cartelization had been "brought to the notice of the ministry of steel'. And if it was happening, then government did not know. The net effect of the response is that the government has said two things on successive days. It might be coincidence, and the written reply may have been framed few days ago, but it did end up making the government a victim of the case where its right hand did not know that the left was up to. BJP seeks interim relief for central employees Mounting pressure on the government, Opposition BJP on Thursday demanded interim relief for central government employees in panel's recommendations. "With increasing prices of commodities, government should urgently announce interim relief for central government employees with effect from January 2006,' BJP leader V K Malhotra told reporters on Thursday. TNN