Cement Prices - what it means to common man!

Enter February 2007 and the entire country was eagerly awaiting the budget. Or was it the entire world awaiting to see how well India would open up her economy in the face of globalisation? To many the budget is still a mystery. Was it good or bad or reasonable enough for world's fastest growing economy?
Drilling to one major hit back on the cement sector - the government has taken control over the pricing. The rationale - cement leaders formed some sort of a cartel (remember the oil cartels in middle east who took over entire control of oil production and prices to the world) and kept on increasing the prices neglecting the government's warning. They managed to pool in a large sum of profit despite being in the manufacturing sector! Today most manufacturing in India earn around 10 to 15% profits whereas cement was earning a whooping 70% according to some source! (did you just wish you were owning some mines?) So price control was required. Or was it really required?
The budget has forced the cement leaders to slash down their prices so drastically that virtually all their extra margins have been wiped out. To many this was a knee jerk reaction on the path of the government. After all in a free market, demand and supply forces regulate the prices. When there has been no proved case of market failure due to high prices, why did the government interfere? When India is in the race of globalisation and liberalisation, free market is what everyone wants and moreover is required! Foreign investors tend to shy away from economies where too much control is in the hands of the government. Hopefully it is a short term measure! Our minister of Commerce was lately asked by one of the media channels the reasons for this action taken by the government. Today, though media is supposed to be the strongest medium of justice in the country, it was unable to help the cement industry too in the wake of these regulations.
So by how much do we think inflation would be curbed by reducing and regulating cement prices? Or has there been any change in the inflation ever since cement prices have been forcibly dropped? Though India is a fast growing economy and can absorb any amount of infrastructural development, how fast is the infrastructure growing in our country to validate that cement prices cause inflation? Going further, reducing the prices will cause pressure on these industries who will be unable to expand exponentially, thus creating obvious shortage in the supply of cement. Do we have a real subsitute for cement?
Next question that comes to common man's mind is - Why isn't the government concentrating on long term development plans for the country? Social security, employment opportunities, primary and secondary education, higher education, public health are still neglected although huge amounts are collected by way of the one-thousand-and-one taxes we have here! If you're paying cess on anything (which is likely that you're paying cess on the soap and toothpaste you use), that amount goes to funding education in India. But we still see that most government schools are 100 students in one class (that class ranges from 1st to 10th) So can we safely conclude that a large chunk of the fund is going in our politician's pockets? So then why can't the cement industry cash in some extra profit if the market has not reacted adversely? Anyway, our politicians never get raided or caught for blackmoney or money laundering! Atleast cement industries are paying their taxes and funding the government (and ofcourse our politicians) free of charge!