Sir, the Honourable the Prime Minister who has just left, made a statement to us that he would be shortly appointing a Committee. I do not know how many Commissions would be there. There is already provision for a Finance Commission under article 251. Probably it will be something in the nature of an ad hoc Committee. That is how I understood him and how Dr. Ambedkar interpreted it for us. What is important to know is, if for any reason this ad hoc committee could not come to any decision or were late in coming to any decision, shall we have to wait till the regular Finance Commission as contemplated in article 251 clause (3), or pending any decision, as I find in sub-clause (b) (ii) or clause (4) of article 251, the President himself would make the grants-in-aid? Neither arrangement is satisfactory or suitable. If you cannot do anything the status quo should be maintained. As to whether or not you will abolish the tax we will see, the future Parliament will see. But try to visualise what is going to happen at the very beginning of the enforcement of the Constitution. I am apprehensive, frankly speaking, because I know when the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms were introduced, the scheme foundered on the rock of finance. The Meston Award was responsible for this. Even the Otto Niemeyer Award could not rectify the errors of the previous Government. It will interest my honourable Friend Dr. Ambedkar to know that of the total revenues collected in Bengal, 70 per cent. goes to the Centre. This is a fact not known to many people. You get all these figures in Sir Walter Layton’s report to the Simon Commission. It is no mercy, therefore, that we ask for when we want a substantial measure of the proceeds of the jute duty from file Centre. It is for this unfair and iniquitous allocation of finances throughout the past that my province has suffered and a problem has in consequence been created for you. If you do not solve this problem in a statesman-like spirit, the problem will multiply and these problems will ultimately devour you, all of you.
