Sir, the word ‘property’ is very vague. “Property” includes public utility concerns like electric corporations, transport organisations, etc. We are well aware that in many provinces these public utility concerns are being nationalised and I am sure that in a very short time to come almost all the public utility concerns will be nationalised. In fact, under the bureaucratic system of Government, all the railways have been nationalised by payment of any ‘goodwill’ that may have been specified under the agreement. I know, Sir, that the agreements with local bodies under which some electric concerns are working, provide for acquiring such concerns without any compensation being given. If you pass this clause, it would mean that although the agreements do not provide for it, we have to pay compensation, to these public utility concerns when we acquire them. Is it fair, may I ask, that the public utility concerns which are for the benefit of consumers and the people, and which in all countries eventually may become the property of the people, are to be taken over by paying the actual invested capital plus compensation even if there is no clause as to the payment of compensation ? I do feel, Sir, that this clause requires amendment at least as far as the public utility concerns are concerned. But, Sir, I am helpless as I could not move an amendment I would have been desired that this clause should have been amended or have gone back to the Advisory Committee under the circumstances I mentioned. If it is not going, I hope that this will receive the consideration of the Mover, because it will be really doing great injustice to the consumers,–that though in the agreement there is no clause of compensation we shall be bound to give it and in a small province they would have to take over concerns by paying them the actual amount invested plus compensation.
