Mr. President, Sir, I have a suggestion to make in connection with the terms of reference of the proposed two Committees which we are going to constitute, one for determining the principles of the Union Constitution and the other to prepare a model Provincial constitution. Sir, we have now in India four Chief Commissioners’ provinces which are centrally administered. When the future principles of our Union Constitution are going to be determined, it obviously means that the question whether the future Union Government should have under its authority such centrally administered areas or not will have to be incidentally examined. The Cabinet Mission Statement of May 16,1946, has reserved only defence, foreign affairs and communications for the Union Government. On that basis, I think, the Union government in future will have nothing to do with the details of administration of any province including the Chief Commissioners’ provinces. That being the position, the Committee that we are going to set up naturally will have to go into the question and give its recommendations thereon. Therefore, while determining the principles of the future Union Constitution, this problem will certainly have to be dealt with.
