Sir, there is next the question of adult franchise I wish that we could adopt it as a principle that it should be the duty of the Central Government to compile and maintain the Registers or Rolls of adult franchise throughout the country, because we know that Provincial Government and local Governments who modify these rolls on linguistic and other secular considerations are not unlikely to be a little lax in the careful preparation of these Registers or Rolls (Hear, hear). There may be defects. For instance, there was an attempt by Madras to compile a register of voters. It was all done in a single day or two days and there are complaints that 50 per cent of the voters of the city have been left out. In this particular instance, there was no motive. But, administrative efficiency and thoroughness in the compilation of these Registers was not observed. Sir, we feel we could not be too careful or too watchful in this matter. We want every citizen of India to be automatically included in the Register and his right to be in the rolls protected, by all means possible in the constitution. Therefore, I would suggest to this House that they should consider the desirability of placing the responsibility of preparing and maintaining this Register on the Central Government itself. Now the Central Government has the responsibility of taking the census of India at ten-yearly intervals. I think we may create a permanent machinery which will not only take the ten-yearly census, but also maintain the Registers of adult franchise throughout the country so that there could be no complaint about and no manipulations of these Registers.
