Suddenly a surprise has been sprung on us by a new draft today. I want to know what led the Drafting Committee to make this radical change negativing the original proposition altogether. It is a very serious matter. Today the Province, of West Bengal has got to shoulder the entire debt of the undivided province of Bengal. In these days it has become the, fashion to describe the Province of Bengal as the “Problem Province“. Have you stopped to consider how much of that problem is your own creation? Have you ever thought how you can best solve the problems of this Problem Province? Have you ever applied your mind to that question? I ask, what it going to happen at the end of ten years or if this whole jute duty is abolished earlier? What would be the fate of the Finances of Bengal? From the Income-tax divisible pool Bengal used to get 20 per cent, but the men in authority have now cut it down to 12 per cent on the ground that two-thirds of Bengal have gone out. They do not know the actual position. It is true that two-thirds of Bengal have gone out to Pakistan but 79/80th out of the total income-tax revenue is collected in West Bengal. Is this not known to the authorities? Two-thirds of the jute producing areas have gone to East Pakistan and do they realize that every single ounce of jute that is produced have got to be processed in West Bengal? This fact is not adequately recognized. You should view these economic problems against the background of realism. I emphatically maintain, Mr. President that this fact is not given due consideration by the Government when making allocation of funds to my Province. I may tell the House that today West Bengal happens to be the home of jute industry in India. Do you know how much dollar it earns for you every year? In 1948-49 it earned a huge amount of dollars worth 76 crores. Can you point to any other item of export in the whole of the Indian Dominion, which earns for you much in foreign exchange? Now what is the actual position of jute growing in the Provinces? The Bengal jute mills industry requires 71,00,000 bales of jute every year. Immediately after the partition i.e., 1947-48, the Indian Union could produce seventeen lakhs of bales. The next year Assam, Bihar and Orissa also increased its cultivation and the production rose to 21 lakhs and this year it is going to be in the neighbourhood of 30 lakhs of bales. If proper incentive is given by the Centre the percentage will increase still more. The most important consideration at the present moment is its bearing on foreign exchange. Now I ask in all seriousness if this commodity earns for the Government of India the much needed foreign exchange and dollar in such substantial measure, are not the Provinces which grow and process jute entitled statutorily to some quid pro quo. Today Dr. Ambedkar comes forward and says, “Oh no, no; this is a most vicious principle; I want to leave it to the President.” To rob the province of this share, is it a virtue? I am sorry I have to speak a bit strongly. When I feel that the whole House is being misled by a proposition which is apparently innocent, but which has very serious, very grave implications for the provinces, I cannot but raise my voice of protest against it. I wish that my honorable Friend had not brought this in at all, or dropped this article altogether. The way in which he has put it makes it more dangerous. If he had been absolutely silent on salt, and also silent on this particular item, jute, probably the danger would not have been so great. But, having once provided in the Draft for exclusion of the proceeds of jute duty from the revenues of India. Suddenly, after the lapse of a month and a half, he provides that the Consolidated Fund of India will be charged certain grants-in-aid to these provinces, which will be prescribed by the President. I find “Prescribed” here means ‘prescribed by the Finance Commission‘ and until the Finance Commission has been constituted, prescribed by the President by order, and after the Finance Commission had been constituted “Prescribed by the President by order after considering the recommendations of the Finance Commission.” The other day, I had an occasion to ask the honourable Member a question viz., immediately after the commencement of the Constitution what is going to be the position with regard to the allocation of jute duty to these provinces, Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Orissa.
