But it is not railway property alone : Government of India has got a lot of other varieties of property. Take for instance the fertilizer factory at Sindhri. Do you mean to say that the local body there, whatever it be, say, the local board or Union board there would not be entitled to levy any local taxes thereon? Then there is the Mint, the Currency offices, Post and Telegraph and Telephone office buildings in different places; the Reserve Bank Offices. Numerous other central institutions are springing up all over the country and if you make a sort of general provision that no Union property shall be subjected to local taxes, it will be very difficult for us to accept it, in view of the very delicate nature of the finances of the local self-governing institutions at present and the reaction it will inevitably have on them, if these provisions are literally put into effect. But the only salient feature about the Provision is that at least from the date of the commencement of this Constitution, these institutions will be entitled to levy these taxes as before, and I am thankful to the Drafting Committee for conceding that much. But I would have very much liked that this kind of statutory exemption for all forms of Union property, were not embodied in the Constitution. It could have been left out, it should not have found a place in the Constitution. The whole matter could have been left to the Parliament for decision one way or the other. But as the Drafting Committee is closely following the Government of India Act, 1935, as a model, I have no quarrel. I would only sound a note of warning; let not the authority, in the future lightly deal with this question, because it affects the well-being and the very existence of local self-governing institutions, such as corporations, municipalities, district boards, local boards, union boards etc. The fate of all these is inextricably bound up with the provisions contained here. If their taxation is allowed to be continued, it is all right. It will leave them some modicum of wherewithal to carry on. If this is withdrawn, it will mean nothing but disaster to the self-governing institutions. This is all that I have to say. Thank you, Sir.
