Vol. 10 · pages 361–365

61 * Muslims have fared much better in Labour Department Mr. President : Discussion will now be resumed on the cut motion of Mr. Jaffer. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : (Labour Member): Mr. President, it must be within the recollection of many Members of this House that many stones have been hurled at the Labour Department......... Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (Meerut Division— Muhammadan Rural)—Bricks, not stones..... The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Or bricks, during the last week which preceded this cut motion. It is only fair that I should rise in my seat to state how the position of Muslims stands in My Department. Yesterday I listened to a sort of running commentary by the two speakers who spoke on this cut motion, they gave some figures regarding the position of Muslim employees in the different Departments of the Government of India. As I listened to that commentary, I cannot help saying that, having the facts before me, I felt considerably proud that the Muslim employees under the Labour Department had certainly fared much better than the story that was revealed by the speakers with regard to other Departments of the Government of India. That this is no vain boast but that it is supported by facts is what I propose to do during the few minutes that I propose to occupy today. I have collected, and if I may say so, I have taken great pains in collecting figures regarding the percentage of the employees of the Government of India in the Labour Department, not only in the Labour section, but in the P.W.D. and in all other attached offices, figures which show what the position of the communities is, the position of *Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. III-No. 10, 14th March 1946, p. 2406.

345 MUSLIMS HAVE FARED MUCH BETTER....... the Muslims is as well as the position of the other minorities. But I quite realise that within the time that I have it would be quite impossible for me to lay out in completeness the position of these different communities, and therefore I propose today merely to give the figures of Muslims—not only the totals but also the percentages, so that the members of the Muslim League Party may know what exactly the position is. I begin with the communal composition of the Labour Department secretariat, and in doing so I propose to give not merely the figures as they stand now, but to give the figures on a comparative basis. I think the comparative basis is very necessary and very essential. So far as I have been able to understand the working of this rule, I think I may say that it is somewhat like shooting at a target—a target has a bulls eye, it has an inner circle and it has an outer circle. The percentages are the bulls-eye, undoubtedly. But I do not think that it would at all be possible for any member of the Government of India, no matter what his personal predelictions may be, that he can arrange the services under him in such a manner that he would always be able to hit the bulls eye. What I submit is that there should be an endeavour on the part of every member to see that no community as far as possible is pushed out of what is called the centre, and the question therefore that we have to consider in passing judgment upon the doings of any particular Department is to know whether the position of any particular class of employees in that Department has deteriorated or has bettered, and from that point of view I think a comparative statement is the proper way of studying this matter. I have collected figures in all cases for 1939 and for 1946-March. I said that I will first present the figures with regard to the Labour Department Secretariat. The gazetted posts in the year 1939 were 12 and the Muslim percentage was 8 per cent. In 1946, the total number of gazetted post is 80 and the Muslim proportion is 20 per cent. I will give the figures for the nongazetted posts. In 1939 the total number of such posts was 75 and of that the Muslims had 23 per cent. In 1946 the total number of posts was 457, and the percentage of Muslims is 24. Now I will come to that much-talked of C.P.W.D. I will give the figures for the gazetted posts. In 1939 the total number of gazetted posts in the C.P.W.D. was 43., of which the Muslims had 21 per cent. In

346 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 1946 the total number of posts was 181, and notwithstanding the difficulties to which my Honourable friend the Home Member referred in the matter of observing the communal proportions during the war emergency, the Muslims had 21.1 per cent. Now, this probably may not quite give enough comfort for the Mover of this cut motion, and I therefore propose to take the time of the house further to analyse the composition of the gazetted posts in the C.P.W.D. in the year 1946, taking the different grades for finding out the percentages. In Superintending Engineers, the total posts are 14 and there is one Muslim—which gives 7 per cent. Of Executive Engineers there are 64 and the Muslim percentage is 18 per cent. Electrical Engineers are 12 and the Muslim quota is 6 2/3 per cent. Assistant Executive Engineers— the quota for Muslims is 14 per cent. Temporary Engineers total 72 and the Muslim percentage is 32 per cent. While discussing the C.P.W.D. one of my Honourable friends—I forget which it was, mentioned the question of contracts of the Lodi Road......... Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer (Bombay Southern Division—Muhammadan Rural): Myself. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I think yourself. I forget exactly the figure mentioned by the Honourable Member. Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer : 5 Crores. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : His complaint was that in the contracts for the Lodi Road works, the Muslim contractors got a very small percentage. I ‘forget the exact figure. Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer : I referred to the Lodi Road colony in particular and there are so many others in general. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : The Honourable Member made his speech towards the end of the day and it was impossible for me to get the necessary figures but the figures are these. Dr. Sir Zia Uddin Ahmed (United Provinces Southern Division—Muhammadan Rural): There was no necessity for you to intervene at this stage. You could have waited for some time longer. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I am very much obliged to my Honourable friend for this advice but I thought it desirable to let the Muslim League have sufficient time for their oilier cut motions. That is the reason why I intervened. Otherwise it was really a general motion. I had no desire to intervened at all and there was no necessity

347 MUSLIMS HAVE FARED MUCH BETTER....... to. It is only to alley the fears which some Members have about the Labour Department that I go up. Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer : Very kind of you. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : The position with regard to the Lodi Road works was this. According to the information supplied to me by the Chief Engineer, the Muslims have got altogether contracts worth 10.5 lakhs of rupees, which is a figure much higher than the figure mentioned by my Honourable friend. Mr. Ahmed E. H. Jaffer : Out of? The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Out of three crores. My Honourable friend will also remember and take the fact into consideration that on these works the Executive Engineer was a Muslim ? Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer : What about the official pressure put on him not to give it to Muslims ? The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : My friend is making all sorts of allegations. I hope he has got sufficient evidence to back them up. Nobody has drawn my attention to them. If my friend will give me the facts, I will certainly make inquiries. Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer : I will give it to you on the floor of the House. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : The fact is that there is a Muslim Executive Engineer in charge of these works. The second fact is that an officer of the Central P.W.D. who is in charge of works, whether he is a Muslim or whether he is a Hindu, no matter what community he belongs to, he is bound by the Central P.W.D. Code. The Central P.W.D. Code requires that the contracts shall be given to a man whose tender is the lowest. I have made inquiries overnight and I have been informed by the Chief Engineer that there was no Muhammadan whose contract was the lowest who did not receive the contract. Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffer : On a point of order..... The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I am not giving way. I have very little time. Mr. President : Let the Honourable member go on. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : These rules of the Central P.W.D. that the contract shall be given to the lowest bidder are subject to scrutiny from two different directions. One is the Auditor General

348 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES and the second is the Public Accounts Committee. Both of them would require the departmental officer who broke this rule to give the necessary explanation as why he did so. Syed Ghulam Bhik Nairang : That will be a post-mortem. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : It is a question whether the rules arc observed or not. Dr. Sir Zia Uddin Ahmad : The rules can be changed ? The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : The Honourable Member knows more about it. He did a great deal of work in the Aligarh University. He ought to know something about the P.W.D. and doing the work of this kind. I cannot go into it now. Let me take the Estate Office. In the Estate Office there are altogether 8 gazetted posts. Of them one is vacant. There the position is that there arc six Hindus, one Scheduled Caste. There was one Muslim who recently was sent to his parent province. With regard to the non-gazetted posts, the total posts are 235. Of them the Muslims have 18.2 per cent. Let me come to what arc called the attached offices and I can only give the figures in a collective form—not item by item, which would take me very long. Here again the position in 1939 was this. There were altogether 64 posts. The Muslims had only 1.5 per cent. In 1946 the total posts were 155 and the Muslim percentage has risen from 1.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent. Let me take the non-gazetted posts in the attached offices. In 1936 the total number of posts were 2,238. The Muslims had 34 per cent. In 1946 the total number of non-gazetted posts had risen to 3,929 and the Muslim quota is 30 per cent. Now, Sir, I will take the geological Survey. As everybody in the House knows, the Geological Survey so far has been only a skeleton. It is during the war under the new projects of the Government of India relating to post-war development that we have taken up the work of the expansion of the Geological Survey. We recently made a beginning by the appointment of 13 permanent posts of Assistant Geologists. Now, I would like to tell my Honourable friend the real position so far as these appointments are concerned. We were naturally bound to fill these posts through the Federal Public Service Commission, which recommended altogether 40 names in order of merit. We had only to