Vol. 10 · pages 606–610

585 L. A. DEBATES (CENTRAL) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS those necessary curtailments we have been able to give Labour certain big advantages. Thus under the Essential Services Maintenance Ordinance workers must stick to their jobs. Simultaneously this ordinance guarantees men in essential industries fair terms of employment. Provision has had to be made to ensure the best use of the technical personnel, but here too statutory provision ensures their conditions of service being fair. So also while strikes without notice have been made illegal, adequate provision has been made for adjudication and power taken to enforce the results of such adjudication. While therefore some restrictions have been imposed on Labour, there has been a development of Government’s powers to ensure fair conditions of employment, the influence of which is likely to survive. Another matter in which developments resulting from the war are bound to have a lasting effect are the training schemes of the Labour Department and the novel experiment of sending skilled workers to England for further training. The Bevin Boys whose period in England has given Indian Labour an insight into English working class conditions and organisations, have themselves benefited by the training to such an extent that they now on the average earn two and a half times their former salaries. The scheme for training raw hands in India which will train 70,000 skilled workers by June 1943, must have even greater result:, as this large increase in the skilled labour force of the country must be of the greatest value to India’s post-war industrial revival. Coming to our new Labour Welfare organisation, the best indication of the spirit which animates the Department is the choice of a Labour Welfare Adviser made by my colleague, the Honourable Sir Firoz Khan Noon. Mr. R. S. Nimbkar has been a labour leader all his life. He has been in and out of prison constantly in the cause of Labour. His work for the Bombay Girni Kamgar Union, one of India’s biggest unions, has shown his capacity as an organiser of workers, while he has served his home town and India as a member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation and as a delegate to the International Labour Conference where he was one of a team led by Sir Firoz Khan Noon. We are fortunate to have him now as a Government worker and you may be sure we will use his services to the utmost. So successful has been his work so far that we have now appointed seven Assistant Labour Welfare Officers to help Mr. Nimbkar. For the past three or four days these new Labour Welfare Officers have been here in Delhi in the Labour

586 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Department learning something of the work before them. Shortly they (and an eighth officer, who is expected to join soon) will be sent to various areas where it is hoped they will maintain contacts on behalf of the Central Government with Labour. Their duties will be, on the one hand, to keep the Central Government apprised of Labour conditions and feeling and particularly of grievances of Labour in different parts of India and, on the other, to explain to the workers the policy of the Central Government In Labour matters. They can also help to secure the co-operation of the workers in bringing A.R.P. arrangements to the highest pitch of efficiency. The work of these officers will, it is hoped, bring the Central Government into closer touch with such Labour aspects as concern them (Labour is of course largely a provincial subject) and will help in the development of one of the main planks In Government’s policy....... that is tripartite collaboration between employer, employee and Government. We held our first tripartite conference last August—the Standing Committee of that conference will meet in December and we hope that these meetings will be held frequently in the future and lead to a well developed Labour policy throughout this country. Dr. Sir Zia Uddin Ahmad: With reference to part (c) of the question, may I ask whether the Government are contemplating to introduce any legislation on this point ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes, Sir. 21 * Communal Composition of the Engineering Service in the Central Public Works Department 100. Maulvi Muhammad Abdul Ghani : Will the Honourable member for Labour please state : (a) the number of officers of the Engineering service selected and appointed in the Central Public Works Department from the Public Works Department of every province during the last 3 years with their nationalities and creed ; (b) the criterion, if any, for such selection and appointments ; * Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. I of 1943, 16th February 1943, p. 279.

587 L. A. DEBATES (CENTRAL) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (c) whether the Home Department Resolution of 1934 regarding communal composition of services applies to such appointments ; (d) if the reply to part (c) be in the negative, the reason and the order of the Government, if any, on the subject; and (e) the total strength of officers in the Engineering service of the Central Public Works Department and the number of Muslim and Sikh officers of such services ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) The collection of this information to cover officers of every grade would involve an amount of time and labour which would not, in the opinion of Government, be justifiable in war time. The number of gazetted officers is, however, 83. Their nationalities are : five Europeans, rest Indians. Creeds : Hindus 61, Muslims 10, Sikhs 2, others 10. (b) In the case of three appointments, which have been made on a permanent basis, the selection of the officers was made in consultation with the Federal Public Service Commission and with due regard to the requirements of the Home Department Resolution of 1934 regarding communal representation in the public services. The rest of the appointments are all temporary, the officers concerned having been obtained on loan from Provincial Governments for the execution of certain specific works. In these cases, the officers were selected and placed at the disposal of the Government of India by the Provincial Governments themselves, in accordance with the requirements of the Government of India indicated to them from time to time. (c) No, so far as the temporary appointments mentioned in the answer to clause (b) are concerned : Yes, so far as the permanent appointments referred to above are concerned. (d) The Home Department Resolution of 1934 does not apply to persons who are on deputation for a definite period and are expected to revert to their substantive posts thereafter. (e) The total strength of gazetted officers is 174, of whom 18 are Muslims and 8 Sikhs. Figures of non-gazetted staff cannot be readily given. Maulvi Muhammad Abdul Ghani : May I know the number of officers recruited from Bihar Public Works Department in the Central Public Works Department ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I require notice of that.

588 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 22 * Monopoly of Export of Mica to the Joint Mica Mission and Metal Reserve Company of the United States of America 104. Babu Baijnath Bajoria : (a) Will the Honourable the Labour Member be pleased to state whether it is a fact that export of Mica is allowed only when effected by the Joint Mica Mission and Metal Reserve Company of the United Slates of America and none else is allowed to export Mica to any country outside India ? (b) If the answer to part (a) be in the affirmative, for what reasons and on what conditions has such a monopoly of export of Mica been granted to the above mentioned foreign interest ? (c) Is the Honourable Member aware that such restrictions of export have resulted in these concerns securing Mica in India at much lower rates and making enormous profits for themselves by selling at much higher rates in America and other allied countries ? (d) Are these concerns Government concerns or private companies ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) No. (b) Does not arise. (c) The prices at which the Joint Mica Mission secures mica have been fixed with the prior approval of the Government of India. The prices are in the opinion of the Government of India fair and reasonable. The prices offered by the Mission are almost invariably higher than or equal to the standard prices ruling before the Mission began to operate. Furthermore the Mission is prepared to buy all mica of merchantable quality which is offered to it. This covers practically the whole range of useful mica and may include mica which would previously not have found a market at all. The Metals Reserve * Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. I of 1943, 16th February 1943, pp. 281-82.

589 L. A. DEBATES (CENTRAL) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Company is not now buying mica in India. It bought certain quantities of mica in 1940-42 under contracts with the Government of India and the large increase in production in Indian mica in 1941 was largely the result of these purchases. The prices which it paid were fair and reasonable. Neither the Joint Mica Mission nor the Metals Reserve Company are profit-making concerns. (d) The Joint Mica Mission is a Government concern. It consists of three British and three American members appointed by the Government of Great Britain and of the United States of America. One of the British members is Chairman. The Mission buys mica for the Ministry of Supply in the case of the United Kingdom and for the Metals Reseve Company of the United States of America in the case of the United States of America. The Metals Reserve Company is a corporation created by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the United States of America under section 5 (d) of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act and is a duly organised agency of the Government of the United States of America. Babu Baijnath Bajoria : With regard to para. (a) of the question, the Honourable Member has said “No”. Does it mean that other supply firms are allowed to export mica from India ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : My Honourable friend will find answer to that in the next question. Babu Baijnath Bajoria : But you have already said “No” to part (a) of my question. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes. Babu Baijnath Bajoria : That means that other firms will be allowed to export mica from India. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : There is no prohibition ; there are certain conditions prescribed. Babu Baijnath Bajoria : As regards (c), is the Honourable Member aware that the Joint Mica Mission have raised the standard of quality and reduced the rate thereby ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : No. The answer to that also will be found in the next question.