POST-WAR ELECTRIC POWER DEVELOPMENT 231
Electricity contained in the London Electricity Act of 1925 and the Electricity Supply Act of 1926. The Electrical Commissioner with the Government of India has drawn up a Memorandum in which he has proposed a set of such accountancy principles for being applied to electricity undertakings. His Memorandum was circulated to the Provincial Governments and to Electrical Undertakings for their opinions. There has been unfortunately some divergence of opinion. As a means of bridging the gulf, the Government of India proposes to appoint an Advisory Board to advise on principles which may be just and proper. I hope you will regard this solution as a satisfactory one.
There remain items 1 and 3 of the Agenda. They are indeed the most. important items of our Agenda and you will bear with me if I take some of your time to deal with them.
With regard to item 1, it might be well to refresh your memory by telling you how the position stood at the last meeting of the Policy Committee. At the close of the discussion of the items on the Agenda the Policy Committee desired that the Labour Department should draft a Resolution embodying the measure of agreement reached and that it should be placed for discussion at a subsequent meeting of the Policy Committee. A draft Resolution was accordingly drawn up which is in the following terms :—
“That this meeting recomends that the further development of electricity supply in India be actively pursued as a State or quasi-State enterprise and that steps be taken to eradicate any factors that retard the healthy growth of electrical development in the Provincial, State or Local authority—owned undertaking as well as the commercially owned undertakings.”
It was felt that the draft Resolution was not very clear. The Resolution spoke of further development. It said nothing about the undertakings that have already come into existence. The Resolution spoke of the necessity of controlling factors likely to hamper or retard the healthy growth of electrical development but did not specify what the factors were. It was therefore felt desirable that the Resolution should be again carefully considered in the Policy Committee to clear up elements of doubts. This is how item 1 comes to be what it is.