232 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
State Control And Ownership
The discussion at the last Policy Committee meeting seemed to indicate clearly the intention that electrical supply enterprise in areas where there is none at present should be pursued as a State or a quasi-State enterprise ; but there remained an element of doubt as to the extent to which the State should come in those areas in which electrical undertakings were already functioning. For instance, is it advisable that the State or other authority should as a general rule exercise an option to take over an undertaking whenever under the terms of an individual licence such option arose ? And is it advisable that the State should exercise control over existing privately—owned undertakings for the purpose of securing bulk supply for regional development or control of generation ? There may be cases in which in order to secure suitable regional development bulk supply from some other undertaking should be given to some existing undertaking and that it may be that the manner in which an existing undertaking operates and expands may have to be brought into line with general schemes for regional development. We wish, therefore, in this discussion to get clarification not only as to the extent to which State ownership should come in but also as to the extent to which the State should control where State ownership cannot immediately become operative.
Jevon’s Economic Criteria
The issue between State enterprise and private enterprise has ever been a matter of controversy. This controversy is now resounding in India in full blast since we have started the project of planned economy. Old Jevons in his tract on State in relation to Industry, attempted to formulate certain economic criteria by which the line between State enterprise and private enterprise can be drawn and which have been the gospel of the opponents of State enterprise. According to Jevons, there were four criteria which ear-marked an industry for State ownership. They were (1) small capital account: (2) routine operations : (3) the co-ordination of several services such as Posts, Telegraphs and Telephone and (4) the sufficiency of a single all-embracing plant as in the case of water and gas supply.
The followers of Jevons in this country propose to add some more criteria, the object of which is to restrict the field of State enterprise