244 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the worker. Sir, the speech delivered by my Honourable friend was delivered by him in a more or less telegraphic fashion, omitting prepositions, participles, conjuctions and disjunctions and certainly did not advance any detailed arguments in support of his conclusions and I therefore feel at a certain disadvantage in dealing with his cut motion. I however propose to do my best to meet his charges.
Sir, the first charge that he levelled against the Labour Department was with respect to dearness allowance. His first accusation was that the dearness allowance granted by the Government of India was not adequate and the second ground was, if I understood him correctly, that in the scheme of dearness allowance sanctioned by the Government of India there was no kind of uniformity. With regard to the first part, I think Mr. Joshi will agree that the notions of adequacy must necessarily differ. It will be difficult to find two people who could agree on the exact quantitative measurement of what adequate dearness allowance would mean and therefore I do not wish to enter upon that aspect of the case. What however I would like to draw the attention of the Honourable House to is that the Government of India has always been taking considerable interest in the matter of the dearness allowance and has been watching the situation ; that it has from time to time taken steps in order to increase dearness allowance is beyond question. To give only a few facts to the House, I think it will be recalled that the first dearness allowance was given in August 1942. It was thereafter increased in January 1943. It was further increased in June 1943. (An Honourable Member: What was the amount of dearness allowance in 1942 ?”) I really have no time to go into details and I hope the Honourable Member will let me proceed. It was further increased in March 1944. We have not only increased dearness allowance but we have also from time to time increased the higher limits of the workers who should be entitled to get dearness allowance. On the first occasion, when dearness allowance was given the highest limit fixed was 100 to 120. On the third occasion, it was raised to 150 and on the fourth occasion it was raised to
- I may tell the House that the Government of India is most actively considering the question of further increased in dearness allowance and I hope and trust that before long the decision of the Government of India in this matter will be announced.