MICA MINES LABOUR WELFARE FUND BILL 383
He said that the mica industry was there, the evils have been there, Government has been here and nothing was done. If I may tell him, he only forgot to mention one tiling, that lie also was there, and for a long number of years. If he had taken the earliest opportunity to move in this matter to energize and organize the conscience of the Government and of the industrialists, I have no doubt that the delay of which he has complained would never have occurred. But I hope he will agree that it is better late than never.
With regard to the question of administration of the Fund, I think the point that he made was that the administration should be left to the Provincial Governments. I am sorry to say that I cannot accept that principle. This legislation is a Central legislation. It is a legislation for which the Central Government is responsible. The Fund is raised by the Central law. The Fund is raised for a particular and specific purpose. Having regard to these circumstances, it seems to me unjustifiable on the part of the Government of India to allot the whole of this sum to the Provincial Governments, where they might be merged in the general revenues of the Province and spent, I suppose, in accordance with the wishes—I do not say whims of the Provincial Government. I am of opinion, since the responsibility for the Fund is a Central responsibility, since the Fund is for a specific purpose, and since it would be a sort of a trust which the Government of India would be administering, it is in every way desirable—not only desirable but necessary—that the Central Government from beginning to end should keep its hand on the administration of this Fund. While this is so, I should like to tell my Honourable friend that he has probably not studied the way in which, the Coal Mines Labour Welfare Fund is administered. I would therefore like to tell him some details about it because the administration of the Coal Mines Welfare Fund would be the model—indeed not only the model but the pattern—on which the administration of this Fund will be carried on. In the matter of the Coal Mines Welfare Fund, the administration is vested in a Commissioner who is generally a provincial officer, an officer lent by the Provincial Government. If I may tell him, the person who is now administering the Coal Mines Welfare Fund is an officer lent by the Bihar Government, and he should rest assure that even in the matter of the administration of the Mica Fund we shall be applying to the Bihar Government to lend us an officer