L. A. DEBATES (CENTRAL) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 651
Mr. K. C. Neogy : What I was referring to was the existing rice stocks which the Honourable Member referred to. What is the amount of these existing rice stocks ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : The position differed in Bengal and Bihar, and if I remember correctly, what was stated by the deputation was that they had stocks for four or five weeks.
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*** Scheme for Cheap Grain Shops for Bengal and Bihar** Colliery Labour
Mr. K. C. Neogy : (a) Will the Honourable the Labour Member please state if it is a fact that in a communication to the Governments of Bengal and Bihar, the Labour Department of the Government of India proposed a scheme for the establishment of cheap grain shops in April 1942, for the benefit of colliery labour ? If so, what response did the scheme meet with at the hands of the two Provincial Governments and of the organisations of the coal industry ?
(b) Has any effective action been taken by either of the two Provincial Governments as an alternative to the above scheme for ensuring a cheap supply of food grains to colliery labour ? If so, on what lines, and when ?
(c) What action, if any, has been taken by the organisations of the coal industry or by individual collieries for the supply of cheap food grains to labour; and what help, if any, has been rendered by either of the two Provincial Governments to them in the matter ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) Yes. The Bihar Government considered that other methods of dealing with the problem were preferable. No reply was received from the Bengal Government.
(b) So far as the Central Government’s information goes both the Provincial Governments have through their local officers taken all possible steps to ensure a supply of food grains at cheap rates to colliery labour.
(c) It is not understood what the Honourable Member means by cheap food grains. The principal Employers’ Organisations in the coal
- Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. II of 1943, 2nd April 1943, p. 1735.