786 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
system of allocation of the jute duty and the duty on jute-products should be altered. It was therefore not a matter of any volition or wish on the part of the Drafting Committee to effect a change in the original article.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : They referred to compensation also.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I will come to that. The only tiling which the Drafting Committee did not accept was the allocation suggested by the Expert Committee on Finance, to be given to the different provinces which would be losing their share in the export duty on jute. It was felt by the Drafting Committee that probably the figures suggested by the Expert Committee required further examination. Having regard to the very short time that was at the disposal of the Expert Committee the Drafting Committee did not feel sure that the figures suggested by the Expert Committee could be accepted by them without further examination. It was because of that fear that the Drafting Committee, instead of adopting the figures suggested by the Expert Committee, adopted their own formula which now finds a place in the new article, viz. that the grants-in-aid in lieu of compensation for the loss of the jute duty shall be prescribed by the President. There is therefore, no desire on the part of the Drafting Committee either to take away a legitimate source of revenue from the four provinces which have been mentioned in this particular article, in which, so to say, they have a vested right, nor has the Drafting Committee attempted to make any fundamental alterations in the figures suggested by the Expert Committee. All that they have done is to leave the matter to the President.
Now, my Friend, Pandit Hirday Nath Kunzru, pointed out that the Drafting Committee was wrong in inserting a definition of the word “prescribe” in the article now before the House. He went further to say that even in the last article which we passed, which is 260, the word “prescribed” ought not to be there. Now, it seems to me somewhat difficult, whatever may be the merits of the proposition that he has urged, to avoide the definition of the word “prescribed”. We have said in the main part of article 254 that the grants-in-aid shall be such as may be prescribed. Now, any lawyer would want to know what the word “prescribed” means. Either we would have to have a special definition of the word “prescribed” which would be confined to or circumscribed by the provisions of article 254 or we would have to alter the provisions contained in article 260 where the word “prescribed” has been defined.