952 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Mr. Nichols Roy and at which conference Mr. Chaliha also was present, and he accepted the new schedule as amended by the Drafting Committee. However, it cannot take long to dispel the doubt he has in his mind as to who would constitute this Commission, who would be its members, and all matters relating to the Commission. I think if Mr. Chaliha had only read carefully the wroding of the Sixth Schedule he would have seen that in appointing the Commission the Governor is not going to act in his discretion. There is no discretion left in the Governor. That being so, it is quite obvious that in consulting the Commission, and defining its terms of reference, the Governor would be guided by the advice of the local ministers, and I do not think, therefore, there need be any fears such as the one that he has expressed.
Now, with regard to the amendment of my Friend, Mr. Brajeshwar Prasad, this is the one amendment I think in which so far as I am concerned, I feel that he has urged some serious argument. He says that the whole of the tribal area should be lifted from the Province of Assam and should be made a Centrally administered area, because there cannot be any other effect of the amendment which he has put forward except the one which I have suggested. It means practically constituting the area as a Centrally administered area. But he seems to have forgotten two things. The first is this. Although we have constituted autonomous districts for the purpose of the satisfaction of the tribal people living in those areas that they will have, at any rate for the first ten years, autonomy in the matter of the government of their areas, we have now here provided that the autonomous districts shall not constitute part of the province of Assam. That being so, it is very difficult to leave part of the province to be governed by the Governor of the province and part of the province to be administered as a Centrally administered area.
The second point he has forgotten is this. He has forgotten to take note : of the fact that even in constituting the autonomous areas, the Drafting Committee has not forgotten that there are what are called certain “frontier areas”, bordering on the autonomous districts. It has been provided in this Schedule that so far as the administration of these frontier areas of Assam is concerned, the Governor would be acting under the President. Consequently whatever strategic importance, the frontier areas may have, the Centre would certainly have ample jurisdiction to see that none of the disturbing factors to which he has made reference will find any place there. I therefore, think that all these amendments are unnecessary and out of place.