132 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
period in the year 1950 and so on, and that accordingly preparation should be made for the registration of voters, and preparation of electoral roll. Now so much work has been done under the authority of the Resolution passed by the Constituent Assembly that it is not possible for us to make any change in the basis which was laid down by the Constitutent Assembly. But with regard to the subsequent electoral roll we have said that the qualifying period shall be the calendar year immediately preceding the first of March in each year and the qualifying date shall be 1st March in each year.
Now with regard to the residential qualification, about which I know there has been a great deal of perturbance in the minds of Members, I should like to draw the attention of the House to clause 20 of the Bill which defines what is called “ordinarily resident”. I would not at this stage enter into any further discussion of the matter, but if a point is raised I shall be glad to give further explanation. In this very clause provision has been made to define or to specify what would be the constituency of any particular person employed in the armed forces.
My attention is drawn to the fact that there is no provision made with regard to persons who have to change their residence by reason of the fact that they are serving in the State and the State either transfers them permanently from one area to another or sends them out of the country. It is perhaps necessary to make a provision to cover cases of this sort and I propose to move an amendment to add a sub-clause to clause 20 to deal with cases of this sort.
Now there is one other provision with regard to the preparation of the electoral roll to which I would like to draw the attention of hon. Members. The first is this : that the existing roll which will now be prepared will be operative till the 30th of September 1952, that is to say, if any election takes place up to the 30th of September 1952 the electoral roll that would now be prepared will be regarded as operative, although it is probably a stale one — but there is no help to that. Subsequent electoral rolls however would be prepared every year and that will be seen from clauses 23 and 24. This