PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 439
belonging to the Scheduled Castes, especially the Bharatiya Depressed Classes League, of which I am the General Secretary, submitted a long memorandum to the President, to the Prime Minister, to the Law Minister and to the hon. Shri Jagjivan Ram in this matter. After great consideration this proposal has been brought before this House. Madam, let me inform the House that justice has not been done to these unfortunate people in these centrally Administered Areas of the country. We speak very much against the State Governments of the various States but what about the Part C States? In my own State of Bihar there are all kinds of facilities for Harijans for reading, writing and in the services. But what do we see in the Centrally Administered Areas? Even education for the Harijans is not free. There are no arrangements for scholarship and other facilities. The Government of India have appointed a Board to deal with these matters. Last year they received about 100 applications from the students reading in colleges, but only five to seven could get scholarships. And in many of the other States, in my State of Bihar for instance, all the students reading in colleges get a stipend of Rs. 35 a month. So, the condition of these people in the Centrally Administered Areas is very bad indeed. As regards the representation of these people, there is no representative of theirs in this House. They have always been neglected by the Central Government.
The responsibility for the administration of the Part C States is that of the Central Cabinet where the learned Law Minister is also a Member. May I ask what he has done for these people for the last three or four years he has been in the Cabinet ? I have seen that the Law Minister who calls himself the saviour of the Scheduled Castes was silent on this issue in the Constituent Assembly and even on the last occasion when a Bill was moved for Part C States representation. Therefore, if he comes with a Bill for the representation of these people now, it should not be opposed by any Member of the House. As we know, the number of Scheduled Castes in these Centrally Administered Areas is something like fifteen to twenty lakhs. I have moved an amendment that where they do not have representation, as