470 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Parliament have the power to enact such legislation under the above article and they have already enacted one Clause 2 of article 330 clearly states that the number of seats allotted by the President to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be in proportion to the population, Under such circumstances, I think there was no necessity of any Bill like this one. What is needed now is that this intricacy should be removed. As far as I could understand, the Hon. Minister has not stated anything to that effect and, therefore, I have drawn the attention of the House to this issue.
Besides this, I would also invite the attention of the Hon. Minister to the fact that when the Peoples Representation. Bill was moved here, the population of Vindhya Pradesh was nearly 33 lacs. Then a population of about two and a half lacs to three lacs was included within the bordering territories in accordance with the Enclaves Merger Act. At that time six seats were agreed upon to be allotted to Vindhya Pradesh. Now that the census has taken place. I am told the population of Vindhya Pradesh has increased by five lacs. Under these circumstances, I believe Vindhya Pradesh has every right to claim for more seats to be allotted to it. I will therefore, make a couple of important suggestions. Firstly, it should be considered, if possible, as to how these two seats should be allotted. It would be better that decision in this respect may be taken after having consultation with the Delimitation Committee for Vindhya Pradesh. In view of the fact that the population of Vindhya Pradesh has increased by five lacs, the number of seats allotted to it should also be increased by one by bringing an amendment to the Peoples Representation Bill.
With these words I support this Bill.
( Translation concluded )
Dr. Parmar (Himachal Pradesh) : I rise not only to support this Bill but also to congratulate the Government for giving representation to the scheduled castes and tribes in Part C States. It has been said in this House that this Bill has been brought by the Law Minister unnecessarily and for certain other extraneous reasons. I must, however, contradict this and say that what the Law Minister and the Government of India