PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 627
Dr. Ambedkar: I think the Home Minister might be in a better position to enlighten the House as to how it could be done.
Shri Satya Narayan Sinha: I have consulted the Home Minister.
Dr. Ambedkar: With regard to the second method I do. not think that any detenus would like the alternative of being taken under police escort, handcuffed and paraded for a distance of two or three miles.
Mr. Chairman: Why two or three miles ? It may be fifty miles or more because the constituency may be very far from the jail.
Dr. Ambedkar: That is another difficulty. The only other method that is therefore left for consideration is the postal ballot. I want to point out what is likely to happen under the postal voting system. It is quite obvious that the ballot paper will have to be distributed a long time before the date of polling takes place. For that purpose the Election Commissioner will have to write a circular to the various Jail Superintendents to find out how many detenus there are under their custody and in accordance with the information so obtained he will, on the estimate made on that day—this is important—distribute the ballot papers. The circular must certainly go to the Jail Superintendents at least some time before, may be a month or three weeks before the actual polling takes place, and then accordingly the ballot papers may be sent to the Jail Superintendents to be distributed to the various detenus under their custody. The question that the House has to consider is this : what is to happen to the detenus who are brought into jail custody between the date on which this enquiry is made and the date on which the polling takes place ? Obviously there could be no ballot papers in respect of them because the ballot papers would have been sent to the jailor on the basis of the estimate that he has submitted on that particular day. It may be that after that date is over fifty more detenus are sent to the jail. They are there. Therefore, by adopting this system of postal ballot you are not giving effect to a general desire that every person under