PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 843
areas where there was a large heavy deficit in the country as a whole, in accordance with the recommendation of the first Food Policy Committee ?
Shri C. D. Deshmukh: My point was that the subsidy was not confined only to the industrial areas except during last year.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: My contention has been that because you cannot do the very best, let not the better be the enemy of the good. Do whatever good you can; if you cannot do it better, the country will be prepared to excuse you, because of your limited resources. But because you are not preparing to do even the good, when you agree to do it, by making a provision of Rs. 25 crores in the Budget, I think the public will have a legitimate right to complain.
Sir, I would like to draw the attention of the Finance Minister to what the Chancellor of the Exchenquer has done in England in the course of his Budget. He knows, I think, much better than I do. I have collected my facts from newspapers and other magazines where I have been able to find a certain analysis of the Budget presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the House of Commons. Now, Sir, confining our attention to the matter of food subsidy, I find that in the year 1950 in England, the food subsidy was £480 million. In the last Budget the subsidy has been reduced—there has been a cut of £160 million. Well, so far as this part of the Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is concerned, probably the Hon. Finance Minister may take comfort in the fact that after all he is not doing something different from what the Chancellor of the Exchequer has done in England. But if you look at the other side of the picture of the Budget presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in England—taking the other side, the counter-blancing proposals of the Chancellor in England,—I find that while the subsidy has been reduced, there has been an increase in income-tax relief to the extent of £2.228 million. Secondly, there has been an increase in family allowances to the extent of £37 million. There has been a considerable increase in pensions. There has been an enormous increase in the housing