888 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the Government which he is in charge of, has to consider the welfare of the people as a whole and not merely of one section of the people, and they carry the responsibility all together. Therefore, that is a very legitimate right. As I said, the question is whether they had exercised their right properly.
Now, Sir, in order to appreciate the point that I propose to make, I think it is necessary to itemise the modifications which the Government has made in the Labour Appellate Tribunal’s Award. What are the modifications ? So far as I see, the modifications are four. In the first place, the Government has added a new area, called class IV area, which is to comprise populations of less than 30,000. The previous awards, commencing from the award of Mr. Justice Sen, the Sastry award and the Tribunal award, have all agreed that it was enough to classify the areas into three classes. A fourth class was not necessary, but the Government felt, for reasons I have no doubt the Hon. Finance Minister will explain in the course of his reply which led them to create this new class IV area. Sir, the second thing they have done is to have fixed the salary for the Class IV area. So far as A Class banks are concerned, the minimum salary—I am not dealing with the other matters such as house rent allowance and dearness allowance, because what we are concerned with is the basic minimum salary—is Rs. 66 . For B class banks it is Rs. 60; for C class it is Rs. 51, and for D class also it is Rs. 51, I think my friend will correct me if I am wrong. I find the two bracketed together. The third change which the Government has made in the Award of the Tribunal is that they have exempted from the operation of the Award Part B and Part C States, except the three towns, I think, of Delhi, Ajmer and some other town. I forget now. And the fourth modification which the Government has made is to grant complete exemption to a bank which is called the United Bank of India.
The Minister for Finance (Shri C. D. Deshmukh): May I point out that protection of the present emoluments is also a modification of the Award ?
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Yes, I take it to be so.
Shri C. D. Deshmunkh: I assure the hon. Member that it is so.