PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 957
that the case which my hon. friend Mr. Pant has very much in mind and which I also have in mind, is the case of the bus owners. The bus owners, under the Motor Vehicles Act, have to obtain a licence for running their buses on a certain route. My friend Mr. Pant is a very covetous person and he likes to get the monopoly of running the buses in his own hand and he, therefore, does not like the bus owners. How can he prevent them from running the buses ? He has got the power of cancelling their licences. He therefore, cancels their licences and sets on Government buses on the route on which they were plying and he does not want to pay them any compensation at the same time. The question that I would like to ask is this ; Is this a just and fair proposition ? I have no objection to the Government running their own buses. I do not know how cheap the fares in U. P. are whether they are cheaper than in the case of the private buses.
Shri H. P. Saksena (Uttar Pradesh) : Yes.
Shri Tajamul Husain: And better.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I am not saying anything; I do not know whether they give good service; probably they do.
Shri Tajamul Husain: Yes, they do; the Government buses always do.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But the point to be considered is this; here are a body of people engaged in this particular trade, who are earning their living by this trade. They have invested quite a lot of money in buying their stock-in-trade, namely the buses, the workshops and whatever other things are necessary. You suddenly come and say, “Stop your trade. We shall not allow you to carry on”. Even that I do not mind but the point that I would like to ask my friend is this; the least thing that my hon. friend could do is at least to buy their stock-in-trade because that very stock-in-trade would be useful to us running by the Government. If it did that and then said that it is not going to give them any more compensation because the stock-in-trade has been bought with which money they could go and practise any other trade they liked, that would be quite an equitable proposition from