Total area under agriculture 577 million acres
Total area under forest 84 million acres
Cultivable waste 93 million acres
Uncultivable waste 93 million acres
Current fallow 62 million acres
Net land under agriculture 244 million acres
From these figures it is quite clear that there are 93 million acres of land which is cultivable waste and which can be brought under cultivation. Surely, it cannot be beyond modern science to reclaim this vast amount of cultivable waste land and make it available for cultivation. The Scheduled Castes Federation will take up this question.
16. The prosperity of the agriculturist must depend upon the maintenance of forest belts spread over the country. Without forests belts proper degree of rainfall will not be assured and agriculture in India v.ill continue to be the gamble in rain as it has always been in the past. The Pederation would urge for more and more afforestation of the uncultivable waste land.
17. Agriculture in the narrow sense of the term can never be a profitable persuit. It must be supplemented by subsidiary industries which are called cottage industries. But no cottage industry worth the name will be possible without an adequate supply of electricity. Generation of electricity is in the opinion of the Scheduled Castes Federation the foundation of economic prosperity of India and the Scheduled Castes Federation will strive for the realization of the river valley projects, the purpose of which is to produce irrigation, to produce electricity and to stop floods.
18. Just as land has been neglected so also landless labourers have been neglected. The Federation will reserve land out of uncultivated land or reclaimed land for the benefit of landless labourers and will also introduce for them the principle of minimum wages.
II. New Problems
19. So far the manifesto has dealt with the way the Scheduled Castes Federation proposes to deal with the old problems which the British left as a legacy to
India. Since Independence, new problems have come up. They fall into two divisions:
(A) Problems of Internal Administration, and
(B) Problems of foreign relations.
A-Problems of Internal Administration
20. Among the problems of Internal Administration the glaring ones are:-
(i) The Problem of Linguistic Provinces;
(ii) The problem of restoring purity of administration;
(iii) The problem of control and black-marketeers;
(iv) The problem of inflation and the distress due to rising cost of living.
21.The problem of linguistic provinces is most urgent. The quarrels within linguistic units in the States of Madras, Madhya Pradesh and Bombay have made it impossible for democracy to work. There must be social peace among various linguistic units if our constitution is to work on purely political considerations. For that purpose linguistic states is the only remedy. The federation will press for the creation of linguistic states.
22. The Scheduled Castes Federation believes that corruption in administration is wholly the creation of the Congress. The Congress imply does not believe in punishing the corrupt. Charges have been made by members of the Congress itself against Congress ministers of corruption and graft not in one state but in many states. The Congress High Command did not even think it necessary to make inquiries. Instead of making inquiries into these charges and punishing the guilty ministers the Congress High Command has suppressed those who have made such charges thereby openly protected the corrupt and the dishonest. When Ministers at the top are corrupt how could officers below fail to be corrupt? The Federation will urge stern action against ministers or officers who are corrupt and raise the standard of administration which has fallen so low during and owing to the Congress regime
(To be continued)
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches, Vol. 17, Part-1 (p.393-395) 2003, Rs. 125. Maharashtra Govt., Manager, Govt. Central Book Depot, Near Charni Road Railway Station, Netaji Subhash Road, Bombay – 400 004.
