I am making reference to this letter of the chairman in order to point our that the recommendation of the chairman of the drafting committee to the president of the constituent assembly was based on a previous enactment, namely, the provisions of the India (central government and legislature) act of 1946, which gave life in regard to the power exercised by the central legislature over those matters for a further period when the war legislation came to an end. It is not often that one looks back to what happened during the time when the constituent assembly was discussing. But it did give me a certain pleasure, when I was looking into the proceedings of the constituent assembly to find that a friend of ours, who is a member of this house, had the farsightedness to feel at the time when article 306 of the draft constitution was being considered that the duration of the validity of the provisions of that article should be extended from 5 to 15 years. In fact, at that time the hon. Member expressed the opinion that in mattes like food-stuffs, minerals, etc. The power of the government of India should be kept intact. Anway, the constituent assembly did not accept the suggestion made by him. Even prior to this particular article being taken up for consideration by the constituent assembly, in the several discussions that took place in regard to the distribution of powers between the center and the states, it was felt that parliamentary control should be provided over essential commodities other than those expressly covered by item 52 list and item 33 of list attached to the constitution of India. I remember the discussions that took place between the drafting committee of the constitutent assembly and the chief ministers of the states and the ministers of the central government, and I would like to recall that our late lamented.

