constituent assembly of india debates (proceedings)- volume vii

members have to be non-tribals. The precentage of literacy in the Agency Tracts is about one per cent. A
backward Classes Welfare Department has recently been setup. The Thakkar Committee made a number
of important recommendations which could not be given effect to during the war and are now being
taken up.
Apart from the Khondmals which are now attached to the Ganjam Agency, the Angul Sub-division
which is a partially excluded area has only 13,308 tribals who form 8 per cent of its population. The
Thakkar Committee recommended the administration of this area as a regular district and pointed out
that the Angul Laws Regulation is no longer suited to the advanced condition of the people. Even in1935,
it was stated by the Orissa Government that the area was so advanced that it should be possible within a
few years to place it on a level with the normal districts ( par a. 49, Recommendations of Provincial
Government and the Government of India, Indian Reprint).
The District of Sambalpur was made a partially excluded area largely on account of the special
system of that district, viz., the distinct system of revenue and village administration. The district was
formerly part of the C. P. and the C. P. Revenue Laws and type of village administration were in force.
The aboriginal population of the district is 252,095 and constitutes 19.6 per cent. but most of these
tribals seem to have assimilated the customs and culture of the surrounding Hindu population. The
administration of the district though differing from the rest of Orissa was not radically different from the
administration of the C. P. plains districts until 1921.Three of the Zamindar is of Sambalpur had been
declared scheduled districts under the Act of 1874, but with the exception of the Insolvency Act of 1920
all other legislation was applied to the district. The Thakkar Committee recommended (para. 397) that
the district should cease to be a partially excluded area and should be treated as a normally
administered area. The Committee however considered (Para. 402) that some sort of protection was still
needed for the aboriginals of that district and recommended certain special measures for the protection
of the land of the aboriginals (Para. 403). The tribes in this district consist mainly of Gond (102,765),
Kondh, Kharia and Savara. They are concentrated largely in the Sadar Sub-division of the district.
Literacy among them is not up to the level of the Scheduled Castes of the District and amounts to only
about 2 per cent. They however take part in elections and in the Sambalpur Sadar constituency there is
are served seat for the backward tribes. This is the only one of the five tribal seats in the province which
is filled by election.
The question of representation for the Orissa tribes presents somewhat of a problem. Local officials
had serious doubts as to the possibility of finding suit-able representatives from among them, at any rate
in proportion to their population. The Provincial Government have similar hesitations. In their factual
memorandum (page. 28*) they have recommended that local bodies should be partly elected and partly
nominated. For the Provincial Legislature, "a specific number of seats should be reserved for aboriginal
members in general constituencies; but the aboriginal members should be elected to these seats by a
system of indirect or group election."
-------------------------------------------------
* Reference to page is to page in the original report
-------------------------------------------------
(e) Bengal. - The partially excluded areas of Bengal consist of the District of Darjeeling and certain
police station areas in the Mymensingh district which border on the Garo Hills of Assam.
The Darjeeling District is shown to contain 141, 301 tribes out of a total population of 376,369 in
1941. The tribal population of the district seems to consist largely of labour employed in the tea gardens
and some Lepcha and Bhotia. Actually, the latter are only about 20,000 in number. The prominent