There is another point to which I would like to draw the attention of the House. This article 255 ought to have come before the House after we had decided the constitution of the Government of the tribal areas. The implication of this article is that the tribal areas shall remain tagged on to the provinces and I am strongly opposed to this idea. I am in favour of the proposition that all tribal areas should form one centrally-administered area. I would like to refer here to the views of the Assam Government. On page 12 of the pamphlet that has been distributed to us the view of the Assam Government has been that : The present artificial union should be ended. The backward tracts should be excluded from the province of Assam and administered by the Governor in Council as agent of the Governor-General-in-Council and at the cost of the central revenues. The time may soon come when that frontier will become no less, if not more, important for the defence of India than the North-West Frontier.
