§ MR. WEIRTo ask the Secretary of State for India, seeing that a number of Coolies are engaged at Parulia, in the Orissa district, for service in Assam under a three and a-half years contract, will the Government of India have inquiry made with a view to ascertain the number of Coolies thus annually engaged; and what steps are taken to repatriate them at the expiration of the contract.
(Answered by Secretary Lord George Hamilton.) Parulia, which is not in Orissa but in Chota Nagpur, is an important centre for labour emigration to Assam, and large numbers of Coolies are annually recruited there, as to whom details are to be found in the Annual Reports of Emigration published by the Bengal Government. The contracts entered into by emigrants to Assam have never included any stipulation for repatriation, and none is considered necessary.