Sir SEYMOUR KINGasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether, when Berar was amalgamated with the Central Provinces in 1903, officers of the Central Provinces were made transferable to Berar, while officers of the Berar Commission were not reciprocally made transferable to the Central Provinces; whether, in consequence, the Berar officers have been deprived of their chance of a commissionership, the commissioner of the amalgamated province being always a Central Province officer; whether Central Province deputy-commissioners of the first and second class are respectively paid 417 Rs. and 134 Rs. more than the deputy-commissioner in Berar; whether there are now only eleven men in the Berar Commission, and as they retire and their places are filled by Indian civilians the pay of these deputy-commissioners will not automatically become the same as that of their brother officers in the Central Provinces; whether the Chief Commissioner has recommended an amalgamation of the orders and an assimilation of the pay of the two services, and what, if any, reply has been given to his representations; and whether the Secretary of State will take steps to remedy the conditions from which the officers of the Berar Commission are at present suffering?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe question of the relations between the Berar and Central Provinces Commissions is now under the consideration of the Secretary of State in Council, and no announcement can be made at present.