§ Captain MURRAYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he has now received from the Government of India any communication on the subject of constructing a branch line from Salur, in the Vizagapatam district, up the Eastern Ghats to the plateau of Jeypore and Bustar; whether he is aware that Jeypore above Ghats with Bustar contains some 12,000 square miles of cultivable land with a rainfall of 60 inches per annum; that in some parts the population is not more than twenty per square mile, though the soil contains gold, iron, coal, and salwood forest, and that in the district there are numerous perennial rivers and waterfalls capable of developing electric energy; whether his attention has been called to the fact that in 1911 the Government of Madras expressed a favourable opinion of the branch line in question: whether the Secretary of State for India endorses this view of the Government of Madras; and, if so, whether, in view of the period, now over fifty years, that the Government of Madras has been anxious to develop the tracts in question, the crops grown in which are of material benefit in securing the coast districts from scarcity in times of famine, the immigration into Jeypore and Bustar which will follow the opening out of these countries, thereby relieving the congested districts of Vizagapatam, Ganjam, and Rajahmundry, and the backward state of civilisation and education of the inland deprived of contact with the progress of the coast districts, the Secretary of State for India will consider the advisability of giving substantial help towards the survey and construction of the branch line by a 3½ per cent, guarantee on subscribed capital, or some such assistance?
§ Mr. HAROLD BAKERThe Secretary of State has not received any recommendation or expression of opinion by the Government of India or the Government of Madras in regard to the construction of a railway between the places mentioned. Any request from responsible persons for reasonable financial assistance, such as that mentioned by the hon. Member, towards the construction in India of a line of railway of admitted utility always receives due consideration.