Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/39

 to the desirability of the States, in suitable cases, forming or joining administrative units large enough to enable them to be fitted into the constitutional structure, as also of conducting negotiations with British India in regard to the future regulation of matters of common concern, specially in the economic and financial field.

63. The Cabinet Mission's Plan announced on 16th May, 1946 (Appendix III), provided for the entry of the States into the proposed Union of India in the following manner:—

The plan did not deal with the States in detail and its vague provisions regarding the association of the States with the Constituent Assembly caused some difficulty as regards the stage at which they could come in as regular members of the Constituent Assembly.

64. In its Resolution, dated 24th May 1946, the Congress Working Committee expressed the view that the Constituent Assembly could not be formed by entirely desperatedisparate [sic] elements and the manner of selecting States'