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 relating to taxation. The State of Mysore followed suit. (Appendix L). This important development placed these States, in respect of Central legislation, in the same position as the Provinces except that in the fiscal field the Unions and States, continuing as separate units retained their own pre-existing public finance structure. The gap in this field has been filled by the Agreements which have been negotiated with the States on the basis of the recommendations of the Indian States Finances Enquiry Committee, which are explained in detail in the next chapter.  

176. The position of the Indian State Forces in the new set-up has an important bearing on the question of the readjustment of the fiscal relationship between the Centre and the States. These forces constitute a body of troops maintained by certain States under conditions, and in conformity with regulations, laid down by the Government of India. The scheme governing the maintenance of Indian State Forces assigned to them a definite role in the overall defence structure of India and provided for the maintenance by them of appropriate standards of efficiency, equipment etc.

177. The number of the States which maintained armed forces before August 15, 1947, was 44. Since then, a number of these States have been merged and with the coming into operation of the new Constitution of India, there are only eight States, namely, the five Unions and the States of Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad and Mysore, which still have units of armed forces. So far as the merged States are concerned, the I.S.F. units of the erstwhile Kutch, Kolhapur and Baroda States, of the Gujarat States merged with Bombay, and of the States forming Himachal Pradesh, have been integrated with the Indian Army. The absorption in the Indian army of the forces of the other merged States is now under way.

178. So far as the Unions of States are concerned, the present position is that except in Travancore-Cochin the authority in respect of the forces of the Unions vests in the Rajpramukh, but in the exercise of this authority, he is subject to any directions or instructions that may from time to time be issued by the Government of India.

179. The future organisation of the States Forces has been receiving the attention of the Government of India. For this purpose a series of conferences were held with the Rajpramukhs in 1948 and 1949. As a result, full agreement has been reached about the future treatment of these forces, and agreed scheme has been drawn up. The main features of this scheme are: 