Labour conditions in Bombay are probably better than any other State in the country because Shri Chavan enjoys a position and status commanding the confidence and trust of both the employers and the employees. He is very friendly and sympathetic to the workers and has a thorough understanding of their difficulties and problems. His intervention in labour disputes, has produced dramatic and happy results and averted or ended many a strike. It is anticipated that before the end of the Second Five Year Plan he will forge a formula for an era of industrial truce. He realises that the economic prosperity of the country lies in uninterrupted production which can only be expected under conditions of industrial truce. It is necessary therefore to enthuse the workers to make them work harder.
As a popular head of the Government, Shri Chavan has to attend many important public functions and though as a good and tolerant person he cannot prevent others from making long speeches, he himself is brief and precise in all his public utterances. The result of long talks by others at any given function causes a dislocation in his programme and he is delayed—sometimes inordinately—for his next public engagements. Since he is keen on punctuality, he has to readjust his programme and have fewer engagements, so that he can have a comfortable margin of time between one and the next. The people should not make too much demand on the time of the Chief Minister who has to attend to his onerous duties as the head of the Government.
A reference must be made to the two most difficult problems that Shri Chavan has had to face in recent years. The Bilingual State of Bombay came into existence in the teeth of opposition of the intelligentsia as well as the masses in both Maharashtra and Gujarat. As a dutiful lieutenant of Prime Minister Nehru and as a true soldier of the Congress, he sincerely did everything to work and popularise the bilingual formula. After a fairly long trial when he had convincing proof that the bilingual formula was unworkable, and was not in the interest of smooth progress, both for the State and the country, he piloted the division of the bilingual into two separate States of Maharashtra and Gujarat with exceptional tact and statesmanship. He did the job with speed and great thoroughness. The wisdom of his initiative has been demonstrated in the enthusiastic and happy working of the two units brought into being on the 1st of May 1960.
