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APPENDIX XXIII

RAMPUR MERGER AGREEMENT

AGREEMENT made this fifteenth day of May, between the Governor-General of India and the Nawab of Rampur.

WHEREAS in the best interests of the State of Rampur as well as of the Dominion of India it is desirable to provide for the administration of the said State by or under the authority of the Dominion Government;

AND WHEREAS the Nawab has accepted the advice given to him by the Dominion Government in this behalf.

It is hereby agreed as follows:—

Article 1

The Nawab of Rampur hereby cedes to the Dominion Government full and exclusive authority, jurisdiction and powers for and in relation to the governance of the State and agrees to transfer the administration of the State to the Dominion Government on the 1st day of July 1949 (hereinafter referred to as "the said day").

As from the said day, the Dominion Government will be competent to exercise the said powers, authority and jurisdiction in such manner and through such agency as it may think fit.

Article 2

The Nawab shall continue to enjoy the same personal rights, privileges, immunities, dignities and titles which he would have enjoyed had this agreement not been made.

Article 3

The Nawab shall with effect from the said day be entitled to receive for his life-time from the revenues of the State annually for his privy purse the sum of rupees seven lacs free of all taxes. After him the privy purse will be fixed at rupees six lacs and sixty thousand. This amount is intended to cover all the expenses of the Ruler and his family including expenses of account of his personal staff, maintenance of his residences, marriages and other ceremonies, etc., and will neither be increased nor reduced for any reason whatsoever.

The Government of India undertakes that the said sum of rupees seven lacs shall be paid to the Nawab in four equal instalments in advance at the beginning of each quarter from the State Treasury or at such other Treasury as may be specified by the Government of India.