Updated: Sunday April 04, 2010/AlAhad
Rabi' Thani 20, 1431/Ravivara
Chaitra 14, 1932, at 11:58:45 PM
Punjab Settlement Manual (Indian)
Contents
Punjab Settlement Manual
CHAPTER 1
Introductory
Rights of State and private land owners in
land and its produce- In India the State has always claimed a share of the
produce of the land from the persons in whom it recognized a permanent right to
occupy and till it or arrange for its tillage. It is needless to discuss the various ways in
which in which this the right of the ruler to his share and the right of the
occupier to hold the land he cultivated and pass it on to his children both
formed part of the ancient customary law of the country, however, the latter
might occasionally be denied in practice by an unjust Government.
2. Ownership
of land in India.
Land revenue not a land tax. Broadly speaking individuals exercising a
permanent right of the king described above subject only to payment of the dues
of the State have been recognized by us as. “owners” or “proprietors”, but it
would be a mistake to assume that these words, as used in India, imply all that they do in England.
The share of the State, which we call the land revenue, is not a land tax3
It is more analogous to rent, and in early settlement literature it was so
described, the Government being represe noted as surrendering to the landowner
a small portion of the rent. The land revenue to is therefore “the first charge
upon the rents, profit, or produce” of an estate or holding, and, until it has been
paid, they cannot, without the previous consent of the Collector, be taken
inexecution of a decree obtained by any private creditor. (Land Revenue Act,
XVII of 1857, section 62).
3. Rent
under native system of assessing land revenue. Native rulers sometimes took
their share in kind dividing the crops with the cultivator on the threshing
floor (batai). For certain crops, known as zabti, which it was inconvenient to
provide, e.g., cane and poppies; fixed money rates were charged per bigha or
Kanal. At other times the State
officials resorted to appraisement (kan
or kankut), estimating the amount of the Government share of
the crops, and usually taking its value in money Numerous cesses (abwab) were
levied in addition to the land revenue proper (mal).
A
prudent or ruler forbore to make the burden too heavy to be borne, and it is
obvious that the collections were roughly adusted to the character of the
seasons, and pressed much less heavily than a fixed cash demand equal to the
average of the fluctuating amounts realised would have done. Rent in the usual
sense of the word hardly existed in the districts now included in the
North-Western Provinces or in the cast of the Punjab.
The small land-holder was content to win a bare subsistence from the soil which
he tilled with his own hands; the large landholder was at most able to obtain
from the cultivator some trifling fraction of the crop, say one seer in the
maund, as an acknowledgement of his superior title. As Mr. Thomason remarked in
the valuable sketch of teh system of
land revenue administration prevalent in the North-Western Provinces, prefixed to his “Directions for Settlement
Officers.” “Undoubtedly traces are often to be found of the existence and
exercise of a proprietary right in the land on the part of individuals. But so
long as the sovereign was entitled to a portion of the produce of all land and
there was no fixed wait to that portion, practically the sovereign was so far owner of the land as to be able to
exclude all other persons from enjoying any portion of the net produce. The
first step, therefore, towards the creation of a private proprietary right in
the land was to place such a limit on the demand of the Government as would
leave to the proprietors a profit, which would constituting a valuable
property. Native Governments seldom recognise proprietary right as constituting
a claim on the part of proprietors to engage for the village at a fixed sum.
Ordinarily the collections are made direct from the actual cultivators either
by the officers of Government or by some farmer or assignee of the Government
share of the produce.”
These
statements are not fully applicable to the state of things which existed in
many parts of the Punjab proper under Sikh
rule. There the leading men or malikhs were
often strong enough to maintain a real proprietary right in the soil, to exact
considerable grain does besides services of value from the cultivators, and to
engage exclusively for the revenue whenever a cash assessment was introduced.
4. Policy
adopted of a moderate cash assessment fixed for a term of year. A civllad
Government like our own naturally prefers to commute its claim to a part of the
produce of the soil into an annual money payment fixed for a term of year.
British officers gradually learned that, if land revenue was to be collected in
this shape with any sort of regularity, the dernand must be pitched well below
the native standard. The tendency to moderation was reinforced by
considerations of humanity and belief that the best way to promote the
extension and improvement of agriculture was to render the land a source of
increasing profit to its owners by limiting the land revenue and making it
incapable of enhancement for a considerable period. This policy is especially
associated in the northwest of India
with the names of Robert Merttins Bird and James Thomason, and the first
administrators of the Punjab brought into this
province the lessons learned in their school.
5. Twofold
object of settlement. To assess
the land revenue is the primary object of a settlement. It is necessary at the
same time to decide who shall pay the sums assessed or, in technical language,
with whom the settlement shall be made. To permit an individual to contract to
pay the land revenue is usually an acknowledgement that he possesses a
proprietary right in the soil, and the drawing up of lists (khewats) showing the landowners in every estate, the extent of
each man’s right, and the amount of revenue for which he was primarily
responsible, involved in our early settlements a determination for the first
time of the ownership of every parcel of land in the country. It soon became
evident that there were other persons who had rights in the soil besides those
who could claim the offer of a settlement, and the advisability of making a
complete record of all rights and liabilities connected with the land,
including even those of tenants from year to year, was recognized. A
settlement, therefore, consists of two main branches.
(a) the
assessment; and
(b) the
framing of a record of rights.
6. Purpose of hand-book. It is purpose of the following pages to show haw
these two operations are now carried out in the Punjab.
But, as the present system has been slowly built up by the experience of nearly
one hundred years in the North-Western
Provinces and the Punjab,
a historical sketch of the development of settlement policy may be usefully
given as an introduction to the principal subject of this hand-book. But first
will be briefly noticed the political changes of the first half of the Jamna to
the Sutlej, and across the Sutlej to the Bias, and culminated in 1849 in the
downfall of the Sikh kingdom and the formation of the new Province of the Punjab.
BOOK I
Historical
CHAPTER II
The making of the Punjab
Territories included in the Punjab when absorbed. The territories now included in
the Punjab were, with a few exceptions, absorbed in the British
Empire between 1803 and 1849.
I. The Delhi and Bhatti
Territories.
8. Acquisition of Delhi and Bhatti territories. The first tract to be conquered was the last to
be anneed to the province. After the battle of laswari in November, 1803,
Caulat Rao Sindhia, by the treaty of Sirji Anjengaum, ceded to the East India
Company and its allies all his territories between the Jamna and the Ganges and
also those situated to the north of the possessions of the Rajas of Jaipur and Jodhpur and the Rana of
Gohad. the latter comprised the present districts of Gurgaon, Delhi, Rohtak,
Hissar, tahsil panipat and pargana Karnal in the Karnal District, and
tahsil Fazilka in Ferozepore. In 1805
Lord Cornwallis was sent out from England to reverse Lord Wellesley”
policy by within life jagirs and
partly in grants in perpetuity to native chiefs and others who had taken our
isde in the recent troubles.
9. History of these territories from 1803
to 1858. Grandually by the
eschew of life jagirs and the
confiscation of other grants from disloyalty most of the territory came under
the direct rule of the paramount power, the last and most important cases of
confiscation being caused by the events of the mutiny of 1857. Relics of the
policy adopted in 1805-06 Karnal, in 1803 the territory beyond the Ghaggar,
which from 1858 to 1884 formed the Sirsa District, now divided between, now
divided between Hissar and Ferozepore, was a wild desert tract Known as
Bhattiana or the Bhatti territory, and no effective control was exercised over
it till 1818. Down to 1832 the Delhi territory was controlled by the
Residency. But Regulation V of that year, which abolished the office of
Resident and annexed the Delhi territory to the jurisdiction of the Sadr Board
and Courts of Justice at Allahabad, enjoyed the Commissioner of the Delhi
territory and all officers acting under his control, ordinarily to “or form to
the principles and spirit of the regulations” in their his control, ordinarily
to antinistration. After the Multiny the Delhi
division of the North-Western Provinces was in 858 transferred to the Punjab,
and formed into the Delhi and Hissar divisions,
which embraced the six districts of Delhi,
Gurgaon, Panipat, Rohtak, Hissar and Sirsa.
II. The Cis-Sutlej and Hill States
10. Cis-Sutlej and Hill States taken under
protection- The Mahrattas were
unable to set up again in any permanent shape the sway of Delhi over the
territories lying to the north and west of Karnal and stretching from the Jamna
to the Sutlej, which had been wasted from the Moghal Empire by the Sikhs after
the battle of Sirhind in 1763. There was a few important States in this tract,
but the rest of it was parcelled out in an extraordinary fasnied among
confederacies of Sikh horsemen, each of whom held a very petty share, Several
of the Sikh chiefs fought against us under the Mahratta standard in 1803, and
some of them had to be chastised again next year when Holkar was threatening
our newly acquired authority to the west of the Jamua. An amnesty was
peroclaimed in 1805, and for a few years, in pursuance of the policy which
sought to restrict our obligations be yound the Jamna, the Sikh States between
that river and the Sutlej were left to
themselves. But they were too weak and divided to resist the steady pressure of
Ranjit Singh, who was bent on establishing his supremacy over all the followers
of Guru Govind Singh. It is needless here to trace the causes and course of the
long negotiations between the Maharaja and Sir Charles Metcalfe in 1808 and
1809. Suffice it to say that the appeals of
the leading Cis-Sutlej chiefs for British protection at last met with a
favourable response, and December, 1808, Ranjit Singh was warned that by the
issue of the war with the Mahratta these chiefs had come under our protection,
and informed that the British Government could not acknowledge his title to any
territory acquired by him between the Sutlej and the Jamna after the first
reference ot their decision of the question of his right to make corquests to
the south and east of the former river. The Maharaja was within an ace of
declaring war, but in the end his statesmanlike instincts got the better of
mortified amebition. On the 25th April, 1809, he signed a treaty pledging
himself to make no encroachment on the territories of the Cis-Sutlej States.
The compact so reluctantly made was faithfully observed. By a proclamation,
dated 3rd may, 1809, “the chiefs of malwa and Sirhind” were declared to be
under the protection of the British Government and secured “in the exercise of
the same rights and authority within their own possession” as they had hitherto
enjoyed. They were exempted from tribute, but bound to assist any Brit ish
troops passing through their country, and to aid with their forees in repelling
invasion. Two years later a proclamation, dated 22nd August, 1811, announced
the determination their subjects. At the same time attempts by ona chiefor
confederacy to seiae the property of the south and east of the Sutlej came under our protection.
11. Development of protection into dominion. It was impossible that the relations between the
paramount power and the protected chiefs
embodied in the proclamations of 1809 and 1811 should be permanently
maintained. They were in fact issued under ami apprehension, it being imagined
that” a few great chiefs only existed between the Jamana and the Sutlej, and that on them would devolve the maintenance of
order.” (Cunning ham’s “history of the Sikhs", page 152). Matters were
complicated by the fact that or territory gradually became much intermixed with
the possessions of Sikh cheifs and confederacies in consequence of the escheat
of estates and shares in default of heirs. During the first Sikh war in 1845
the open disloyalty of some chiefs and the neglect of tohers to fulfil their
obligations under the proclamation of 1809 brought matter to a head. In
decalring was the Governor-General announced that the possessions of Maharaja
Dalip Singh on the left bank of the Sutlej
were annexed. At the end of the war the estates of the Raja of Ladwa and Rupar
Sardar, and a number of villages belonging to the Nabha
State were confiscated, and the
Kapurthala Chief was deprived of all his territory to the south of the Sutlej. In 1847 the remaining chiefs, with nine
exceptions, the principal being the Patiala, Jind, and Nabha Rajas, were
reduced to the status of jagirdars, and
stripped of their criminal powers, while the obligation of feudal service was commuted
into a money payment. In 1849 in jagridars
were drprived of their civil powers and made amenable to our courts, and
finally in 1850 orders were issued that all their estates not already settled
at their request or at the request of the zamindars
should be assessed. The Cis-Sutlej territory was thus at last reduced to the
condition of an ordinary British possession.
12. Administration of the Cis-Sutlej and Hill States
before 1849 :– The Residentat
Delhi had charge of all our political relations with protected or independent
States in the north-west of Inida. In 1821 he was replaced by a
Governo-General's Agent, and a St. perintendent of the Protected and Hill States
was appointed, who had his headquarters at Amabla. In 1840 the Superintendent
made way for a Governor-General's Agent for the North-West Frontier who was
also stationed at Ambala. After the first Sikh war the at histration of the
Cis-Sutlej States was entrusted to a Commissioner, whose charge Completed the
four districts of Thanesar, Amabala, Ludhiana, and Ferozepore. The Ci-s-Sutlej
Commissioner was sometimeds under the order of the Agent of
theGovernor-General, North-west Frontier, at Lahore, and somethimes directly under the
Foreign Department of the Government of India. When the new Province of the Punjab was formed in 1849 the Cis-Sutlej Commissioner's
charge was included in it. In 1862, the Thanesar District was broken up, part
of it being transferred to Panipat, with which it formed the new Karnal
District, and part of Ambala.
III.
The Jullundur
Doab; Kangra and Hazara
13.
Annexation of Jullundur
Doab and Kangra :– The death of
Ranjit Singh in 1839 was followed by anarchy in the Skih State.
In 1845, the selfish intriguers who ruled at Lahore
in the name of the child Maharaja Dalip Singh, fearing the Khalsa army which
they were powerless to control, yielded to its cry to be led across the Sutlej in the hope that its length would be broken in its
conflict with the Company's forces. In the war which ensued the valour of
the Sikh soldiery was rendered useless by the treachery on incapacity of
its leaders, and Lahore
was occupied in February, 1846. By the 3rd and 4th Articles of the Treaty
signed on the 9th of March, 1846. By the 3rd and 4th Articles of the Treaty
signed on the 9th of March, 1846, Maharaja Dalip Singh ceded all the Bias and
the Indus, including Kashmir and Hazara.
Kashmir and Hazara were made over to Gulab Singh for a payment of seventy-five
lakhs; but next year he induced the Lahore Darbar to take over Hazara and to
give him in exchange territory near Jammu.
The tract between the Bias and the Sutlej was
formed into the Commissionership of the Trans-Sutlej States, and put in charge
of Mr. John Lawrence. It was divided into the three dirstricts of Jalandhar,
Hoshiarpur, and Kangra. Three years later these districts and Hazara become
part of the new province of the Punjab.
IV. The Punjab west
of the Bias
14. Annexation of the Punjab west of the Bias
in 1849 and administration of the province down to 1859 :– After the Wazir Raja Lal Singh had been banished
for instigating Sheikh Imam-ud-din to resist the occupation of Kashmir by Gulab
Singh, an agreement was executed in December, 1846, between the British
Government and the Principal Sikh Sardars, by which a Council of Regency was
appoinhted, which was to be controlled by a British Resident siationed at
Lahore. Henry Lawrence was the first Resident, but his brother John more than
once officated for him. They had under them a staff of able assistants, and one
of the duties on which the latter were employed when the second Sikh war broke
out in 1848 was the makin of summary settleemnts in the different districts
under the control of the Darbar. On the 21st of February, 1849, the Khalsa army
was finally broken in the battle of Gujarat ; on the 30the of March the
proclamation annexing the Punjab was read at Lahore, and Lord Dalhousie's despatch, dated
31st March, put the Voernment of the province under a Board of Aministration
consisting of the two Lawrences and Charles Greville Mansel. The Board was
abolished in February, 1853, and its powers vested in a Chief Commissioner,
under whom the principal administrative officers were the Judicial Commissioner
and the Finanacila Commissioner. John Lawrence, the first and only Chief Commissioner
of the Punjab, became its first
Lieutenant-Governer the Ist of January, 1859.
V. Subsequent Changes
14-A. Formation of the North-West Frontier and Delhi Provinces
— In November, 1901, the
districts of Hazara, Peshawar, and Kohat, the
Bannu and Marwat tahsils of Bannu and the Trans-Indus part of Dera Ismail Kha,
with the exception of the Vehoailaka, were separated from the Punjab and formed
into the North-West Frontier Province. On the
Ist October, 1912, when the capital of India
was removed to Delhi, the Delhi
tahsil and the Mahrauli thana of Ballabgarh werr
separated from the Punjab and formed into the Delhi Province.
CHAPTER III
Development
of Settlement policy in the North-Western Provinces down to the period of the
annexation of the Punjab
15. The Punjab Settlement system brought from
North-Western Provinces — The
Settlement system of the Punjab was in its inception of the system of the
North-Western has been less in the provinces as it stood in 1849, and it is a curious
fact that the deviation from that model has been less in the province which
adopted it than in the province which gave it brith. In his despatch
establisling the Board of Administration Loard Dalhousie indicated that a
Revenue Code for the newly conquered territory would be found" in the four
printed circulars of the Sadr Board of Revenue, North-Western Provinces, and
the pamphlets published under the orders of the Lieutenant - Governor."
The
pamphlets referred to were Thomason's "Directions for Settlement Officers
and Collectors", which appeared in three parts between 1844 and 1848. But
quite as imprtant as these written instructions was the fact that the revenue
policy of the Punjab was moulded by officers
who had administered districts and made settlements in the North-Western
Provinces. Of the three first memebrs of teh Board of Administration, two, John
Gawrence and C.G. Mansel, were civilians trained in assessment and revenue work
under Bird and Thomason, and, when Mansel left he was succeeded by Rober
Montogomery, who eleven years earlier had settled the Allahabad District.
Altogether nineteen of the best of Thomason's officers were sent to the Punjab,
and they brought with them some of this way obtained ready-made a system which
had been gradually evolved by the labours of many able officers in the
districts between the Jamna and the Ganges, and a sketch of the growth of its
settlement policy would be incomplete without a brief account of the process by
which the model it adopted took shape in its original home.
16. Early settlements in North-Western
Provinces, 1801 to 1822. – The
"ceded provinces" and the "conquered provinces" as the
districts now included in the North-Western Provinces were called, came under
British rule in 1801 and 1803, respectively. As regards their revenue
management they were till 1831 under the Board of Revenue at Calcutta; and it was the intention of
Government to give them after ten years a permanent settlement. Meanwhile tow
triennial settlements and one quadrennial settlement were to be made, and
thereafter the permanent settlement "was to be concluded with the smae
persons (if willing to engage, and if no others who have a better claim should
come forward) for such lands as might be in a sufficient state of cultivation
to warrant the measure on surely terms as Government shall deem fair and
equitable."
These early settlements were very rough and ready
proceedings. There were no field drvey maps, no reliable returns of the
cultivated area or of the crops grown, and no trust worthy records from which
the profits of the landholder could be deduced. A Collector here and there
might attmept to estimate the net produce of the land by calculating the value
of the gross outturn and deducting the expenses of cultivation. But the
ordinary procdure followed in the early years of the century was that desribed
by Mr. Thomason's Chief Secreatry, Mr. John Thornton, in Volume XII of the
"Calcutta Review" : "The early settlments..............were
effected in a very easy and cursory way. The Collector sat in his office at the
sadr station. attended by his right-hand men. The Kanungos, by whoem he was
almost entirely guided. As each estate came up in succession, the brief record
of former settlements was read, and the..............fiscal register for ten
years immediately preceding ten cession or conquest was inspected. The kanungos
were then asked who was the zamindar
of the village. The reply to this questio pointed sometimes to the actual bona
fide owner of one or of many estates, sometimes to the headman of the village
community; sometimes to a non-resident Saiyyid of Kayath, whose sole possession
consisted in the levying a yearly sum from the real cultivating proprietors,
and sometimes to the large zamindar or
talukdar , who held only a limited interest in the greater portion of his
domain. Occasionally a man was siad to be zamindar
who had lost all connection for years with the estate..........thought his name
might have remained in the kanungo's books.
As the dicta of these officers were
generally followed with little further enquirey it may be imagined that great
injustice was thus perpetrated. Then followed the determination of the amount
of revenue. On this point also reliance was placed on the daul or estimate of the kamungo
checked by the accounts of past collections and by any other offers of mere
farming speculators which might happen to be put forward at the time Mistakes
of course occureed, and it was often necessary to readjust the demand even
during the currency of the short lease then granted, but, on the whole this
part of the system succeded betten than might have been expected."
17. Rights of peasant owners over-ridden by
farmers, talukdars and sadr malguzars.– One great evil in these settlements was the extent to which engagments
were taken from farmers. This was soon recognised to be an abuse, and was
partially corrected as time went on. But a real dislike on the part of the
landholders to undertake resp. sibility for the payment of of a cash assessment
frequently led to the offers of talukdars and farmers being accepted. Even
where owners engaged, this as a rule only menat that a few of the leading
landholders had been admitted as sadr
malguzars and allowed to make what arrangements they could for collecting
from their co-parceners, who were styled in the revenue literature of teh day
the 'under-tenants'. There was no recored to show what the rights and
liabilities of these co-parceners were. The sadr
malguzar was called zamindar, and was treated as if he was the sole
proprietor of the estate, however small his actual share might be. If once an
engagement had been taken from him, the other landholders were only permitted
to engage with his consent at a subsequent settlement. The rights of large
bodies of peasant owners were thus over-borne and were in imminent danger of
destruction.
18. Vicious system of collection.- Bad as the process of assessment, the means
employed for collection were far worse. The most drastic process known to the
Revenue Code was constantly and indicriminately applied when villages fell into
arrears, and the abuses of the sale law became the scandal of the
administration. If the sadr malguzar made
default the whole patti or estate for
which he had engaged was put up to auction, and all private rights of ownership
annulled in fagour of the puchaser, who was very free quently the tahsildar or one of his underlings.
Indeed, we are told that “by some strange misapprehension the rule applicable
to cases of sale for arrears of reyenue appears to have been extended not only
to the sales of estate under decrees of court for private debts, but even to
the private transfers of the sadr
malguzars.” The powerful machinery of a
civilized Government was rapidly breaking up communities which had survived the
crushing exaction of the petty tyrannies which it had replaced. The extent of
the evil may be gauged by the extraordinary nature of the remedy applied with
very partial successar 1821. In that year a commission was apointed with power
to annual, should equity require it, any public or private transfer of land
which had taken place before the 13th of September, 1810.
19. Over-assessment and bad revenue
management in Delhi
territory. In those parts of the
Delhi territory
which came under our direct management during the first quartest the century,
things were not a whit better. In the 5th Chapter of the Karnal Settlement.
Report Mr. Ibbetson has drawn a dark picture of the gross over-assessment and
fiseal mismanagement which prevailed in Panipat down to 1824, and which was
only acually corrected in the next 18 years. A similar tale of over-assessment
and the breaking down of villages is told in Mr. John Lawrence’s report on the
settlement of the Rewari gargana of the Gurgaon District which he made in 1836.
One reason which he gives for he amposition of extravagant demands is
significant. He says- “The parana
was in the first instance greatly over-assessed. The majority of the largest
and finest villages were in the possession of persons of wealth and
infulence.........These people were set one against another in order to raise
the revenue, and in consequence of the feuds which exmeed among them, this was
but too easily accomplished. Each endeavoure to outbid the other and enhance
the assessment of his rival. This had the effect or raising prodigiously are
revenue of all these villages.”
Was
parhaps forunate that a great part of the Delhi
teritory did not come under our direct revenue management till wiser mathjods
had been learned by pain experience.
20. Protection of rights of peasant owners. The last object was secured by providing that the
fact that a person had not hitherto joined in the settlement lease should be no
bar to his being admitted to engage in
future, and by taking power in those cases in which the oareners did not become
jointly responsible to make what we should now call a subsetlement with them determining exactly the
amounts which they should pay to the farner talukdar,
or sadr malguzar. At the same time their interests were nrotected from
fisljkd in canseqnence of the defauit of the sadr maiguzar.
22. Record of rights to be framed after
exhaustive local enquiry.- A
very minute enqure arding the extent of the rights and interest of every person
sharing in the sqsr of the soil was to be made, and the rates of rent
demandable from all resident whether possessing the right claimed. His
decision, even when upheld by the Board of Revenue was not indeed final as the
defeated party might bring a regular civil in th zillah Court. But an immense step forward was taken when disputes
regarding rights in land were in the first instance submitted to an
officer whose duties forced him temake a
careful study of the peculiartities of Indian tenures, and who could hear the
cases line villages in the prese of the assembled brotherhood. It is the great
merit of Holt madenzie’s scheme that it moved every part of settlement work
from the kachahari to the camp.
23. A moderate assessment to be based on
careful enquiry.– The preamble
to Regulation VII of 1822 declares that “a moderate assessment being equally
conducive to the true interest of Government and to the well-being of its
subjects, “the officers engaged in revising the settlement were to aim not at
“any general and extensive enhancement.” But at “the equalizing of the public
burthens.” The demand was to be “fixed with reference to the produce and
capabilities of the land” (section 7) and the Government share of the rental,
which, following the precedent of the permanent settlement of Bengal
had been fixed at 91 percent, by regulations IX and X of 1812 was reduced to
five-sixths. This standard was, however, only to operate in case of
enhancements, and any abatement of the existing demand was only to be allowed
“on the clearest ground of necessity.” The data on which the assessment of an
estate was based and the reasons for the actual demand imposed were to be
embodied in an English village statement,. which is the germ of our present village
notebook, and in submitting these statements for confirmation, the collector
was to forward a paragana report
stating the general results of his enquiries into land tenures when framing the
record-of-rights, and the information he had acquired regarding the agriculture
of the country, the condition of its inhabitants, and the character of the
institiutions prevailing among them.
24. Failure of the scheme.- The plan was a masterly one, but it fell for the
time being by its own weight. The procedure contemplated was much too
elaborate. But in any care to make a record-of rights for the first time in a
country where the interests of different persons in the land were of so complex
and often of so doubtful a character was a immense undertaking, and the task
became hopeless when it was entrusted to Collectors fully occupied with the ordinary
work of district administration. Ten or twelve villages were taken up at a
time, and it was found after eleven years that nowhere was the settlanent
nearly finished, and that the periods regarded as necessary for its completion
in different districts varied from three to sixty years.
25. Two ways of determining the land revenue
assessment.- Nor was the
assessment work practically successful. There are two ways of determining the
land revenue just a there are two ways of assessing the income-tax. In both
cases a standard has been fixed by Government. If the rental of the landowner
or the profits of the tax-payer are certainly known the matter is simple. A
Treasury Officers finds no difficulty in taxing an official’s salary, and a
Sewttlement Officer can easily assess land which is cultivated by tenants
paying in cash. If the rents are honestly recorded. But accounts of the income
derived from trade or from land may be untrustworthy, or so complicated that it
is almost impossible to unravel them. A money0lender may receive his payments
and a landlord may collect his rents in grain, and even if the amounts realised
can be determined , it may be hard to calculate their real money value. In the
case of land further difficulties arise when the owners themselves till most of
their fields and let the remainder to tenants at rents which are customary
rather than competitive. When a Collector finds it impossible to assessa
shop-keeper by an examination of his books and a minute calculation of profit
and loss. He resorts to a more rought and readly process. He finds out what the
man has paid in fromer years, and equires whether there has been any apparent
change in his circumstances since the last assessment, or whether there is
anything of indicate that this incaing hitherto under-estimated. Has he spent
lavishly on the wedding of his osn or build for himself a finer house ? What is
the opinion of respectable neighbours and of the officails who are personally
acquainted with his circumstances as to the amount of taxation which he may
fairly be called upon to pay ? A similar process may be followed in assessing
the land revenue of an estate, though the enquiry in this case is naturally
much more complicated. An assessment then may be based either on an attempted calculation
of net assets or that are called
"general considerations." Or both processes may be followed and the
result of the one used to check the result of the other.
26. In settlements under Reuglations VII of
1822 assessment proposals supported by elaborate attmepts to calculate net
assests. - In the third decade
of the centruy cash rents were apparently by no means uncommon in the
North-Western Porvinces, but the record of them by the patwaris was untrustworthy. Assessment proposals were not based on
rent data, but were supported by elaborate but unconvincing calculations of the
gross produce and its value, and after deducting from this the wages of labour,
the profits of stock, and the percentage of the net assets allowed by the law
to the landowners, the residue was assumed to be the share of Government. To
quote again from the papaer of Mr. John Thornton referred to in paragraph 16 :-
"To
much detail was required on all points. In determining the revenue especially
broad principles were laible to be lost sight of in the intricacies of a
laborius calculation. Arbitrary rates were applied to innumerable arbitrary
gradations of soil. No positive objecting could be made to any step of the
process, but no faith could be placed in the result."
27. Regulatin VII of 1822 amended by
Regulation IX of 1833.- When
Regulation VII of 1822 had been in force for eleven years an amending Act,
Regulation IX of 1833, was passed. This is the law under which the Punjab settlements before the passing of the first Land
Revenue Act, XXXIII of 1871, purported to be made. It would have been more correct to say
that they were made under Regulation VII of 1822 as amended by Regulation IX of
1833. The main provisions of the new law rescinded "so much of Regulation
VII of 1822 as prescribed or has been understood to prescribe —
(A) that
the amount of jama to be demanded
from any mahal shall be calculated on
an escertainment of the quantity and value of actual produce, or on a
comparison between the cost of production and value of produce." and
(b) that
the judicial investigation of claims connected with rights in the land shall be
conduced simultaneously with the assessment of the revenue."
For
the future of Governer'General in Council was to determine the order in which mese
mater should be disposed of.
28. Birds influence on settlement policy. – In the next eight years the revision of the
settlment of the North-Western Provinces was nearly completed. During this
period merttins Bird was the Member of
the Board of Revenue in charge of settlments, and he stamped his own ideas on
the young settlments officers whom he chose, and through them on the work. Four
at least of the men who moulded the early settlement policy of the Punjab,
Lasrence, Montgomery, Edmonstone and Thorton, learned in his school and with
Donal McLeod, George Barnes, Charles Raikes, John Morris, and Richard Temple,
served under his most distinguished pupil in revenue matters, James Thomason
who become Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Porvinces in 1843.
Thomason's relation to Bird is weel expressed by Sir Richard Temple in his
stetch of Thomason's life (pages 86,87) :-
(Bird)
"was the foreunner into whose labours Thomason entered the pioneer, the
original the inventor, whose work Thomason took up, carried on to its
conclusion and fully effective. "Bird's onw description of his system is
contained in th Settlement Circular issued by the Board of Revenue in 1839,
which is the first of the four Circulars referred to in Loard Dalhousie's
despatch. But it will be better to draw our account of the scheme from the
masterly exposition of it given by Thomason in the "Directions for
Settlement Officers" Few Punjab officers probably referred to the
Circular, but all studied the "Directions".
29. Survey and record of rights. - All settlement were to be made and reported on
separately for each pargana. The
first operation was the laying down of village boundaries, a matter in those
days often of great difficulty and one of the first importance for the peace of
the country. As soon as this was effected the topographical survey of the
villages by the professional Survey Department of the scale of four inches to
the mile could proceed. The Survey Officer also superintended the cadastral or
field survey made by amins after the
native fashion, but eh maps (shajras)
and field registers (khasras) which
they prepared were also checked by the Settlment. Officer and his subordinated.
The contents of the Settlement records were not very different from those of
the records afterwards framed in the Punjab
under Act XXXIII of 1871.
30. Assessment based mainly on genearl
consideration. - The Circular
and the “Directions” both contemplate an assessment based mainly on general
considerations. The proper demand for each pargana was to be determined by a
careful enquiry into the resources and past revenue history of the estates
comprised in it more than by any elaborate attempt to ascertain the net assets
of the landowners and take a definite proportion there of as the Govenment share.
31. Thomason’s plan of assessment.-The fact is obscured by the additions made to the
text of the “Directions” in the Punjab edition
prepared by Mr. Barkely in 1875. It is well, therefore, to quote from the
edition published in 1850.
Paragraph 47.- “The object of the fiscal
part of the settlement is to fix the demand..........for a certain period o
years within such limits as may leave a fair frofit to the proprietors and
create a valuable and marketable property in the land.”
paragraph 48.- “This end cannot be
ascertained with certainty by any fixed arithmetical process or by the
prescription of any rule that a certain portion of the gross or net produce
shall be assigned to the Government and to the proprietors.”
Paragraph 49.- “If the net produce of
any one year or any given number of past years could be determined, it would
afford no certain guide to the produce of years to come. The future produce may
be more, if there is waste Land to come into cultivation, if the former system
of cultivation were faulty and expensive, if the products are-likely to come
into demand in the market, or if the opening out of new channels of commercial
inter course is likely to improve the local market. The future produce may be
less, if the reverse of all these is the case.”
Paragraph 50.- Not only would the actual
ascertainment of the net produce of an estate be a fallacious basis on which
alone to found any certain determination of the demand, but it is in itself
often most difficult to accomplish, and the attempt to effect it is likely to
produce many serious evils. In village where the collections are in kind, or
where the proprietors cultivate themselves and pay then jama by a bachh or rate upon
their sir land, it is almost impossible to ascertain either the net or gross
produce with any certainty. When once it is known that the Government demand is
to be limited to a fixed portion of the proved produce there is a general
combination to deceive and mislead the Settlement Officer. Village accounts are
forged or the true ones suppressed, falsehood and perjury are unhesitatingly
resorted to.” Paragrahp 51. “Still
the settlement Officer should not neglect any opportunities that present
themesleves for ascertaining the net produce of every estate for a single year
or for any series of years, but he should not, harass himself to attain
accuracy in this respect, no, when he fancies that he has ascertained the equal
net produce, should he treat this as any certain basis on which to found his
settlement. it is better to acknowledge at once that the operation is not one
of arithmetical calculation but to judgment and sound discretion, and to
proceed openly on that assumption. It is necessary, therefore, to point out the
object which the Settlement Officer should keep in view and the meas which he
has for attaining the proposed end."
32. Standard of assessment and assessment
guides. - Thomason went on to
say that Government should not demand more than two-thirds "of what may be
expected to be the list produce to the proprietor during the period of
settlement." The five-sixth net assets standard laid down in Regulation
VII of 1822 was still in force when the Settlment Circular of 1839 was issued.
But it was lowered to two-thirds in the first edition of the 'Directions for
the Settlement Officers' which appeared in 1844. After declaring the standard
of assessment and giving a definiation of net produce which is substantially
the same as that of net assets in the Punjab Settlment Instructions of 1893
(see Appendix I) Thomason proceeded :-
Paragraph 53. - "In order to enable
him to come to a correct opinion on the subject, the Settlement Officer has an
accurate return of the cultivated and cultivable area of the village, of the
irrigated and unirrigated land, and of the different kinds of
soils.............Except in a newly acquired country the Settlment Officer has
also the experience of past years to
guide him, and this should always be insured by memorandum from the office, not
only to past settlements and collections, but also of everything bearing on the
condition of the village, such as previous
litigation.......................Price realized if ever brought to sale,
mortgages, farming leases, etc. etc. He may also know pretty nearly the net
produce or gross rental of the village under settlement, or of several in the
same tract with which hermay compare it. He knows the character of the people,
the style of cultivation, the capability of improvement, the state of the
market for the produce. He has to aid him the experience of past years, the
opinions of the pargana officers, and the estimate of neighbouring zamindars."
Paragraph 54.- "All this
information he will lay himself out diligently to collect by personal
inspection of the country, by free communication with the people, and by
careful enquiry from every person and in every quarter whence he is likely to
derive information. Such of his information as is capable of being exhibited
numerically and compared he will reduce to a tabgular from in such manner as is
best calculated to bring the corresponding facts well under his eye together.
He will group the villages in his table according as he may find them placed in
similar circumstances or subject to similar influences.”
Paragraph 55.- "Great assistance may be obtained from the
following processes. A rough pargana map
is formed............Upon this map the Settlment Officer before commencing his
assessment notes down the rate at which the old jama falls on each village, so that a single glance may show where
any discrepancy exists in the rates paid any neighbouring villages. On suc a
map, moreove,r lines may be drawn or colouring used to point out where any
marked change takes place in the quality of the soild, for instance, where the
low and moist khadi ceases and the
high bangar begins, or wher the level
and uniform plain rises into an uneven and sandy tract, the number and depth of
the wells, population are numerous other interesting and important particulars
may be noted within the area of each village in the map. A map thus prepared
and gradually completed during eh period that the Settlement Officer is making
his personal survey of the pargana
cannot fail to be of the greatest use in fixing the future assessment."
Paragraph 58. - "The Settlment Officer will find it prodent not to
finally at once, byut having roughly assumed at first what seems in each case
to be fair, hence to determine the new jama
to the pargana by taking the
gotal of these, and then by the revedrse process to re-distribute either
himself by the help of others the pargana
total over the several village. Respectable zamindars
may often be advantageously consulted on the comparative assessment to two
villages with which they have no concern. In the end he will propose the result
of his deliberations to the proprietors themselves and be guided in his
ultimate decision by the circumstances under which they may accept or reject
his terms."
33. Warnings against probable mistakes in
assessment. - Mr. Thomason
proceeded to offer some general warnings which amy be thus summarised :–
(1) It is a more fatal error to over-assess
than to under-assess.
(2) Too much stress should not be laid on
the former assessement of, or even the former collections from, an estate.
(3) It must not be too readily assumed that
the demand is fair because the proprietor accepts it.
(4) Too great a desire to maintain equal
averages is a mistake.
(5) Good and bad cultivators be assessed
alike, but there is a strong tendency to assess the former too heavily and to
let off the latter too easily.
(6) Caution is required against increasing
the demand too rapidly.
34. Character of first N.W. Provinces
settlement under Regulation IX of 1833. - The first series of settlments made in the North-Western Provinces under
Regulation IX of 1833 were far better than any that had preceded them. Their
defects were such as resulted naturally from the attempt to carry out very
rapidly a difficult and complicated piece of work. The survey maps were usually
mere skeleton plans without topographical details, and the shajras were rough and the records often imperfect. But the rights
of the great body of peasant owners were for the first time defined and
safeguarded. Mr. Vincent Smith, in his Settlment Officer's Manual for the
North-Western Provinces, writes with reference to the assessment :-
"There was little or no real enquiry into
the real rental assets of the time.......................Mr. Thomason indeed
formally declared that it is imposible to fix what is the fair share of the
assets of a mauza, which should be
taken as the Government demand...............The Government jama is not necessarily a definite
portion of the assets'............Many Officers, therefore, working on the
principle thus frankly expounded, though, in accordance with the rules of the
Board of Revenue, they framed sets of rent rates, in practice utterly
disregarded their rates and assessed without regard to the valuation obtained
by applying the rates; and some officers who did so, for example, Messrs Muir
and Allen in Bundlkhand, were among the most successfuly. But many officers
made use of the rates arrived at by summary inquiry and were misled by them."
35. Settlments in Delhi
territory now included in Punjab. - In the settlements of the districts included in
the Delhi terriotory made between 1837 and 1844 no attempt was usually made to
frame rent rates, for the simple reason that rents hardly existed, tenants then
and for long after paying a rateable share of the Government demand just as if
they had been owners. In Rewari indeed John Lawrence assumed rent rates, but
the remarked that "the rent and the revenue is (sic) so mixed up that it
is difficult to ascertain with that degree of accuracy, which would serve any
practical purpose, what should be estimated as one and what the other,
"His description of the way in which he actually made his assessment in
interesting." After examining all the villages I classed them into such as
were considered highly, moderately, and lowly asssessed, and by a rough
calculation of the probably increase and decrease in the first and last was
enabled to determine the rpoper jama
for wht wholoe pargana. Having fixed
rates for each class of soil and irrigation into which the and had been
divided, and having ascertained that the value of the whole did not exceed the
proposed jama, I applied the
rates" (to the areas of the different estates). "The result enabled
me to correct my rates until I obtain such as applied fairly to villages
moderately assessed and by them the assessment of all the mauzas was finally
calculated." This is exactly the method recommended by Bird in the
Settlements circular of 1839. The general result of the Settlements in the Delhi terriotory was a
large reduction in the demand.
36. Term of settlement. - The term of most of the North-Western Provinces
settlments was fixed by Act VIII of 1846 at thirty year or upwards. The only
exception among districts now included in the Punjab
was Mr. Punjab was Mr. Brown's settlment of Hissar, of which the term was
twenty years.
37. Main features of settlement policy
received by Punjab from N.-W. Provinces.- The main features of the settlement policy which
the Punjab received from the North-Western
Provinces were :-
(a) A proper field survey with the results
embodied in a map and field register.
(b) A full enquiry into the rights and
liabilities of all persons having an interest in the soil, and the record of
these rights and liabilities in permanent registers.
(c) A moderate assessment based more on
general considerations than on an attempt to deduce the demand from an exact
calcuation of the landlord's net assets and the share thereof claimable by
Government.
CHAPTER IV
The Sikh
Revenue System
38. Land Revenue under the Sikhs. - An excellent account of the revenue systme or the
Muslim rulers of northern India
will be found in "The Agrarian System of Muslim India" by W.H.
Moreland (W.Heffer and Sons). Before sketching the growth of Punjab
settlement policy it will be well to give a brief account of the Sikh revenue
system. The Sikhs usually took a fixed share of trhe produce from the
cultivation excepts in the case of crops, such as sugarcane, cotton, and
tobacco, which could not conveniently be divided and for which money rates were
charged. This is equally true of the ruler of the Punjab and of the pettiest
Sikh Chieftain to the south of the Sutlej.
Instead of actually dividing the grain at the threshing floor (batai) the plan of appraising the
State's portion of the outturn by inspection of the corp (kan or kankut) was often adopted and it was common for the
officials who collected the revenue to oblige the cultivators to purchase the
Government share at prices in excess of the market rates. In the Punjab between
the Indus and the Sutlej, except in the
terriotyr governed by Diwan Sawan Mal, the State claimed from one-third to
two-fitths of teh crop, but for land with good natural advantages as much as
one-half was taken. At least these were the rocognised rates, and the villagers
had to bribe the appraising officers to take less. The rates in teh Cis-Sutlej
States were lower on the whole. The demand was increase by the levy of numerous
cesses (abwab), of which formidable
lists are given in some of the old settlment reports. Parctically no margin was
left for rent, and quoad revenue cultivators
of all classes were in a large part of the country treated alike, except a few
leading men in each village, whose services were secured by giving them under
the name of inam cash allowances; or
a percentage of the ruler's share of the produce, or lower rate of batai for their own fields, or grants
of land. In some parts of teh provinces, however, the Sikhs had, especially when they tried cash
assessments to allow the leading men or maloiks
to engage, and the distinction between landowner and tenant was a real one.
Joint responsibility for the payment of the revenue was not enforced. The
revenues of villages and even of large tracts were sometimes leased at fixed
sums to farmers, and there were many large jagirs.
Frarmers and jagirdars were left to
make their own arrangements with the Cultivators. Cash assessments were
occasionally made, the most famous being the very equitable one introuduced by
Misr Rup Lal in the two plain districts of the Jullundur Doad which he governed
from 1832 till Ranjit Singh's death in 1939.
39. Their administrative sytem. - Under such a system everything depended on the
local governor or nazim and the kardars under him. So long as he sent enough money to Lahore ther was little
enquiry as to his methods of Government. Mr. Barnes' description of the Sikh
administration of Kangra is worth quoting :-
"The
nazim was not only entrusted with the
entire receipts............but he was likewise reponsible for all
disbursements; the fiscal, military, and miscelaneous stated time for
rendering...........accounts to the State, sometimes two or three years
would.........elapse before he was called upon to give an explanation of his
strewardship. But he was obliged to be always prepared to give up his papers
and to pay the balance whenever Government might demand an
adjustment..........Over every pargana
was appointed the kardar,
who...........derived his appointment from the nazim............Sometimes (the kardars) undertook the farm of their
several jurisdictions.........taking their chance of remuneration in the
opportunities for extortion which their position conferred upon them. IN such
case the kardar held himself
responsible for all the collections and disbursements. ..............the people
were literally made over for a given period to his mercy and the rapacity of
the kardar was limited only by his
discretion. In most case the kardar
received a personal salary of Rs. 700 or Rs. 1,000 a year........Of course the
mere pay was not the only inducement to accept office. Under every native
Government there are certain recognised perquisties............which are at
least equivalent to the fixed emoulments, and under so lax a systme the
official was moderate indeed who did not overstep these reasonable
limits..........a kardar seldon stayed more than three
years. He obtained his office probably by the payment of a large propitiatory
bribe, and the smae agency by which he had succeeded in outsting his
predecessor was open to others to be directed against himself. Occasionally the
people would repair in formidable bodies to Lahore and obtained the removal of an
obnoxious kardar .............. The kardar was a judicial as well as a fiscal
officer.............of course his fiscal duties were the most importantr. His
chief business...... Was to collect revenue, and his daily routine of duty was
to provide for the proper cultivation of the land, to encourage the flagging
husbandman, and to replace, if possible the deserter. His energies were
entirely directed towards extending the agricultural resources of the district,
and the problem of his life was to maintain cultivation at the highest possible
level, and at the same time to keep the cultivator at the lowest point of
depression." (Barnes' Settlement Report of Kangra paragraph 326 et. seq.)
40. Diwan Sawan Mal's revenue system . - Diwan Sawan Mal was the greatest of the
governors and a revenue farmer on a very large scale, paying into the Lahore tresury by twently-two lakhs for the territory
subject to his control, which embraced the predisticts of Multan, Mazaffergarh, and Dera Ghazi Khan,
and parts of Montgomery, sng, and Dera
Ismail Khan. He was an oriental ruler of the best type, and did much to same to prosperity a
country which had ben desolated by a century of anarchy. He indeed the people
to combine to dig new, and restore old, canals, and brought in cultivators from
neighbouring States. He encouraged the sinking and repair of wells by giving
farvourable leases. A man who constructed a number of wells and settled
cultivators was arugded by being allowed to hold the whole area of one well or
a part of the area of each well revenue free. Following the example of the
Muhammadan reulers who preceded him irrivation, Sawan JMal levied a fixed cash
assessment on each upland well. For wells and jhaders in the riverain
tracts leases for a fixed cash demand were sometimes give, but the then the
finest crops, such as cane or indigo, paid special rates. A normal well area
tixeo according to the circumstances of each locality, and any cultivation in
excess at limit was charged for at a fixed money rate per bigha. In come places the
demand varled according to the number of oxen employed on the well and was
remitted when the well was deserted. Fro flooded lands a moderate share of the
produce was taken in kind occusaionally cash crop rates were charged. The
measurements were made at the time and
the rates were levied on ripened crops. The share of the State was pitched.
Finally low in the case of new cultivation. The Diwan's system was well suited
to the particulitural conditions of the country under his rule, and it is
intersting to note that experience has led us there in many cases to methods of
assessment very similar to those which he adopted.
41. Machjeasures taken to extend cultivation.
- The Sikhs were anxious to
increase the same by extending
cultivation and at the smae time to diminish the influence of the anlandowning
tribes and ruling families. With these objects they effected in sme parts the country
a great and on the whole beneficent, revolution in landed property by adding in
the extensive waste lands to the older estates numerous settlemnts of
industries cultivators of lower castes. The coflicting claims of the old lords
of the soil and the land-holders raised difficult questions when our first
records of rights were framed.
CHAPTER V
Summary
Settlement
42. Early Summary Settlements :— In the Cis-Sutlej States when the villages held
by any chief lapsed for want to heirs they were summarily assessed for short
period. These settlements were generally most oppressive. This is not
wonderful, as the common way of makin them seems to have been to calculate the
average money value of the Sikh collections for a short term of years, and,
afer striking out the cesses and allowing a deduction of 5 per cent for inam, to take the balance as the
Government demand. It was not realised that a fixed cash assessment must be far
lower than revenue paid by division of crops and therefore fluctuating
automatically with the character of the seasons. The revenue management was
extremely bad, and excessive demands were wrung from the people by harsh and
often illegal methods. The summary settlemnts of the Jullundur Doab made in
1846 by John Lawrence and his Assistants were much more reasonable, especially
in the two plain districts were he Settlements Officers were a good deal
influenced by their knowledge of the success of Misr Rup Lal's assessments. Nearly the whole of the Punjab,
west of the Beas with the exception of the districts included in the Governorhsip
of Diwan Sawan Mal and his successor Diwan Mulraj, was summarily settled in the
cold weather of 1847-48 by the Assistants of the Residence at Lahore. The work was done hastily by young
officers with no previous settlement experiecne. With no measurements to help
them, and with only such local knowledge as they cold gain in the course of
hurried tours. The collections of the past years as shown in the Darbar
accounts were taken as the main guide to the amount of the new assessment of
varying amount were allowed. The districts, which had not been assesed before
the outbreak of the second Sikh war, were put under summary settlments shortly
after annexation. These assessments were makeshifts at the best, and though
they were on paper at least a good deal ligther than the demands which they
supersede, they broke down with the extraordinary fall of prices which began in
1851. The establishment of a strong Government and a succession of very
favourable seasons gave a great impetus to cultivation, and this was increased
by the return to the plough of the soldeirs of the Khalsa army. Grain in
consequence became a glut in the market. In 1851 and 1852 wheat fetched only
half as much as the average price of the five years before annexation.
43. Later Summeary settlements. - In 1852 and the next few years it became
necessary to revise the summary settlements in districts in which the
operations of the first regular settlemnts had not been started, as the demand
first imposed could not be maintained in the face of the heavy fall of price.
In some districts a thrid summary settlement was made, in Peshawar there were even four, the last of
which, though only made for five years, continued in force for eighteen. For
many years it was considered inexpedient to put the frontier districts under
regular settlement, and Mazaffargarh was treated in the smae way. The last
district to be placed under regular settlement was Simla (1881-1884)
44. Difference between summary and regular
settlements. - A summary
settlement is defined in the first Land Revenue Act, XXXIII of 1871, as "a
provisional settlement made pending a first regular settlement. "Legally
the chief difference between the two lies in the fact that no presumption of
truth, such as is attached to entries in records-of rights prepared at regular
settlements (section 16 of Act XXXIII of 1871), belongs to similar entries made
at a summary settlement. An officer making a record-of-rights at the first
regular settlement could alter any entry made at a summary settlement simply on
the ground that he considered it incorrect. An officer making a re-settlement
under Act XXXIII of 1871 had no such power with reference to the entries in
records-of-rights framed at a first regular settlment (section 19 of Act XXXIII
of 1871). In some of the summary settlement there was not even the roughest
sort of khewat to show how the
revenue was distributed over holdings, in most there was no attempted at a
field measurement. Some of the later sumary settlements on the other hand were
much more elaborate proceeding. There was for example, little to distinguish
such a summary settlement as Captain Hector Mackenzie made of the Leiah and
Bhakkar tahsils in 1862 from a regular settlement.
CHAPTER VI
Development
of Settlement Policy in the Punjab
45. History of Punjab settlements dividen
into five periods.- The history
of Punjab settlments during the past fity
years may be roughly divided into five periods. The first extending from 1846
to 1863 begins with the settlement of the districts in the Cis Sutlej and
Trans-Sutlej territories after the first Sikh war and ends with the
appointement of Mr. Edward Prinsep as Settlement Commissioner. The seond covers
the years 1863-1871, during which Mr. Prinsep held that office, and terminates
with the passing of the first Land Revenue Act, XXXIII of 1871. The third
occupies the years 1871-1879, during which Sir James Lyall was Settlement
Commissioner. The fourth lasting from 1879 to 1889 is marked by the changes in
settlement and revenue procedure introduced by the late Colonel Wace as
Settlement and Financial Commissioner, and finally embodied in the second Land
Revenue Act and the rules under it. The fifth extends from 1889 to the present
day. As Financial Commissioner from 1879 to 1883 and as Lieutenant-Governor
from 1887 to 1892, Sir James Lyall directly controlled the settlment policy of
the province, and the influence of his views was strongly felt throughout the
fourth and fifth periods.
I. First
period of Punjab Settlement, 1846-1863
46. Settlement made in first period. - During the first period the whole of the
territory included in the Punjab before the
Mutiny, with the exception of the Simki and Muzaffargarh districts and the six
frontier districts, was put under regular settlement. The settlement east of
the Beas and Sutlej except that of Ferozepore were all begun before and
finished soon after, the final overthrow of the Sikh Government in 1849. the
work in the districts in the centre and south-west of the province was
completed bwfore or shortly after the Mutiny. In the north-western districts it
was greatly retarded by the events of 1857, and the settlements of Rawalpindi and Jhelum
were not reported till 1864, while that of Shahpur lingered on to 1866. Of the
districts transferred from the North Western Provinces after the Mutiny, Hissar
was re-settled and Sirsa settled for the first time during theis period.
Several of the settlement were made by officers who were carrying on at the
same time the ordinary administration of their districts.
47. Terms for which settlement were made. - Following the example of the North-Western
Provinces, a term of thirty years granted in the districts east of the Beas and
Sutlej, except in Kanga, Hissar and Sirsa
where it was considered inexpedient to fix the demand for more than twently
years. Lord Dalhousie, looking for a rapid growth of the resources of the
country, wisely ordered the settlement of the districts west of the Beas to be made for eten years only. Some of the
settlments effected towards the close of the first period were, however,
sanctioned for somewhat longer terms, and in few, if any, of the districts was
the currency of the first regular settlement actually limited to the short
period originally intended.
48. Assessements based on general considerations.
- The assessments were to still
greater degree than those made in the North-Western Provinces after passing of
Regulation IX of 1833 based on general considerations. The standard of
assessment was recognized to be two-thirds. and at the end of the period
one-half, of the net assets. Mr. John Colvin, the Lieutenant-Governor of the
North-Western Provinces, reduced the standard thereto "about one-half' in
1855. and this change was accepted a few years
later as applicabel as a matter of course to the Punjab also.2 But
the assessments were not founded on any attempt to determine with exactness by
the help of rents what the amount of a standard revenue demand really was.
Rents, which in the settlement literature of the day meant cash rents, were common
enough in the North-Western Provinces, but it was considered impossible to get
a trustworthy record of them before the announcement of the new assessment.3
and rent rates were therefore sometimes of little value. In the Punjab officers excused themselves from calculating
"rent rates" at all, because rents hardly existed. Rents taken by
division of crop were in many palces, though not, everywhere, clearly the
creation not of ordinary economic cause, but of the recent action of the State
in substituting a fixed cash assessment for a fluctuating share of the produce.
The dues which the landowners received from their tenants were simply the
equivalent of the revenue in grain which the Sikh kardars had taken from the actual tiller of the soil. Hence
they were not looked upon as rents in the true sense of the word, and, when
produce estimates were framed, a fraction of the gross produce, generally
one-fourth, was assumed as the share of Government throughout a whole district
with small reference to the varying batai
sates which actually prevailed.
But many officers did not think it necessary to frame any such estimates, and
their failure to do so as not regarded as a matter of any moment by the
controlling authorities. Sir John Lawrence ordered their preparation in the
Montogomery settlemetn (1852-1858) to be stopped. At the very end of this
period Sir William Davies is Shahpur drew up village produce estimates exactly
on the present lines but the Commissioner, Mr. E.L. Brandreth thought that this
was a falincious method or estimating the sental, the Financial Commissioner,
Colonel Lake, Remarked that" in working out...........a produce jama, or an assessment based upon the
estimated yield of the land, gross errors are likely to be made, and the result
thus obtained is cheifly of use for testing and correcting the estimates formed
by independent enquiries conducted in other ways, "while the
Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Donal McLeod, "seeing how liable to error are all
the detailed methods of ascertaining net
proceeds," thought that perhaps the best criterion of Captain
Davies' settlment was to compare it with those made in other tracts,
remembering the special circumstances of the parts of Shahpur which he
assessed. Thus, where a produce estimate was framed it was only treated as one
test among several and by no means the most important test, to apply to the
proposed assessment. The different in the value of the various classess of land
was determined by enquiry from the landowners, by reference to any cash revenue
rates used by the Sikhs, and sometimes by the making of a few experimental
cuttings.
49. Soil and assessement circles. - In
framing revenues rates regard was rarely paid to nattiral varieties of soil. Lands were merely classed according
to theri adventitious qualities as well-irrigated or canal-irrgated, flooded or
dry. But assessment circles were maller than at present, and estates within
circles were often arranged in several classes. This device of classes within
circle was held to be open to considerable objection, but it had at least the
result of indirectly recognizing soil distinctions.
50. Assessment guides. - Great stress was laid on the working of the
summary settlments. Villages were sometimes grouped with reference to their
past revenue history as highly, moderately, and lightly assessed. The rates
paid by estates of the second class gave a clue to the rates which would
probably be suitable as general average rates. The opinions of native officials
and of respectable landowners were weighed, those of the latter being
considered specially useful as regards the distribution of the gross assessemnt
over estates. Statistics olf cultivation, irrigation, population, ploughs,
wells, and other matters throwing light on the economic condition of each estate
and circle were tabulated. Towards close of the period the statistical enquiry
became under Mr. Prinsep's influence exceedingly through and elaborate tables
and maps were prepared with the object of furnishing the assessing officer and
his superiors with a complete comparative view of the state of different
villages and circles.
51. Assessment of different classes of land.
- The importance of testing the
real capacity of the wells and not trusting of the khasra entries for the determination of the irrigated area was
early recognized, but the meanse for reaching accurate
conclusions on the subject which we now possess in a continuous record of crops
did not then exist. Of the present perennial canals the only at work was the
Western Jamna Canal, the irrigation from which was almost entirely confined to
the districts of the Delhi territory, which remained part of the North-Western
Provinces down to 1858. The old Hasli Canal in Gurdaspur had not yet been superseded by the
Bari Doab Canal.
On the lands watered by the Western
Jamna Canal
fluctuating water-rates2 were levied, but the nahri land revernue assessement was fixed. In fact under the
contract system.3 The demand of water rates in many estates was also
fixed for a series of years. On the Inundation Canals in Multan an approach was made to a fluctuating
assessment by makin part of the revenue of canal villages remissible, the
intention being that, in case of a failure of supply in any cananl, a general
remission at so much per cent should be given in all the estates which it
watered. In Montogomery Mr. Vans Agnew wished to make the nahri assessment
fluctuating, but was over-ruled. The demand was divided "between land rent
and abiana.4 in such
proportion as to represent with approximate correctness their relative values,
the assessement being at the smae time fixed at so moderate an amount that no
reduction of abiana should become
necessary in ordinary years." an arrangement which speedily broke down.
Proposals for a fluctuating assessment of flooded land in Multan
and Montgomery,
which later experience has shown to have been sound, were rejected in favour of
a light fixed demand tampered by annual alluvion and diluvion assesment. In
this, as in some other case, ideas brought from the North-Western Provinces
proved stronger than local facts.
52. Character of the Assessments. - In the first regular settlements the demands
imposed at the summary settlements were generally much reduced. The first
administrators of the Punjab were familiar
with the great evils which had sprung from over-assesment in some of the
districts of the North-Western Provinces, and were therefore pre-disposed to
moderation. The low range of prices from annexation down to the famine of
1860-61 subjected all our early assessments to a very severe strain, and the
development of the country was less rapid than sanguine officials had expected.
In 1856 John Lawrence, when reviewing the state of the revenue administration,. remarked :—
"Moderation
of demand is not only due morally and actually to the people, but is also
conducive to the best interests of the Government...............The Chief
Commissioner would entreat all the revenue officers to recollect that the same
causes which heretofore have assitated moderation of..............assessment,
namely low prices, concentration of industry upon the land alone, excess of
production over consumption, cessation of service and such like employments,
the want of markets, the unavoidable subtraction of cash from the country at
the very time when money payments of the revenue are in vogue, .............are
still in operation and may probably so continue." The drift of opinion
towards great moderation in assessment became still more marked after the
Mutiny and the famine of 1860-61, and its strength may be gauged by the
sweeping remark of teh Financial Commissioner. Mr. Robert Cust, when reviewing
the Multan Settlment Report in 1860, that "our Punjab
settlments have all been pitched too high." To most it seemed that great
leniency in fixing the land revenue demand was the best means to secure the
quiet and contentment of the country, but the contrary view that higher
assessments would not really injure the mass of the peeasant owners, and would
entable us to conciliate their natural leaders by more liberal jagirs and inams,
was not without its advocates.2
53. Supervision of settlement.- By orders issued in 1851 the Board of
Administration required Settlement Officers to report separately on the
assessment proposed for each tahsil.
In this way, they remarked, "the Commissioners and the Board would be able
to exercise a more satisfactory supervision over the work." Commissioners
might allow one the rest after the introduction of teh new demand to elapse
before reporting to the Board. These orders were constantly neglected. It seems clear that the Board, or.after
its abolition, the Financial Commissioner, was rearely asked to sanction an
assessment till the final settlement report of the whole district was received
and the new demand had some times been in force for years before the Settlement
Officer found time to write his report. The papers sent up with the tahsil reports were a volume of survey
maps (No.1), a file of villages note-books (Nos. II to IV), and three general
statements or village lists (NOw. V to VII) for the remarks of the Settlement
Officers on the grounds of his assessment were appended to Sttement III in the
village note-bbok. A supervising officer who wished to exercise any check by
means of these papers must have relied largely on his power to refer to these
remarks. Statment V formed a sort of index to direct his attention to estates
in which the proposed demand fell at an exceptionally high or low rate on
cultivation. The elaboration of settlment statistics was begun by Mr. Prinsep,
when he was Settlement Officer of Sialkot
(1851-1856).
54. Judicial part of Settlement .- The judicial part of these settlements, by which
is to be understood the determination of the rights of all persons interested
in the soil, was quite as important as the fiscal. But any remarks required
under this head, and regarding the field survey and the contents of the
record-of-rights, will be reserved for the chapters tracting generally of these
subjects.
II. - Secord period of Punjab Settlement.
1863-71
55. Sources of information as regards second
period.- The chief sources of
information for the second period are the final reports of the settlements of
Lahore, Gujarat, and Gujrhwala by Mr. Saunders and Captian Waterfield and
Nisbet, the portion of Mr. Purser's Montgomery Settlement Report which deals
with Mr. Roe's assessment of the two Ravi tahsils
certain printed selection (New Series, Nos. 12, 13 and 14) from the records of
the Financial Commissioner's office, and some circulars issued by Mr. Prinsep
and Settlment Commissioner, especially one entitled "Paper showing how a system of assessment can be
adopted in districts where no rent rates prevail." To these may be added
the report in the first regular settlement of Sialkot written by Mr. Prinsep in 1863. Of
the revised setlemnt of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, and
Sialkot he
never furnished any final reports.
56. Settlement effected. - Mr. Prinsep became Settlement Commissioner in
1863. He had the immediate direction of the revised settlements of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, and Sialkot,
with Assistant working under him and the control of the revised settlments of Lahore, Gujranwala,
Gujrat and Montogomery, to which separate Settlement Officers were appointed.
During this period a revision of teh records-of-rights in Kauagra was effected
by Mr. J.B. Lyall, and the first regular settlements of Hazara and Peshawar were begun by
Captain Wace and Captain Hastings.
57. Policy of lenient assessments.- As noted above, the current of opinion had set
trrongly in favour of very lenient assessments. The country was on the eve of a
great development of trade and an extraordinary rise in the money value of
agricultural produce, but at the time it was doubted whether any very large
increase of revenue was likely to be secured in future,and the main object was
to keep the country quiet and content and to encourage agricltural
improvements. The policy of making settlements permanent in well-developed
tracts was under discussion, and had been accepted in principle by the orders
issued by the Secretary of State in 1862.
58. Mr. Prinskep’s views regarding well
assessment. - Mr Prinsepwhen
engaged on the first regular settlement of Sialkot had been much struck with the expense
and risk involved in well-irrigation. He held that we had inherited from the
Sikhs a tendency to overassess irrigated lands and that this amounted to unfair
taxation of capital expenditure, and operated as a bar to extensions of
irrigation by private enterprise, which would be the best safeguard against famines
such as that which had recently desolated the country. Reliance on survey data
as a means of determining the irrigated area led to much inequality and
hardship, the usual result being an over-estimate of the capacity of the wells.
The State had a right to assess water as a cause of increased fertility when it
became available for use just as it had a right to assess any inherent quality
of the land. But the demand must be very light, otherwise capital would be
taxed, and improvements discouraged. These were the root ideas of Mr. Prinsep’s
abiana system to be presently described.
59. Change of system required in assessing
canal lands. - At the saine
time, it was necessary to decide how the rapidly extending irrigation from the
new Bari Doab Canal should be dealt with, and in this matter Mr. Prinsep was
influenced by the discussion as to the treatment of irrigation from the Ganges
canal, which was being carried on simultaneously in the North-Western Provinces
in connection with the proposed permanent settlement. Here no questions of taxing the capital
expenditure of the landowner arose. The tendency of the system in force on the
Western Jamna Canal was to compel Government ot go on supplying water to any
village which had once taken it, even if profitable cultivation was quite
possible without it, and the water was sorely needed in more add tracts. At the
same time landowners were tempted to take water in seasons when it was not
really required. The system was specially unsuited to any country in which
irrigation was being rapidly developed, and great inequality of treatment would
ensue if in such a condition of things a permanent settlement was introduced.
60. Separation of land revenue and water
revenue. - The ground-work of
Mr. Prinsep’s assessment scheme was the separation of the assessment of land as
such from the assessment of the additional advantages accruing to the
landowners from the supply of it rigation of his own exertions or at the cost
of the State. In the produce estimates framed under the instructions the crops
entered were the actual crops grown, but the outturn represented “the average
yield in ordinary unirrigated land for a year of average rain “as “ascertained
from chaudhries, patwaris and other
for each chakla (assessment circle)
separately.” This involved the absurdity of assuming unirrigated yields for
certain crons.Which in some of the tracts under assessment were never grown on
unirrigated were never grown ono unirrigated land. The produce was valued at
the average princi currtent in the past thirty years. Now that the halfassets
rule had been adopted, Mr. Phnsep held that one-sixth of the gross produce
fairly represented the amount due to the State and instructed his subordinates
to use this fraction on their estimates. But it may be doubted whether as
Settlement Commissioner he attached more impotrace to the produce estimates
then he had done as Settlement Officer of Sialkot when he described as after
all but an anxiliary jama” which “answers the purpose for which it is required
pretty fairly, “Plough estimates were framed and the opinions of native
officials and respectable landowners recorded. But Mr. Prinsep’s chief reliance
was on a very careful study of the past fiscal history and present resources
natural and acquired, of each estate and circle.
61. Well abiana and canal water-advance
rate.- The land being asseseed
in its unirrigated aspect, he proposed to impose on each well as a small fixed
sum, and on canal lands a light fluctuating land revenue rate in
addition to the water-rate and levied like it on the acreage actuallywatered.
The additinal charge on account of irrigation was known as ablana or
water-advantage rate or revenue,. As regards the irrigated part of his
assessment, Mr. Prinsep cannot be siad to have formally abandoned the half-net
assets rule. But he practically did so. He arrived at the conclusion that one
rupee an acre was as much as the State could, justly claim as well abiana in the districts under
settlement, and he seems to have thought that this rare might properly be
adopted throughout the province. Starting from this assumption, the actual abiana in each circel was determined by
the average area served by an average well. In deciding what this was Mr.
Prinsep fixed his attention on the amount of the rainfall and the nearness or
distance of water from the surface, dividing the country into rain zones and
zones of approximately equal water level. These two factors have of course a
very marked effect on the acreage watered by wells, to check his conclusion,
and his estimates of the irrigating capacity of wells were exceedingly
moderate. The abiana throughout a
circle was fixed at so many rupees per well. The amount did not change from
village to village, and it seems to have been part of the original scheme that
every well in an estate should pay an equal amount though this was not
consistently carried out in the distribution of the revenue over holdings.
62. Water-advantage rate not uniform. - The water-advantage rate on the Bari Doab canal
was not uniform. It was Rs. 1-4-0 per acre near its head in the Pathankot tahsil of Gurdaspur falling gradually
lower down till it reached twelve annas in Lahore. The plan of the fluctuating canal
water-advantage rate had the great merit of securing to the State a sair share
of the profits arising from the rapid expansion of canal irrigation during the
currenev of his settlements.
63. Proposals regarding well abiana.- At first Mr. Prinsep though that the dry assessment and the well abiana would both be fixed in perpetuity
in a large number of estates. He admitted that his plan involved the surrender
of a considerable amount of revenue in some of the districts then under
settlement, but he argued that Government would only be giving up what it ought
never to have taken, and that the loss would be confined to a few districts
near the hills in which the difference between chahi and barani rates
exceeded one rupee. If the settlement was made permanent and new wells were not
assessed, some inequality would arise, but in view of the lightness of the
water-advantage revenue this was not a matter of great importance and in any
case it could be obviated by redistributing the abiana every five years over all wells at work. Many new wells
would be sunk, and in this way the abiana
would become lighter and lighter. But, if Government was not ready to accept
for ever the reduction of revenue involved in his proposals, it could gradually
be recovered by assessing new wells with the circle abiana rate after a short period of exemption, the abiana on wells falling out of use being
remitted. When at last it was decided that a permanent settlement not be made,
Mr. Prinsep suggested that the well abiana
might remian unchanged for fifty years.
64. Well abiana system condemned. - His proposals were reported to Government, but
for years no orders were passed, and, when the system was finaly condemend, it
was too late to prevent its application to the districts under Mr. Prinsep's
supervision. But a resolution issued in 1872 (Department of Agriculture,
Revenue, and Commerce, No. 818, dated 14th June, 1872) forbade its adoption in
future settlements.
65. Objection to the system. - The objections brought against the scheme were as
follows. It violates the principle that the State is entitled to half the net
assets. It involves much inequality, for under it villages with good wells will
be more lightly assessed that villages with poor wells. It will cause a loss of
revenue which is some districts, such as Jallandhar, will be very serious. This
loss is unnecessary, for it is far from certain that the proposed methods of
assessment will stimulate the sinking of new wells more than the existing
system. The scheme conflicts with the orders for the grant of protective leases
for new wells issued by the Board of Administration in 1850, by which the
expenditure of capital in well-sinking was already sufficiently protected. The
plan also weakens "the principle of village unity and responsibility"
by taking out of the hands of landowners the power of distributing the whole
revenue over different classes of land in whatever proportions they think fit.
It might also have been urged that to assume that one rupee an acre was a
proper water-advantage rate throughout the province was a rash generalization from
the facts observed in a few contiguous districts in one corner of the Punjab,
and that the inevitable tendency of the plan would be to force up the
assessment of unirrigated land to compensate for the reduction of well
assessments. But the fatal objection to the scheme was
that it assumed a much greather equality of conduct. In wells than reaily
exists. A good deal may be said for the imposition of that part of the
assessment of the land attached to a well which represents the difference
between the product of irrigated and unirrigated rates in the shape of a lump
sum abiana.2 But it will rarely be found that the same sum is
suitable for every well in a large village and it is absurd to imagine that it
could be suitable to every wel in an assessment circle. The result, as was seen
at the time, was sure to be the reduction of the assessment to a level suitable
for villages with the weakest wells.
66. Controversy regarding Mr. Prinsep's
assessments.-At the same time
the warnings Mr. Prinsep uttered as to the tendency to lay undue burdents on
well lands were salutary, and th eattention be paid to the ascertainment of the
irrigating capacity of wells was a good lesson to later Settlement Officers. In
the recent re-settlment of the districts in his charge his view that great
moderation was requisite in assessing their wells has been to a large measure
vindicated. The initial demand in the three districts for whose settlment Mr.
Prinsep was immediately responsible was somewhat below the demand of the first
regular settlement. The assessments were condemned as unduly lenient and only
sanctioned for ten year, but the term was soon after extended to twenty years.
It must be remembered taht the part of his scheme which involved the assessment
of new wells was never put in force, and that, as he had anticipated, the
receipts from the canal water-advantage revenue rose rapidly.
67. Improvements in compilation of
statistics.-The improvements
which he effected in the compilation of statistical information were of permanent
value. A good form of village note-books took the place of the Nos. II, III and
IV statments. The tables contained in these note-books wre abstracted in a
statement for each assessment circle with the remarks of the Settlement Officer
justifying his proposed assessment noted upon it. Till the Settlment
Commissioner had passed orders on the cirlce statment the work of assessing the
revenue village by village was not to be undertaking. The assessment statements
prescribed in the rules under the first Land Revenue ACt, XXXIII of 1871, were
to a great extent modelled on returns devised by Mr. Prinsep.
III. - Third Period of Punjab Settlements, 1871-1879
68. The third period of Punjab lasted from
1871 to 1879.- The third period
of Punjab settlements lasted from 1871 to
1879. During almost the whole of it Sir James Lyall held the office of
Settlement Commissioner, and when he left it he became Financial Commissioner.
He took up the former appointment in November, 1871, and in the same month the
first Land Revenue Actg, XXXIII of 1871, was passed. Sir Robert Egerton
influenced the settlement policy of this period, first as Financial
Commissioner, and later as Lieutenant-Governor. He and Sir James Fitz James
Stepten, then Legal Member of Council, were the joint authors of the Land
Revenue Act of 1871. The rules under the Act were framed by Mr. D.G. Barkley
under Sir Robert Egerton's supervision and were followed by the former
officer's revised edition of Thomason's Directions, which was the text-book of
revenue officers in the Punjab till the
passing of the second Land Revenue Act in 1887.
69. Settlement effected during this period.-The settlements which belong to this period tal
into four groups :-
(1) the
first regular settlement of the six frontier districts and of Muzaffargarh;
(2) the
revised settlements of three south-western districts, Multan,
Jhang, Montgomery
and of part of Ferozepore;
(3) the
revised settlement of Jhelum;
(4) the
revised settlement of the greater part of the old Delhi
territory Rohtak, Gurgaon, Delhi
and a tahsil and a half of Karnal.
Some
of these settlements had been begun before the opening of this period, and some
were not finished its close. The work in the districts included in the first
two groups, except in the case of Peshawar
and Hazara, whose settlements belong largely to the previous period, was under
the control of Mr. Lyall; in the districts of the third and fourth groups the
local Commissioners were the supervising officers.
70. Attempt to make one-sixth gross produce
the standard.- The Financial
Commissioner, Mr. Egerton held that the absence of competitive cash rents made
the half net assets standard unsuitable to the Punjab, and set it aside with
the sanction of the Lieutenant Governor, declaring that the basis of assessment
should in future be a share of the gross produce to be fixed by the Local
Government. This proportion, as in Mr. Prinsep's
satements, was put at one-sixth approximaterly, unless for special reasons a
different rate was adopted, but the value of grain and money rents as applied
to the crop and area statements was also to be noted. Statistics of prices for
twenty years were to b tabulated2 and experiments were to be made in
all districts to ascertain the average yield of the principal crops3.
In the instructions to the Settlement Officers of Gurgaon, Delhi and Karnal,
which he framed under section 9 of the Land Revenue Act for the sanction of
Government, the one-sixth produce standard was laid down, but the Government of
India, disapproving of any departure from the rule of half assets refused to
sanction the instructions, and in thosue which were finally issued in 1873 the
standard was distincley declared to be "one-half of the share of the
produce of an estate ordinarily recivably by the landloard either in money or
in kind." The importance of the produce estimate in the country where the
landowners as a rule divided the crops withe their produce estimate in a
country where the landowners as a rule divided the crops with their tenants,
was admitted.4 These were the insturctions in accordance with which
assessments were made till the second Land Revenue Act was passed in 1887. All
reference to the one-sixth standard was omitted in the final text of the rules
under the Land Revenue Act, but in the form of produce estimate appended to
them it continued to be shown as the measure the State's claim. Mr. Purser had
shown that in the part of Montgomery which he settled only sixth of the produce
would absorb two-thirds, and in part of Ferozepore more than the whole, of the
landlord's receipts, Accordingly in the settlements under Mr. Lyall's control
the estimate of one-sixth of the gross produce was usually supplemented by a
calculation based on half the actual rental. But in most of the districts of the
old Delhi
territory was grain rents were rere, one-sixth of the gross produce continued
to be used exclusive as the standard.
71. The produce estimate. - There seems to have been tendency to
discriminate more between soils than hitherto, but the classification was
usually made on broad and single lines. Considerable attention was paid to the
elaboration of produce estimate Mr. Lyally's sep's abiana system having disappeared irrigated as well as unirrigated
rates were shown, but an attmept was not always made to discriminate between
diffierent soils in the produce estimate, even when they were separatly
recorded for assesment purpose. The yield was determined with reference to
experimental cuttings and to information obtained by verbal enquiry. The experiments
were many, but the area observed in each case was very small, and the results
were generally regarded as of little worth. The prouce was as a rule, valued at
the average of the prices prevailing during the past twenty years. As the
general trend of prices since 1861 had been upwards, the valuation was
genearlly a moderate one with reference to existing circumstances. The
difficulty of determining what was an average crop was felt to be extreme, and
naturally the rates of yield adopted were pretty low. The area sown was known
to vary largely in many traots from year to year, but the basis of the figures
given in the produce estimates was the crop entries for each field made at the
time of survey in the measurement khasra
and not, as at present the average area deduced from a continuous record
founded on fairly accurate harvest inspections. Major wace, who succeeded Mr.
Lyall as Settlment Commissioner, in 1879 maintained that having regard to the
sytem of cultivation generally followed, at least in the case of unirrigated
lands, the record made at survey was bound to produce grossly in accurate
results, and Mr. Lyall, while scarcely prepared to admit this, looked on
produce estimates, as only a rough guide, and, like the other revenue
authorities of the day in the Punjab, allowed wide divergence from them in
actual assessment. Not only the area sown, but the yield also was known to
fluctuate greatly. Mr. Lyall expressed his own opinion of produce estimates in
the pithy remarks, that they "are not, of course, accurate instruments,
but they are like an old gun which sends a ball somewhere near the mark
sometimes low, sometimes high." In practice the estimates were generally
considered to shoot too high for assessment purposes. Mr. Lyall held that it
was impossible to assess peasant proprietors up to the half-assets standard
where the population was at all dense and rent were high owing tot he
competition for land, gratuated greatly.
72. Fluctuating assesments;- This period was distinguished by the wide extension
of the plan of fluctuating assessements, the first example of which in the
Punjab was Mr. Princiseps water-advantage rate for the lands irrigated by the
Bari Doab Canal. Act XXX of 1871, which applied only to the Punjab and the Northern India Canal
and Drainage Act, VIII of 1873, which superseded it, recognised this method of
assessing canal lands in the provisions relating to the imposition of an
owner's rate over and above the rate paid by the occupier as the price of the
water supplied. This new system of rating was adopted in the districts watered
by teh Western Jamma and Agra Canals; and in substance also in the tracts in Montgomery depended on inundation canals from the Sutlej. At the same time Mr. Lyall, with the full support
of Sir Robert Egerton, introduces fluctuating assessments in the sailab tracts of Bannu, Dera Ismail
Khan, Multan
and Muzaffargarh. These and other instances of the fluctuating method of
assessment belonging to this period are noticed more fully in chapter XXXVII.
73. In reased control over settlement; - The lax control over settlement which had
highetto prevailed gave place to much closer supervision. A settlement could
now only undertaken with the sanction of the Governmet of India (Act XXXIII of
1871, section) and the officer put in charge of it was furnished with
instructions, stating the principle on which the revenue was to be assessed,
approved by the same authority (section 9). A report on the rates to be adopted
in each tahsil was submitted for the orders of Financial Commissioner and of
the Lieutenant-Governor, but it was not the usual parctice for the latter on
examine the rates closely or often, at this stage of the proceedings; any
detailed remarks on the rates closely or often, at this stage of the proceedings;
any detailed remarks on the assessments, unless some important change, such as
the introduction of the owner's rate, was in contemplation. A settlement was
considered to be in progress will
sanctioned by Local Government (section 17). this sanction ws not formally
given till the final report for the whole district had been reviewed by the
Local governement, and even by the Government of India. It was then too late to
alter assessments which had generally been in force for years an example of the
fact that checks which are to eleborate are worthless. After receiving
orders on his tahsil assessment report, and amouncing his village jamas, the Settlement Officer forwarded
a detailed list of the latter for the Financial Commissioner's approval
(section 31 and rules under Act XXXIII of 1871, Chapter C.V. 5)
74. The local rate.- The local rate was first imposed during this
period. Its history and that of other cesses will be given in the next chapter.
IV- Fourth Period of Punjab Settlements, 1879-1889
75. Fourth period, 1879-1889.- The fourth period of Punjab settlements embraces
the ten years from 1879 to 1889, during which Major Wace held successively the
offices of the settlement Commissioner and Financial Commissioner. For the
first four years Mr. Lyall was financial Commissioner and for the last two he
was Lieutenant-Governor. The Settlement Commissioner was abolished in 1884 when
a second Financial Commissioner was appointed, and the control which the
Commissioners of divisions had exercised over settlements in the early days of
the Punjab Administration was restored to them. The first regular settlement of
Simla and the revised settlements of Ludhiana,
Hoshiarpur, Jallunduar, Rawalpindi, Amabala, and
parts of Karnal and Ferozepore were made in this period and before its close
the re-assessement of Hisar, Gurdaspur, Kangra, Shahapur, Gujrat, Gujrawala, Sialkot, Lahore and Amritsar had been
undertaken. The ten years beginning with 1879 were marked by great changes in
settlement procedure culminating in th system embodied in the Land Revenue Act
of 1887 and the Rules uder it, and in the instructions under section 49 of the
Act and the assessment circular issued in
1888.
76. Policy underlying the changes introduced
in this period.- The keynote of
the new policy was assimilation of settlment work and ordinary district revenue
work. Its success depended on the possibility of so improving the latter as to
avoid the necessity of extensive surveys and revisions of records at future
settlements and of basing the assessments largley on a continuous record of
agriculature statistic compiled by a well-trained staff of patwaris.
77. Patwaris and village revenue records
before 1885. - The importance of
having an efficient body of patwaris in every district and of embodying in the
village reocreds all changes of ownership and occupation was early recognised
in the Punjab2 but the orders issued on the subject bore little
fruit. Generally speaking it may be said that patwaris spent the time between two settlements in forgetting what
they had learned in the first Year by year the records were allowed to get more
and more out of date, so that when the time for a new settlement arrived much
money and labour had to be spent in entirely recasting them. In the third period
of Punjab settlement some practical steps were
taken to secure a higher degree of efficiency. If the rules in force, which were
brought together in a vernacular patwaris
manual in 1876, could have been carried out in practice there would have been
available, for every estate a jamabandi
showing the existing state of ownership, occupancy and rents and a useful set
of statistical returns. The scheme was sound, for it recognized the cardinal
fact that the maintenance of the record and of the annual statements of
cultivation and wells (milan
khasra) crops (jinswar) and transfers
(naksha intikal) depended on a
periodical field-to-field inspection. But it was marred by defects in detail
and by over elaboration. The mutation procedure especially was slow and
cumbrous and was in practice neglected, while really accurate crop returns were
not to be looked for when the girdawari
of both harveste took place at one time in the beginning of the cold weather.
But a much more perfect system would have fialed owing to the weakness and
inefficiency of the supervising staff. As there was no proper oversight of the patwari's work he often found it quite
safe to register the crops without seeing them, and to make the new jamabandi a copy of that of the
previous year. It is, therefore, small wonder that the statistical returns were
worthless for assessment purpose. No one who knows what land recorded were like
before 1885 will dream of under-valuing the reforms introduced in this period.
78. Shaping of the new policy in the United
Provinces. - The new policy
first took shape in the United Provinces, where it was clearly outlined about
the year 1874 in a note written by Sir Edward Buck when officiating as
Secreatary to the Board of Revenue2. He pointed out that the object
to be aimed at was to secure -
(a) a correct record of occupancy crops,
and, as far as possible, rents, based on yearly field-to field inspections; and
(b) a correct record of agricultural statics
excepted from (a).
The mean to this end were-
(a) the
provision of a properly educated staff of patwaris;
(b) the
strengthening of the supervising staff of kanugos;
and
(c) the appointment of a special officer for
the Province charged with the oversight of record work and the collection of
the agricultural statistics on a uniform system.
So
far as settlements were concerned the fruit of these measures would be a great
saving of time and money-getting rid of necessity of framing new records, and
laying a much more solid foundation for assessement. In 1877 these ideas were
embodied in the United Provinces in a new set of patwari rules and a further development was given to them by making
provision" for the systematic maintenance of village maps up to date, so
that they shall each year represent existing facts............with the view of
obviating, as far as possible, largely increased and a Director of Agriculture
was appointed. The adoption of similar measures in other provinces was one of
the recommendations of the Famine Commission and in 1880 and succeeding years
was urged on Local Governments by the Government of India.
79. Introduction of the new system into the
Punjab.- In the Punjab the new system found in Major wace a hearty
supporter. As soon as he became Settlement Commissioner he had taken measures to
secure the accurate registration of the corps of both harvests at the time when
they ripened, and ordered the average results for several years to be entered
as the crop areas in the produce estimate. At the same time he provided for a
very careful and detailed enquiry int prices and the carrying out of numerous
experiments hitherto made having been discredited on account of the smallness
of the plots observed (paragraph 71) much larger areas were now selected and
elaborate reports of the experiments carridount were submitted to the
Settlement Commissioner harvest by harvest. Colonel Wace's instructions did not
differ greatly from those at present in force. His next step was to simplify maps and
records by discouraging excessive minutenes in survey and record work o the
satwari in the field was followed by an elaborated scrutiny or “attestation” in
the office, after which the record-of-rights was faired.2 The
inevitable tendency of the old system was to encourage careless work in the
field both on the part of patwaris and of supervising officers. A further
advance was made in the instructions issued in 1883 in connection with the
Karnal-Ambala and north Ambala settlements. The remarks prefixed by Major Wace
to these instructions explain the gerleral character of the changes introduced,
but they do not refer to the nevideparture in survay work then prescribed, the
value of which has since been fully established.
1. Since
1 issued my Circular No. 3, dated 8th january, 1880, a material simplification of
settlenent work has been attained in the settlement recently commenced. We have
also succeeded in working almost entiraly through the patwari agency. But the most important change which has taken place
is expressed in the Government of India’s resolution NO. 2 dated 4th October,
1881.2
2. “The
main position which it is proposed to take up in order to forward the
Government of India’s policy is that settlement operations shall not, so far as
they are concerned with the record-of-ritghts, be of a nature different to the patwari’s ordinary work, but that they
shall merely continue that work under closer supervision and with improved
accuracy. The previous scheme of settlement operations which involves the
suspension of the patwari’s ordinary
work, and the elaborate preparation of a new record in four distinct stages
(boundary survey, field survey, attestation, and fairing) must be regarded as a
thing of the sat. And the efforts of the Settlement Officers and his
establishment must be given to securing
correct annual papers of the same nature as those filed when settlement
operations are not in progress; re-measurement being resorted to only so far as
necessary, and being made in such cases so simply and accurately that
attestation and fairing shall be unnecessary.
4. “Usually,
before re-measuring any village at least one set of annual papers should have
been prepared under the supervision of the settlement establishment; that is to
say there will have been a kharif
girdawari followed separately byu a rabi girdawari, all mutation and
partitions not previously incorporated in the annual papers will thereby be
brougbht up to date; and the efficiency of the field map and its shortcomings
will thereby be brought up to date; and the effeciency of the field map and its
shortcomings will be teste. In short, the Settlement Officer will, by this
operation, amend and correct the villlage jamabandi so far as it its possible
to do so without re-measurement. He will then be in a position to say whether
re-measurement is desirable or not. If re-measurement is necessary, the
corrected jamabandi and the
girdawaris by which it was preceded will have given a complete and accurate
list of the holaings; and the measurement will not be ttinually checked by the
necessity for making numerous entries in the list of mutations.
6. “The
Settlement Officer’s record work then will be -
(i) to secure accurate girdawaris of each
harvest separately throughout the team of settlement operations;
(ii) to see that throught this term complete
annual papers are prepared and filed on the same system as will be carried out
after settlement operations are finished, and to perfect that system, and to
drill the patwaris thoroughly into
it;
(iii) gradually to provide new field surveys of
the villages in which re-survy is required.”
7. “The
revised settlement record will be.-
(i) in villages that are re-surveyed, the
measurement papers as described in the enclosed instructions, plus the jamabandi of some year of measurement-
(ii) in village that are not re-surveed, the jamabandi of some year shortly preceding the
introduction of the new assessment.
“In
both cases the introduction of the revised assessment will be a subsequent and
entirely separate operation, not to be attempted until the record has been revised
so far as may be necessary. The revised administration paper will be added to
the revised recort by the Superintendents as they find leisure.”
8. “Your
reports on the new assessment rates of each tahsil
can be submitted, as soon as you consider that you have sufficiently
reliable data for each tahsil. These
data will best made up-
(i) partly of the data of villages
re-surveved; and
(ii) partly of data taken from the annual
papers of villages not yet re-surveyed, or which it is not intended to re-survey.”
80. The new system made general. In 1885 the kanungo
staff was orgnized and greatly strengthened and a Director of Land Records
was appointed. At the same time new patwari and kanungo rules, largely founded
on the settlement instructions reforred to above, were issued. Their object was
explained to be the securing of -
(a) real efficeency among the patwaris and
kanungos,
(b) improved field-to-field inspection, and
record of the result of each harvest;
(c) the continuous record in convenient tables
ofthe total results of each harvest and each year’s husbandry, these tables
being kept first by villages, secondly be assessment circles, and thirdly by tahsils;
(d) the punctual record and attestation of
all mutations of rights and their prompt in corporation into the jamabandi;
(e) the cessation of the present practice,
under which in numerous cases mutation orders are passed in the absence of the
parties, or after calling them away from their villages to the tahsil office;
(f) the release of the tahsildars and
naib-tahsildars from a large amount of revenue case work, which under the
procedure hitheroto prescribed for such work, ties them to their tahsil offices, and overburdens their
small office establishment with clerical duties;
(g) and, as a consequence, the systematic
visiting of each village either by the tahsildar
or naib-duties;
The
statistical tables referred to under (c) weree embodied in village assessment
circle, and tahsil revenue registers. The volume containgin the village
register took the place of the old village not-book.
81. The Land Revenue Act of 1887 and the
first settlemtents made under it. - In the Land Revenue Act of 1887 the policy of assimiating settlement and
ordinary revenue work was carried to its logical conclsions. The term
settlement disappeared altogether. The Settlement Officer was henceforth a
revenue officer invested with most of the powers of collector and charged with
the duty of making a general re-invested with most of the powers of a collector
and charged with the duty of making a general re-assessment. The records drawn up at settlement and
the annual records prepared by patwaris were put on precisely the same legal
footing, and a special revision of the record-of-rights, though provided for,
was regarded as and exceptional proceeding, having no necessary connection with
the ressessment of the land revenue. The officers put in charge of the
settlements started about the time of the passing of the Act were enjoined only
to underatde the re-measurement of an estate where the necessity for it was
clearly proved. Where the old maps on being tested proved accurate enough for
revenue work, they were to be retained, and brought up to dro, No special
rvision of records was orderd. The pronciple was laid down that the disst
revenue staff as recently strengthened by the re-organisation of the kanungo agency slould be fully utilized,
and the extra establishments allowed were small. The old plan of making the
Deputy Commissioner himself reassess hi district was received in some and it
was intended that the tahsildar should
take a large share in the settlement work of his tahsil.
82. The assessment instructions under section
49 of the Act and the Assessment Circular issued in 1888. - About the same time assessment instructions under
section 49 of the Act of 1887 superseded those which had been in force since
1873 (see Appendix (I) and a circular was issued bringing assessment procedure
into conformity with the new policy.2 A broad and simple
classification of soils and grouping of villages into assessment circles was
advocated. For his assessment data the Settlement Officer was henceforth to
rely on the new revenue registers (paragraph 80), and especially on the
continuous record of crops, which they contained. The elaborate returns
hitherto compiled for assessment purposes were given up. “The proposed rats,”
it was said, “should be justified by broad and simple arguments such as will
command equally the confidence of superior revenue authorities and the assent of
the landowners. In short, provided that a sufficient account is given of the
reasons by which the proposed rates are supported, every practicable
abbreviation and simplification of these reports is much to be desired. The
points on which the new assessment turns should be approached with all
practicable directness, avoiding detailed notice of collateral issues except so
far as they are of major importance. As a general rule Government has no desire
to materially alter pre-existing rate. They may be raised where there I a
marked rise in prices, where they are unduly low as compared with well
established rents or the rates of adjacent districts, or where the provision of
new means of irrigation has completely altered the circumstances of the tract.
They may be lowered where there is reason to think them above the half assets
standard, or where when applied to circles in which the area of cultivation has
greatly increase, they given percent ages of enhancement which cannot be safely
taken."
The
circular as drafted by Colonel Wace relinquished the produce estimate
altogether as an assessment guide. Bur. Sir James Lyall was not prepared to go
this length and required Settlement Officer to frame as estimate of the
"net value of rent to proprietors said by batari-paying tenants at will in an average year for an average
holding for as many classes of land as are necessary to be taken for separate
revenue rates in each circle.'
He
also required them to submit two reports, a preliminary one deducing the half
net assets standard rates from the rent data, and a further one dealing with
the actual assessment which it was proposed to impose, and the revenue rates to
be used as a general guide in its distribution over estates. He observed :-
"The
preliminary report will be based entirely on actual facts, no allowances being
made with regard to results, and will be termed the preliminary report on
assessment circles, prices, yields, rent rates, and half net assets. The
Financial commissioner on receiving the report will consider if the proper
number of assessment circles and of classes of soil have been used, and whether
the prices and rates of yield and zabti
rates adopted are fair, the facts as to customary rent rates and competition
cash rents may be accepted as correct, and the theoretical half net assets soil
rates accepted as fair estimates. When the Financial Commissioner has approved
this report, the Settlement Officer will begin the actual work of detailed
assessment. He will apply his theoretical standard rates to a number of average
villages in each assessment circle, which there is no special reason for
assessing below the standard, and devise revenue rates suitable for assessing
such average village in each circle. If these rates are for general reasons
considerably below the theoretical rates, he should be prepared to give us
general reasons for going below in his assessment report. Having thus got his
revenue rates to be used as assessment implements for each circle, should
inspect and assess each village, going above or below his rates according as
the village is above or below average, but making allowance for special
circumstances of all kinds such as comparative habits and circumstances of the
proprietors, proximity of markets, communications, incidence of past
assessments, profits from grazing, sale of good, young stock, ghi, fruit, & c. He will then report this proposed
gross assessment for each circle based on his revenue rates and rough detailed
village assessments for approval. This will be is assessment report. It is not
necessary, of course, that his revenue rates should bring out his proposed
assessment. As a fact they should ordinarily bring out something higher if they
are fairly and properly framed."
83. Death of Colonel Wace in 1889.- The remodeling and settlement procedure in the Punjab on the lines which Colonel Wace had strenuously
advocated was now complete. He was not permitted to watch over the development
of the new system for he died in April, 1889.
V. - Fifth period of Punjab Settlements,
1889 to present day
84. Fifth period 1889 to present day. - Of the fifth period extending from 1889 to the
present time little need here be said, for the greater part of this book is an
attempt to explain settlement procedure and policy as it now exists. It may be
described as a time in which the old assessment policy and the new procedure
were put to the test. The procedure was known to be essentially sound, thought
it would have been wiser to make the passage from the old to the new system
more gradually. But the idea which underlie the changes in revenue and
settlement procedure should suffer no disparagement from the fact that they
were carried to their logical results too suddenly. - As regards assessment it
may be said with truth that Settlement Officer of the present day have in the
revenue registers aids such as none of their predecessors enjoyed, and that
year by year these aids will become more valuable.
85. Expectation that operations could at once
be much simplified not fulfilled.- The expectation that re-survey could in most cases be avoided and that
the correction of the old field maps would be a comparatively simple process
proved to be fallacious, and the small establishment originally provided for
the new settlements were found to be insufficient. Bu it these settlements
lasted longer and cost more money, they at the same time. Elded larger
enhancements that they been originally contemplated, and a better foundation
was laid for future revenue work on the now lines than would have resulted from
more summary operations. Some of the changes introduced by the assessment
circular of 1888 had to be reconsidered. The substitution of a produce estimate
for an average holding for an estimate of the total produce of an assessment
circle and the plan of dealing with half assets standard rates and revenue
rates in separate reports were soon abandoned. Early in this period, Sir James
Lyall introduced an important change in the assessment of nahri lands by which a fixed canal-advantage rate took the place of
the old fluctuating water-advantage rate (see Chapter XXVI). A fresh set of
assessment instructions was sanctioned by the Government of India in 1893
(Appendix I. The new arrangements for the control of
settlement adopted in the previous period did not work well, and the
appointment of a special Settlement Commissioner was revived in 1897.
86.-A.
Recent development of the system of revising the record of rights. - In the
districts that came under settlement from 1902 onwards commencing with Rawalpindi and Gurgaon,
correction of the old field maps took the place almost completely of
remeasurement. The adoption of the former course pre-suppose a degree of
accuracy in the bidmap which it was believed had only been obtained in the maps
prepared on the square system during the Fourth Period of Punjab Settlements.
It was found, however, that the field maps made in the settlement at the end of
the Third Period and the beginning of the Fourth, thought not on the square
system were so very reliable that it was possible to bring them up-to-date by a
careful revision. Since the districts which were mapped on the squares system
have begun to come under settlement, the process of map correction has become
general, and has at the same time been simplified. Its great advantage it that
it does not like remeasurement necessitate any great temporary augmentation of
the regular patwari staff of the
district. A strong supervising staff is, however, necessary in order to keep
pace with the patwaris who turn out
work much faster that at re-measurement but, as on the other hand the work as a
whole is completed more expeditiously, the more modern settlements are both
shorter and cheaper than those of the earlier part of the Fifth Period.
86-B. Recent development of settlement policy.- The period to which the preceding paragraph
relates was also marked by certain developments of settlement policy. The
subject of the assessment of well lands was again taken up and more lenient
rules were prescribed (of paragraph 441). The unsuitability of fixed
assessments for cultivation on inundation canals and in the wide river valleys
of the south-west Punjab was recognised, and various systems of fluctuating
assessment were introduced in that part of the province. The fluctuating system
was also applied to the large tracts recently brought under irrigation by the
construction of the Lower Chenab and Lower
Jhelum Canals.
On the other hand, it was decided in connection with re-assessment of the
districts watered by the Western Jumna, Sirhind, and Upper Bari Doab Canals
that when irrigation from a perennial canal has become well established the
most suitable method of assessing the extra profits which the landowner derives
from irrigation is a light fixed demand and not an acreage rate on the area
irrigated from year to year. A marked feature of recent settlements is the use
of cash rents as the basis of the Settlement Officer's estimate of half assets.
They are now paid on much larger areas than was formerly customary and our
record of them has improved. In 1910 it was decided to revert to the system in
force from 1886 to 1897 of having two Financial Commissioners.
86.-C. Post-Reforms Settlement Policy.- With the introduction of the reformed scheme of
Government of 1919 began an agitation for the general re-casting of the policy
and standard of land revenue assessment. The ball had been set rolling by the
recommendations that these matters should be the subject of legislative
enactment. A bill to give effect to the proposal was introduced in the
Provincial Legislative Council in 1822. After various vicissitudes it
eventually became law, in a form very different in many important matters from
that in which it had been originally introduced in 1928, in the Punjab Land
Revenue Amendment, Act III of that year.
The
Act codifies the main principles governing the standard of assessment, the
amount of enhancement permissible and the period of settlement, and provides
machinery to make rules for determining the money-value of net-assets,
allowances of exemption from assessment for improvements, the extent of
enhancement permissible, and other minor matters. The new Act lowers the
maximum standard of assessment from one-half of the net-assets to one-fourth.
It limits the increase permissible in any assessment circle to 25 per cent,
over the former assessment, except where canal irrigation has been introduced
since the last assessment was imposed, and fixes the principal processes
involved in revising assessments are brought under the control of the council
and the revenue payers are consulted during their progress to a much greater
extent than previously. But with the exception of the changes of principle
indicated above the new Act and the rules there under in the main merely codify
the existing instructions and procedure.
CHAPTER VII
Cesses
87. Classification of cesses. - Cesses may be ranged under three heads-
(a) Cesses
imposed on landowner by authority of Government.
(b) The
malba cess imposed by landowners on themselves in order to meet common village
expenses.
(c) Cesses
paid to the landowners by other residents in the village.
The
first two classes are described in the Land Revenue and Tenancy Acts as
"rates and cesses," and are broadly distinguished from the third
class by being "primarily payable by landowners," thought they often form part of the rent
taken from occupancy tenants.
88. Cesses imposed by law. - The cesses imposed by law are -
(a) Cancelled
(b) The
village officer's cess (section 29 of the Land Revenue Act.)
(c) An
annual rate imposed on owners to meet the cost of drainage operations by which
their land is improved (section 59 of Act VIII of 1873)
(d) The
local rate payable under section 5, and any fee leviable under section 33, of
Act XX of 1883.
No
cess, not distinctly authorised by law, can be levied, even with the
concurrence of the people from whom it is proposed to realise it, without the
previous consent of the Government of India.2
89. Annual drainage rate Zaildari and village
officer's cesses. - Little use
has so far been made of the power given by section 59 of the Canal Act to meet
the whole or part of the cost of drainage projects by imposing a cess on the
landowners, who are benefited by their execution. The Settlement Officer has
nothing to do with the amount of such a cess, but he may have to make a
distribution of it over holdings.
The
existing position about the zaildari
and village officers cesses is as follows. It is not now usual in the Punjab to make the landowners pay for the zaildari agency by imposing a cuss the
cost is met by setting aside for the purpose portion, usually one per cent, of
the land revenue. The only village officer's cuss now levied consists of the
lambardars pectoral and the surcharge
of one per cent on the revenue levied in the few cases in while the appointment
of chief headman or ala lambardar has
not yet been abolished. With a very few exception the headman's pachotra, as the name implies, amounts
to 5 per cent whole revenue. These exceptions are the estates in the Kulu and
Siraj tahsils of the Kangra District exclusive of Lahaul and Spiti where the
rate of 5 per cent), where the village officers cess in 7 per cent.
A
brief reference to the history of these cesses is added. Formerly the village
officers cess used to include the patwari cess also. In the earlier period of
settlement a normal rate for the patwari cess was considered to be 6 pies per
rupee of land revenue which is equivalent to a surcharge of 31/3 per cent, an
additional quarter of half per cent being taken on amount of patwaris stationery; later on it was
found impossible to meet the expenditure which the new standards of revenue work demanded, with so light a
cess, and the rate was increase, 6¼ percent being commonly taken. By section 29
of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, the maximum rate of village officer's
cess was legally fixed at 6¼ per cent on the "annual value" of the
land as defined in Act XX of 1883 (see paragraph 90 below) equivalent of 12½
percent on the land revenue and canal owners rate. The patwari cess was
entirely remitted in 1906, the village officers cess being reduced to 2½ per
cent on the annual value where only the p0achotra
of ordinary village headmen has to be provided and 3 percent where there are
also chief headman except in the case of estates in the Kulu and Saraj tahsils mentioned in the preceding
sub-paragraph (Punjab Government, Department of Revenue and Agriculture/Revenue
notification Nos. 268 and 269, dated 22nd November, 1906). Subsequently by the
Repealing and Amending (rates and Cesses) Act, 1907 the maximum rate for the
village officers cess was reduced to half an anna for every rupee of the annual
value equivalent to 6¼ percent on the land revenue and canal owner’s rate. It
was also definitely laid down that the village officer's cess was to be used
only for the remuneration of headmen and chief headmen and for defraying other
expenditure directly connected with their supervision or the performance of
their duties.
90. The local rate. - The local rate has grown from small beginnings.2
It was usual in early settlements to level a road cess at one percent the land
revenue3 and subsequently education and postal or dak cesses amounting to surcharges of
one percent and one percent respectively were added. During the
Viceroyalty of Lord Mayo measures were adopted to give Local Governments
greater powers as regards provincial expenditure. Financial pressure, however,
forced the Supreme Government to make assignments to the Local Government
falling short of the estimated expenditure of the departments of which the
charges were transferred to them. The gap had to be filled up somehow and it
was decided to meet the difficulty by imposing a local rate on land.
Accordingly the levy of an additional cess not exceeding six pies in the rupee
of the annual value of the land was authorized by Act XX of 1871. "Annual
value" was defined as double the land revenue for the time being assessed
on any land whether such assessment be leviable or not" (section 2). The
local rate therefore amounted to a surcharge of 6¼ percent on the land revenue.
The occurrence of severe famines in Bengal in 1874 and in Madras and elsewhere in 1877-79 led to the
principle being laid down that the periodical occurrence of famine ought to
enter into the calculations of the Government of India when making provisions
for its ordinary wants from year to year. To provide funds for this object the
local rate was raised boys Act V of 1878
from six pies to eight pies per rupee of annual value or from 6¼ to 1 1/3
percent on the land revenue and a license tax on trades was imposed. The famine
cess was abolished in 1906.
91. Act XX of 1883. - When the District Boards Act (XX of 1883) was
passed the opportunity was taken of amending the definition of annual value by
declaring that term to mean double the land revenue or in areas where the
water-advantage or owner's rate system was in force, double the sum made up of
the land revenue and the rate. The road-education and postal cesses
were at the same time merged in the local rate and the legal limit of the
latter was raised to 5¼ percent on the annual value which is equivalent to 12¼
percent on the land revenue and owner's rate of 1¼ percent in excess of the
amalgamated local rate and minor cesses. But when the bill was discussed in the
Legislative Council it was explained by the Member in charge of it (the Hon'ble
Mr. Lawley) that one anna has been
adopted as the maximum partly for the sake of simplicity and partly because in
some districts where the land revenue is small and lightly assessed, it may be
found advantageous to have the power somewhat to increase that rate in order to
provide funds for purposes clearly for the benefit of the neighbourhood. In
other places some reduction of the rate may be desirable. The power given to
increase the actual burden on the land was not immediately exercised and the
percentage at which the local rate was levied almost every where throughout the
Punjab was Rs. 5.3.4 per cent on the annual value, which is a lower rate than
the combined amount of the local rate under Act V of 1878 and the three minor
cesses. The quarter share of the old cess which
had been allotted to the Local Government in 1882 was, by section of Act XX of 1883 replaced by an
approximately equal contribution one one-fifth out of the proceeds of the new
local rate. The rate was reduced by one-fifth with effect from Ist April, 1906
as the result of the abolition of the famine cess and the legal maximum reduced
from one anna to ten pies per rupee of annual value by Act II of 1906. In 1922
the rate was fixed at a maximum of twelve pies and a minimum of ten pies per
rupee of the annual value.All
district boards have now raised the rate to the maximum. The whole of the rate
goes to district boards. Except in cases where Government have issued a
direction under section 9 of the District Boards Act (XX of 1883), that the
lands within certain specified urban areas shall be credited to funds of the
urban local bodies concerned. Government have not so far adopted any universal policy
in this connection, as there are many divergent factors to be considered. In
colony towns where land revenue and consequently local rate is assessed on
building sites as well as on agricultural land, there is generally no
justification for the rate being credited to district boards but in other towns
where the rate is assessed on agricultural land only it is generally very small
in amount, and it is often found that the district board maintains
institutions, particularly in the smaller towns, on which its expenditure is
far in excess of its receipts from local rate within the urban limits. In such
cases no justification for a direction under section 9 arises.
92. Cesses on State lands. - Cesses may be levied on State lands, which being
under the control of district officers are leased to private individuals or
contractors; but no cesses may be levied on State lands administered in the
Revenue of Military Department which are actually in possession of Government
Officers or used bona fide for Government purposes or on lands reserved and
placed under the control of the Forest of the Irrigation Department whether
held under direct management by those Departments or leased to private
individuals or contractors.
93. The malba cess. - The malba cess in its nature is wholly different
from other rates and cess described above. It amount and its expenditure are
matters with which the Government has no direct concern. It is a "village
cess" according to the definition of the term given in the Land Revenue
and Tenancy Acts but it was classed among rates and the see because occupancy
tenants who hold at rents fixed in terms of the land revenue and as set,
usually contribute to the malba. The malba is the fund into which the common
income of the village community from all sources is paid and out of which its
common expenses are met. These latter properly consist of such items as the
cost of repairing survey marks, the fees due on account of warrants issued for
the payment of arrears, the expenditure incurred by the headmen when they go to
the tahsil to pay in the revenue the
entertainment of passing strangers who put up in the village rest-house and
occasionally grant of money & c., to village shrines or holy men. At one
time it was considered part of the duty of the patwari to keep the malba
accounts but the people should be left to make
whatever arrangement they think proper. The receipt and disbursements are
usually entered in the book of a village shopkeeper and the expenditure managed
by teh headmen, but the right of any landowner to demand an account is
generally recorded in the village administration paper. The necessary amount is
sometimes raised by distributing the exact sum required periodically over the
landowners (kacha malba); in other
cases a fixed percentage on the revenue is charged (pakka malba). The former plan is some check upon petty the
speculation by the headmen and should not be set aside if the people desire its
continuance. It may become unsuitable where any considerable part of the land
has passed into the hands of non-resident purchasers or mortgagees; who find it
easier to evade the duty of contributing to village expenses if their liability
is not commuted into a fixed sum payable to the headmen along with the revenue
and cesses. Certain orders on the subject of the malba were issued by the Financial Commissioner in 1860 (Book
Circular IV of 1860); but they should not be regarded as of strict obligation;
for it is now thought best to interfere as little as possible in a matter of
this kind.2 It is not safe, moreover, to assume, as is done in these
orders, that the proportion which the malba
cess should bear to the revenue will be lowest in the largest villages. It
is such villages which have to spend most on hospitality. The requirement depend
on many things, such as the amount of other common income, the position of the
estate, etc.
The
Settlement Officers should record in the wajib-ul-arz
usages relating to the malba or if
these cause dissatisfaction and there is general desire to alter them, he may
properly assist the people to make better arrangements for the future. But his
interference should be consist the people to make better arrangements for the
future. but his interference should confined within the narrowest possible
limits and should be exercised by way of friendly counsel and not of
authoritative direction.
As
some misapprehension appears to exist in the mind of District officers whether malba can be collected as arrears of
land revenue, it is important that all revenue officer should understand the
legal position about malba dues in
the dhal bachh as before; since
without the patwaris assistance
landowners cannot ascertain how much each man should pay. Government wish also
to emphasize the fact that it is optional with villagers either to have or not
to have a malba fund and that the
money can be handed over either tot eh lambardars
or to a village panchayat or on any kind of trust that they may like to set up for
the purpose.
Malba is village cess within the
meanings of section 3(10) and section 145 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act. It
has also been included in the definition of rates and cesses being a sum
payable on account of village expense; vide section 3(9) (e) of that Act. The
nature and scope of this cess is fully described in the above paragraph to
which particular attention is invited. Although rules 60 of the Land Revenue
Rules provides that rates and cesses due at of land revenue due from the same
estate on account of the same harvest is cesses is entitled to withhold the
proceeds of any cess levied on account of village expenses it appears that sums
levied on account of village expenses are not recoverable as arrears of land
revenue under section 98 of the Land Revenue Act Sub-section (a) of the section
provides for the recovery of fees, fines, costs and other charges, including
the village officer's cess payable under the Act. If rates and cesses, as such
were recoverable as arrears of land revenue, the reference to the village
officer's cess, which is included in the definition of "rates and
cesses" [Section 3(9)(d)], would not have been necessary. The only way of
recovering malba, therefore, is by a
regular suit under section 77, Second Group. (i) of the Punjab
Tenancy Act.
Although the levy of malba cess is optional with the villagers, yet government Consider
that in the interest of village communities its collection should continue
where the villagers pay it, but the fund should be properly administered and
utilized of such purposes as cleaning up the villages, disinfecting ponds and
the like. For the proper administration of malba
funds Government have decided that where Panchayats exist the money realised
from the malba cess should be handed
over to Panchayats and where Panchayats do not exist a Committee should be
appointed with whom the money should be kept and spent, in both cases, under
the instructions of the Health Department.
94. Village cesses. - All the cesses noticed above are charges for
which landowners are liable. But there is another class of cesses, which they
themselves sometimes realize from the other residents in the village or from
particular classes of residents, or from persons making use of the village
lands. These are called in the Land Revenue Act "village cesses". it is
convenient to notice them here, but, strictly speaking, they should be
described in the next chapter, which deals with the rights of landowners.
According to the interpretation clause village cess" includes any cess,
contribution or due which is customarily leviable within an estate, and is
neither a payment for the use of private property or personal service nor
imposed by or under any enactment for the time being in force", Section
145 (4) and (5) provide that "the Governor-General in Council may, on a
reference from the Local Government declare whether any cess, contribution, or
due, levied within an estate is, or is not, a village cess, and that such a
declaration shall not be liable to be questioned in any Court." Village cesses are really in their origin
seigniorial dues, such as the found in primitive societies in which certain
persons of classes are dependent on other persons or classes directly derived
from the land. Similar examples are the kudhikan
or hearth cess of the Eastern Punjab, and the corresponding door cess (hakk-buha) some of the western
districts, the kaminana, ahtrafi or muhtarafa paid by artizans to the proprietors of the village in
which they ply their trade (hirfa),
the dharat or weighment fee levied on
sales of village produce, and marriage fees known by various names, such as put
barki, thana, patti, & c.
95. Legal provisions as to village cases. - The rules
under the Land Revenue Act of 1871
required Settlement Officer to notice in the wajib-ul-arz any cesses paid to the proprietors by the
non-agricultural community or by cultivators. Section 145 of the present and
Revenue Act (XVII of 1887) provided that :-
(1) At
any of the following times, namely :-
(a) When
a record-of-rights is being made or specially revised for an estate,
(b) When
the local area in which as estate is situate is being generally re-assessed and
before the assessment has been confirmed,
(c) at
any other time on an order made with respect to any estate by teh Local
Government, with he previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, a
revenue officer shall prepare a list of village cesses, if any, levied in the
estate which have been generally or specially approved by the Local Government
or the title to which has before the passing of this Act been judicially
established.
(2) When
a list has been prepared for an estate under sub-section (1), a village cess
not comprised therein shall not be recoverable by suits in any Court.
(3) The
Local Government may impose on the collection of village cess comprised in the
list such conditions as to police or other establishment connected with the
village market or fair in or on account of which the cess is levied, as it
thinks fit.
These
provisions were copied from the revenue law in force in the United Provinces. But it was let to be wrong in principle
to make the exercise of a right depend upon the care with which the
administrative act of preparing a particular record had been carried out. and
the 2nd clause of section 145 has been
repealed by section 3 of Act XVII of 1896. So far no action has been taken
under section 145(3).
96. Present policy of Government as regards
village cesses. - The latest
declaration of policy as regards the malba
and village cesses is contained in Punjab Government No. 196, dated 18th
October, 1893. In that letter Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick expressed his entire
agreement in the view set forth by Sir Denzil Ibbetson in the annexed passage
from a letter written by him as Commissioner of Rawalpindi with reference to a
proposal to abolish certain village cesses and to take advantage of the power
given by section 145 (3) of the Land Revenue Act to regulate the expenditure of
any which were allowed to be levied including the malba.
"I do not agree that in respect of such matter........'It is high
time that village administration in the Punjab
were put under law and rule, and not left to vague custom.' I do not agree that
it is necessarily objectionable to continue a system by which one class of
subjects are allowed to tax another class for the benefit of their own pockets.
Directly we make rules, we limit power. Our village system is fast failing into
decay, but I do not think it has yet gone so far that we should give up, as
beyond hope, what has always been looked upon............as one of the most
valuable body from the other inhabitants of the village, and the discretion
allowed come within wide limits to the village headmen in the management of the
village income and expenditure, are two of those remnants which have survived
almost unimpaired. Every day the accidental spirit that is spreading so fast
threatens them, and it will probably overwhelm them eventually, but I would do
nothing to hasten the process. Moreover, I do not think that we could interfere
either wisely or effectively. The dues in questions have been realized in one
village or another for generations past, and the people are accustomed to them.
In each village, a customary distribution has grown up by which certain common
expenses are defrayed from certain items of common. This allotment of income
differs from village to village; it is often based upon, and adapted to, local
peculiarities and it is always understood and generally accepted by the
villagers. I object to any attempt to introduce uniformity. In such matters. We
cannot know the facts fully. We should upset long-standing custom, disturb
men's minds, give rise to heart burnings and litigation, and do infinitely more
harm than good."
97. Cesses levied by jagirdars. - Where cesses of the kind noticed in the
foregoing paragraphs are levied by jagirdars, the same considerations do not
apply. Strictly speaking it is only where a jagirdar is found to be in
possession of some sort of superior proprietary title, that his right to levy
cesses would ordinarily be admissible. Few, if any, undecided cases can now
remain. The question has been dealt with in recent years in connection with the
settlement of some of the Kangra Jagirs and of the jagir of the Kathak Khan in
Kohat.
BOOK
II.
THE
RECORDS OF RIGHTS
CHAPTER VIII
Of tenures
and the rights of landowners
98. It must be decided at settlement who is
responsible for payment of revenue. - A settlement which merely determined the revenue to be paid, without at
the same time recording who should be responsible for its payment, would
obviously be a futile operation. That the Settlement of the persona who engaged
to pay the dues of the State was essential, and it came in time to be seen that
it was desirable to give him power also to determine what the rights in the
soil of different individuals.
99. Importance of making landowner directly
responsible for payment. - In
ordinary circumstances the persons to give the State its share of the produce
are evidently those who are found to be in possession of an exclusive right to
till the soil and reap the harvest themselves, or to make it over to other for
village. To be allowed to engage for the payment of the revenue naturally
implies that the engager will have the power to arrange for the cultivation of
the land, and, whenever the engager and the right-holder have been different
persons, the tendency has been for the former to encroach upon the privileges
of the latter and finally to destroy them altogether. Section 61 of the Land
Revenue Act, therefore, very properly declares that "the landowners shall
be liable for the land revenue."
100. Importance of clear determination of rights
in land. - It bacame necessary,
therefore, to determine who were in possession of such permanent rights in the
soil as to entitle them to engage. Such persons were, in Western phraselogh, said to have an proprietary right in the land. Whenever, by the limitation of
the Government demand and the establishment of order, rights in land became
valuable enough to be an object of desire, it was important for the peace and
prosperity of the country that they should be clearly do fined.
101. Experiment of leaving the determination to
the civil courts failed. - The
experiment of leaving such matters to the arbitrament of the civil courts was
tried and failed. These courts had not the knowledge requisite for the
disentanglement of a confused we of rights in the soil which were often
ill-defined and apparently contradictory, and they could derive small
assistance from codes of Hindu and Muhammadan law or from the legislation of
the British Government. Moreover, they could only deal with cases as they
arose, and what was wanted was a determination, once and for all, of the rights
exists, in every field in every village in the country.
102. The task entrusted to Settlement Officers.
- The decision embodied in
Regulation VII of 1822, to entrust the
task, in the first instance, to the officers engaged in the assessment of the
land-revenue was a statesmanlike one. At the same time it was not attended with
danger. If the action of the courts was to slow, that of the Settlement Officer
might be too summary. Individual idiosyncracies and theories of what was best
for the country were apt to lead men to disregard or to curtail rights which
they though to be antiquated or hurtful, to exalt one class in the community
and to depress the status of another. Sympathy with old tribes and families
which had been the victims of the political and social convulsions preceding
our rule, led one man to seek to revive dormant rights, and sympathy with the
actual tillers of the soil induced another to treat lightly rights which still
had a substantial existence. Some security was provided by declaring
that the Settlement Officer's proceedings "shall be founded on the basis
of actual possession," and by allowing a man who was
dissatisfied with his decision, or who claimed a right of which he was
admittedly not in possession to bring a suit in a civil Court.3 No doubt the result was not perfectly uniform,
or even in all cases perfectly equitable, but the vital end was secured of
settling titles in land on a stable basis.
103. Advisability of recording all rights in
land, and the customary rights and obligations of all classes in villages. - It soon became apparent that the tenure of land
was sometimes very complex, and that the proprietary right was not enjoyed as a
whole by a single individual or by a village community in common, but was split
up among two or more individuals possessing titles, none of which could
properly be regarded as full ownership. The tenures of land under which the
proprietary right is divided will be described later on. It is enough to say
here that three classes were early recognized, superior proprieptors or
talukdars, inferior proprietors, and hereditary tenants. All these classes had
permanent rights in the soil, the record of which was essential. By showing as
separate holdings the fields held by each tenant-at-will under each landowner
and noting the rent paid in each case,
and by exhibiting in a separate statement the customary rights and liabilities
of all members of the village community in its widest sense, including owners,
hereditary tenants, tenants-at-will, shopkeepers and menials, the record was
made complete.
104. Framing of record extremely important in
first regular settlements. - In
the lst regular settlements in the Punjab the
framing of the record of rights was a more important matter than the
assessment. The result of the one operation was permanent, and for all
practical purposes final, the result of teh second was temporary and
remediable.
105. Large powers in land case given to the
first Settlement Officer in the Punjab.- The judicial powers conferred on Settlement Officer for the determination
of titles in land were very large. In fact the policy adopted was to give them
exclusive jurisdiction in land cases and to put off any final decision as to
rights in the soil till a regular settlement could be undertaken. The orders on
the subject are referred to in Appendix IV. Their practical orders effect was
that the entries in the record-of-rights, as it stood when settlement
operations came to an end, were conclusive as to the rights of all persons
having permanent interest in the land.
106. Doubtful conditions of rights in soil at annexation.
- The task which the first
settlement Officer had to perform in connection with the determination of
titles was no right one. Rights in the soil were round to be in a very confused
and doubtful condition. It would however be a mistake to suppose that
landownership is either a creation of our rule, or that, having existed
previously, it had been entirely destroyed by the rough domination of the
Sikhs.
107. Temple account of the effect of Sikh rule
on property.- Sir Richard
Temple, when reporting in 1851 on the first regular settlement of Jullundur,
gave an excellent account of the effect of Sikh rule in that part of the
Punjab, and of the popular ideas, which he found to exist as to property in
land. After describing the heaviness of the demand and noting that joint
responsibility for its payment was not enforced, he went ton to say :-
“It
may be held that the cultivator must get one-half the produce to sustain life and carry on the
cultivation and.... If the State takes all the remaining half, nothing is left
for the proprietor.........If the proprietor cultivates he gets only his share
as cultivator............If the matter is looked at in this light, it may be
thought that the Sikhs practically at least disregarded proprietary right, and
that............ownership was nothing more than an empty name.............Such
was indeed too often the case. Still I maintain they attached to maliki or
proprietorship the same ideas as we do, and theoretically at least recognised
its existence.
108. Position of cultivators and proprietors in Jullundur under Sikh
rule. - In most cases no party
other than the occupants claimed any proprietary title..............These
cultivating communities indeed paid as much as the merest tenants-at-will, and
if any portion of the estate failed, the kardar
acted very much as if he had been proprietor and undertook the immediate
management. However, as long as the community paid all their taxes and kept up
their estate in a high sate of cultivation he never interfered..............Indeed
he would assist them in preserving their organization adjusting their shares,
and so on..........
“But
in those estates where there was a party in the position of proprietor, he was
allowed to accompany the tax-gatherers when they went their rounds and, after
their demands had been satisfied, he might glean a santy serina or a certain number of sers out of the maund....It will be
marked that under the kankut and
batai system the Sikhs always realized their revenue from the cultivator. The
proprietor, when there was one, might collect something on his private account,
but he was not expected to pay the revenue....A non-resident malik was almost a
nonentity........without the power to interfere in the management of an estate,
which indeed he could scarcely call his own. His perquisites were certainly
precarious, and probably very inconsiderably....The cultivator while he held
the position also bore all the burdens and calamities of a malguzar. He it was
who withstood the incessant drain of presents, cesses and extra collections,
who bribed the kinias and chaudhris, and who fed the hungry
retainers of repacious kardars. But
in estates where the Government demand was more moderate, the proprietors,
being generally chaudhris or mukaddims, were
able to assert their rights, and moreover, their rights were worth asserting.
If the collections were in kind, the Government would still realize direct from
the cultivator, but the proprietor would take some interest in the collections,
would hold himself responsible that nothing went wrong, would bring the waste
into cultivation........replace absconded cultivators, etc. Then, perhaps, a
money commutation would be effected, and in such a case the proprietor would
himself engage for the payment of the revenue. Still if he chose he might allow
the cultivators to engage and content himself with the receipt of his malikana dues, and his title would be in
no way alienated or even weakened whereby..........In these kinds of cases,
however, the proprietor was exposed to one kind of risk. If the proprietor,
having accepted one jama, was outbid
by some one else who offered more (than he was prepared to give).....it would
outbid by some one else who offered more (than he was prepared to
give)..........it would be very uncertain whether he would ever afterwards
regain his hold upon the estate. But such instances would be very rare.........
109. Engagements for payment of revenue
sometimes taken from non-cultivating proprietors.- “Teh practice of Misr Rup Lal exactly illustrates
the system which recognized two parties in an estate.......Some of his pattas are extant, in which it is
declared that the engagements have been taken from certain parties,
cultivators, while an additional amount is to be levied as payable to certain other
parties, proprietors...He fixed moderate jamas..........The
proprietors, broken by long misfortunes, were often content to receive their
malikana and forego the privilege of engaging. But sometimes this privilege
would be contended for........The misr, perhaps, thought that the cultivators
were the fittest persons to engage, and closed with them. Then proprietors
would appeal to Lahore, and........a warrant would come from the Maharaja
setting forth that whereas certain parties, cultivators had been admitted to
engage, to the exclusion of certain other parties, who were proprietors, and
claimed their fright to engage, therefore, the engagements concluded with the
former were to be cancelled............
110. Sikhs did not ignore property in land.- “From the tenor and tone of......public
documents, it is clear that the Sikh rulers did..........look upon private
property..........as a matter of original abstract right, which was coeval with
Government and society (and) had been recognized by all dynasties.........Authenticated
deeds of sale and other transfer were regarded not as obsolete nullties
applicable to a system that passed away with the Government from which t
sprung, but as instruments of immutable validity.............
111. Popular ideas of proprietary rights.- “I have yet to consider what was the popular
notion of proprietary right, and in what way (the people) recognized it among
themselves independent of any public sanction it might receive. The kan batai system was of course,
unfavourable to the development or organization of co-parcenaries....still the
huge malba had to be portioned out,
and hence the various methods of allotments by hals (ploughs), &
c,........Were brought into play. In fine bhaichara
estates, where, from the influence of the chaudhris or from any other
cause, moderate money revenue had been fixed, the regular machinery of dividing
the common profits and stock, the community of interest and responsibility, the
links which unite the several parts together have been just as discernible as
in the bhaichara estate of Hindustan.
The shares were ancestral. Circumstances might have changed the relative
proportion of the actual shares........But the ancient partnership was
preserved in the remembrance of the
remembrance of the brotherhood. Its restoration was often deemed a matter of
family concern and honour, and recurrence to it was deemed natural and proper,
if circumstances should permit or an opportunity offer. The fluctuations of
individual fortune might often render it convenient that some should take more,
and other less, land then their original shares. But such interchanges were
always open to re-adjustment, which was in most cases amicably effected
Otherwise the leading members of the brotherhood would interfere and, if necessary,
invoke he kardr’s aid. Stress of
season and of taxation would often drive shareholders from their homesteads.
The patrimony thus deserted fell into the hands of the nearest of kin. But it
was held merely in trust, and must be restored intact to the refugee whenever
he might return. Amidst all the alterations of cultivation and dispossession,
the shares in the corollary of the kan
batai system. But joint profit and loss were shared in another way. The owner
of 1/3rd of the common stock and bear 1/3rd of the village expenses.........
112. Transfer of land and exclusion of
strangers.- “When the
proprietors were not in direct possession of the land, one partner might
transfer his share to an alien. But such transfers would rarely have much
effect, and would often be fraudulently made in favour of persons supposed to
be capable of ejecting the cultivators. Strangers were jealously excluded from
cultivating communities, and what is known as the right of pre-emption was
closely watched. Transfers among the members of the community by gift, bequest,
mortgage, or sale, were not infrequent.
113. Importance attached to construction of
wells as an evidence of proprietary after.- “In a country were much depends on artificial irrigation........the
building of a well was the first attribute of a proprietor, and its existence
was the best proof of his title. Communities of cultivators, who saw that the
landlord’s hold on the estate was getting weaker, were eager to build wells and
thereby found a proprietary claim in spite of the landlord’s
opposition.......The proprietors were reluctant to allow a cultivator to sink a
well, plant a grove, or lay out garden.”.......
114. Effect of Sikh rule on property different
in different parts of the country.- This is a faithful picture but it does not represent the state of things
existing everywhere in the Punjab at
annexation. It is convenient to talk of the Sikh system and of its defects; and
certain broad features can be recognized as characteristic of Sikh rule
everywhere. But there was no common scheme of revenue administration. Each
Governor, and to some extent each kardar,
each jagirdur and revenue farmer,
had his own system, and a change of officials meant a change of system. The
general effect of Sikh rule was a leveling of old privileges and superiorities,
but the process was carried to very different lengths in different places, and
in the same places at different times, and the practical result was to increase
the diversity of tenures that previously existed. There were parts of the
country where the village bond was weaker than in Jullundur or did not exist at all. There were
parts where the rights of the older proprietors were overridden to a still
great extent, where, though not forgotten, they had ceased to be valued or
asserted, because in the emphatic language of Captain Hector Mackenzie, they
had become “symbols more of misery than of benefit.” The malik
or waris, descended form the
original founder of the village, and the cultivator, whose father or grandfather
had settled in it, were on a common level. “malikana
dues were unknown. Ancestral shares were forgotten or had fallen entirely
into disuse. Malba was levied from both alike upon the extent of
cultivating possession, so (were) the revenue cesses, and burdens of every
kind.“2 Even at the first regular settlements it was sometimes found
that the people had “a will appear in the sequel, parts of the country where
proprietary rights existed in a higher degree than in the Jullundur Doab, and
where a class interposed between the State and the cultivators whose claims
could not be ignored.
115. Privileges conceded by the Sikhs to
mukaddims, maliks & c. - Where
the Sikr rule was most levelling in its character there were still men who held
their heads above their neighbours. They did so rather in virtue of official
position than of ancestral right, though thee position was usually conceded to
them on account of local influence founded on old descent and hereditary
connection with the land. Thus the mukaddim
was generally also a malik, in
the sense in which that word is used in the Western Punjab.
Where implies, not proprietary right in the soil, but a position of authority
in the tribe or community. “The Sikh Government took all they could from the
cultivator, relaxing in favour of the headmen, chaudhris, mukaddims, & c., who assisted them in the process.
To these they gave inams, or what comes to the some thing. they exempted a
plough or two of their cultivation from assessment. And these headmen on their
part managed the revenue. fee Government and village affairs for the community
generally: for the latter they collected malba
to defray the village expenses, perhaps something more which was illicit.
They would manage the waste lands, call in cultivators. & c. Where cash assessments war made, the
leading men or malikks in the different communities, who were already
recognised as mukaddims, naturally
took up the engagements. We have instances of the happening even after the
establishment of British rule. Down to the end of the second summary settlement
in Montgomery “it was the almost universal custom in the revenue of a
considerable tract in Share bolders2 and as late as 1860 the Tiwana maliks were responsible for the payment of
the revenue of a considerable tract in Shahpur.3 The concessions that the Sikhs found it
prudent to make to families of local influence sometimes very considerable. A
quarter or more of the ruler’s share was surrendered to certain families under
the name of chaharam.”4
116. Investigation of claims to proprietary
right by early Settlement officer.- Another quotation from Temple’s report may be
given to show exactly what Settlement officer had to decide, and the spirit in
which the task was undertaken.
“The
broad question at issue has been this - who has held the land paid the revenue
for twelve years previous to the present settlement ? Discrimination has been
exercised not only in tracing the foundations of original right, but also in
discovering the signs and tokens of bona fide possession......We have been
anxious that every claim and right. whether admitted and confirmed or not,
should at lest be understood. Ancient rights that have long been held in
abeyance must sometimes be extinguished in defence to law and policy. But we have
never non-suited claims by technicalities.”
117. Tendency to favour the claims of the actual
cultivators of the soil.- It is
not to be expected that in the conflict between old rights, which had been
partially in abeyance, and new ones which were for the first time becoming
profitable, exactly the same course would be followed in settlements made at
various times by different officers. The tendency was to commute the superior
right where they were established into a moderate percentage on the revenue, and
to take engagements from the inferior proprietors and allow them the sole
management of thee estate. The latter were looked upon as the valuable element
in the community, the former as an interesting survival of a state of society
which had passed away and should not be revived. Still less were our officers
disposed to assist in the process which had been making the mukaddims or headmen, virtual
proprietors in some parts of the country; and the allowance of 5 per cent on
the revenue, which they were allowed to collect from the community as lambardar’s fees or pachotra was a small
recompense for the privileges which they were forced to relinquish.
118. Change in official opinion after Mutiny.- The policy of the settlement of rights in land
effected in the Punjab described in the
preceding paragraph was brought from the North-Western Provinces, when the
circumstances were different. As applied to their province it was on the whole
a healthy one, but it may be doubted whether it was not sometimes pushed too
far. After the Mutiny a considerably change in official opinion is observable,
but it was then too late to disturb, to any substantial extent, the settlement
of titles that had been made.
119. General description of rights in land.- A general description of the rights in land which
have been commonly found to exist will be useful. The object with which it is
written is the practical one of enabling officials to recognize and understand
tenures with which they may be brought into contact in their daily duties. An
attempt will be made to indicate the general type of the tenures in different
parts of the province. For details reference must be made to settlement reports
and gazetteers. Attention will be confined to tenures as they exist now, or
have exited in very recent times, speculations as to their origin being for the
most part ignored.
120. Main features of proprietary right.- It is unnecessary to attempt any exact definition
of proprietary right in land in Northern India.
The preceding paragraphs have shown what is its general nature. As enjoyed by
private individuals it nowhere amounts to full ownership, except where the land
revenue has been redeemed, Its main features are-
a)
a)
that the right-holder is entitled to the use and occupation of the land during
his lifetime;
b)
b)
that on his death this title passes to his descendants, subject to customary
rules of inheritance, which usually exclude females;
c)
c)
that the right-holder is entitled to let the land to tenants on such terms as
he thinks fit;
d)
d)
that the right-holder can sell or mortgage the land subject to customary and
legal restrictions which give the members of the same family or village
community a right to interfere in certain circumstances. This right is based originally
off kinship real or assumed and not on any claim on the part of the objector to
superior title. Mr.Thomason regarded freedom of transfer as a necessary feature
of proprietary right. But the Indian idea or property in land is that it is
vested in a family and not in an individual. In many parts of the country the
possession of unlimited powers of alienation by the recorded right holder was
entirely opposed to native sentiment and restriction on the power of alienation
have never been wholly wanting in the Punjab and have been greatly extended by
the Alienation of Land Act, XIII of 1900.2
e)
e)
that the right-holder is entitled to engage for the payment of the land
revenue.
This
last feature of proprietary right is mainly creation of our rule. The Land
Revenue Act does not attempt definition of land-owner. It merely states that
the term does not include a tenant or an assignee of land revenue but does
include a person to whom a holding has been transferred or an estate or holding
has been let in farm, under this Act for there recovery of an arrear of land
revenue........and every other person not hereinbefore in this clause mentioned
who is in possession of an estate or any share or portion there of or in the
enjoyment of any part of the profits of an estate.3 of course some
of the person included are only. “land-owners” for the purpose of the Act.
121. Ownership undivided or divide and communal
or non-communal.- Main has observed
that “the rights of property are....a bundle of powers capable of being
mentally contemplated apart and capable of being separately enjoyed. Where an individually a community is
found in possession of all the privileges which have been noted above the marks
of proprietary right, he may be said to enjoy” subject always to the lien of
the State on the produce of the soil, complete ownership. But the individuals
who occupy the land and pay the revenue may be bond to render certain dues to
another person who is known in the language of revenue codes as a superior
proprietor or ala malik. The latter interest in the estate may be limited to
the receipt of this quitrent, or he may here considerable rights over he waste
lands included within its limits, through he has no power nor who pays the
revenue as the land may have no right, to till it, but merely to revive a rent
fixed by authority from a cultivator who has been held to have a permanent and
heritable right of cultivation. Such a cultivator is known as an occupancy
tenant. He enjoys a share of the proprietary right and the distinction between
him and an inferior proprietor (Jard malki) is not a very broad one.
Wherein it consists will appear in the sequel. This gives us one primary
division of ownership into complete or undivided and incomplete or divided.
Moreover, the land of an estate may be held by a community jointly
responsibility for the payment of the land revenue holding part of the estate
in common, and raising a certain amount of money for commons expenses. Or again
each holding may be a separate unit of which no part is subject to common
rights and whose owner is responsible for its revenue and for nothing further.
The former which may be called the communal tenure, is the form which property
has taken in the village communities of a large part of the United Provinces
and the Punjab. The latter is very similar to
the well-known raija-kaldk tenure of
Southern India.2 It exists here also in law and in fact in the malki kabza
tenures which are common in the Rawalpindi division and not unknown elsewhere.
It exists the fact, if not in law, throughout a considerable part of the
south-western Punjab.
122. Classification of different kinds of
proprietary right. - Proprietary
right may, before, be classified as :-
(1) Undivided
ownership -
(a) Communal.
Example-village community in which there are no superior proprietors or
occupancy tenants.
(b) Non-communal.
Example-malik kabza
(2) Divided
ownership-
(a) Superior or ala malik 1. Communal
2. Non-Communal
(b) Inferior
or adna malik 1. Communal
(c) Occupancy
tenant 1. Communal
2. Non-Communals
The
tenures of superior and inferior proprietors may be either communal or
non-communal, but each occupancy tenant is only
responsible for the rent of his separate
holdings, and though he may have rights of user in the village common land,
they are merely appendages of his cultivated holding and have no communal
character.
123. Mauzas or villages and mahals or estates. - Before describing the village community it will
be convenient to explain exactly what is meant by the two terms mauza which is
usually translated "village" and mahal
or which the English equivalent is "estate". A mauza is defined by
Mr. Thomason as "a parcel or parcels of land having a separate name in the
revenue the whole property of the persons settled within the mahal being held hypothecated to
Government for the sum assessed upon it." There are two elements in this
definition, the separate assessment, and where more than one person own the
some estate, their joint responsibility for the payment of its revenue. "Village"
is not defined in the Land Revenue Act, but the meaning of "estate"
is explained to be "any areas
(a) for
which a separate record of rights has been made; or
(b) Which
has been separately assessed to land revenue or would have been so assessed, if
the land revenue had not been released, compounded for, or redeemed, or
(c) Which
the Local Government may, by general rule or special order, declare to be as
estate."2
The
joint responsibility of all the landowners of an estate for its revenue is
provided of section 61 of the Act. In practice it is rarely enforced. A rule
made under clause (c) of the section quoted above declares "all demarcated
areas of uncultivated and forest land owned by Government1 to be
estate.
A
village, as a rule, consists of a single block of land, But occasionally the
whole of its and does not lie in a ring fence and some outlying fields are
found mixed up with the lands of another village.
124. The village and the estate generally
identical. - Several estate may
be included in a single village. This may be brought about the process known in
revenue rules as "complete partition," by which any one or more of
the coparceners in a village community is able to separate off his or their
lands and form them into a separate estate. This has led to a great
multiplication of estates in the United Provinces. But complete partition has
always been discouraged in the Punjab and is
in fact very rare. Section 110 of the Land Revenue Act provides that "a
partition...........shall not, without the express consent of the Financial
Commissioner affect the joint liability of the land or of the landowners
thereof for the revenue payable in respect of the land, or operate to create a
new estate." Hence in the Punjab
"village" and "estate" are, as a rule, merely terms for the
some property viewed under different aspects. Settlement officers sometimes
find it expedient to divide an existing village into two separate estates, buy
they must remember that they have no power to do so of their own authority. On
the other hand it is occasionally advisable to combine to estates into one.
This also requires the sanction of the Financial Commissioner.2
125. Definition of holdings. - Holding is defined as "a share or portion
of an estate hold by one landowner or jointly by two or more landowners."3
126. The village community. - A village community is a body of proprietors who
now or formerly owned part of the village lands in common, and who are jointly
responsible for the payment of the revenue. As time goes on the tendency is for
the area held is severalty to increase but it is rare indeed to find a village
which was one of the communal type, in which there is no common property
remaining. Joint responsibility has been made a prominent feature of village
tenure by the British Government. Under native rule it did not exist when the
State realized its dues by division of crop or by appraisement. Even when a
cash assessment was made only a few leading members of the Community became
responsible and they generally occupied the position of revenue farmers in
their dealings with the rest of teh brotherhood. But joint responsibility
occupies a far more prominent position in our codes than in our practice.
127. Reluctance to admit strangers. - The
members of the proprietary body in a true village community are often united by
real or assumed ties of kinship. The admission of strangers into the
brotherhood was always in theory at least, a thing to be guarded against and
village customs in the matter of inheritance and pre-emption are founded on
this feelings. But under native rule the repugnance to
admit strangers often yielded to the pressure of the Government demand, and
outsiders were allowed to share in rights which has become burdens. The almost
complete freedom of transfer for long enjoyed in practice under British rule
has a still more disintegrating effect on village communities. As will appear
in the sequel there are parts of the province where village communities of the
above type never existed and others where the village organization has fallen
into a very decayed condition.
128. Division of village into patties & c. - Villages often consist of several main divisions
known by various names such as taraf, patti2 or pana, and these again are
sometimes divided into smaller sections (thoks, thulas, &c.). The lands of
two patties may separate (chakbat) or
intermixed (khetbat) and the
proprietors of a patti may have common lands of their own and also a share in
the general village common.
129. The village panchayat and the headmen. - The affairs of the brotherhood were formerly
managed by an informal village council or panchayat. But this body was too
numerous and loosely constructed to fittingly represent the community in its
dealings with Government officials. A few of its leading members were,
therefore, selected as head or lambardars
and the appointment of headmen naturally came to be confined to particular
families. (From a revenue point of view the most important function of the
headmen is to collect the revenue from the coparceners and pay it into the
treasury). The special position assigned to the lambardars and the action of our courts stripped the panchayat of its influence, and
practically it has ceased to exist. The administration of the malba or fund out of which the common
expenses of the brotherhood are met is usually left in the hand of the headmen,
but it is generally recognized that each member of the proprietary body has a
right to demand an account of its expenditure.
130. Residents in village communities who are
not proprietors. - An India Village
community of the communal type was and to a considerable extent is still
self-sufficing. Besides the landowners it includes" a nearly complete
establishment of occupations and trades for enabling them to continue their
collective life without assistance from any person or body external to them. There are hereditary artizans and
hereditary menials who perform offices considered unsuitable or degrading in
the case of landowners. For these there is generally a customary rate of
payment, which usually takes the shape of allowanced of grain according to a
fixed scale at time of harvest. Where the land was abundant and the proprietary
body small outsiders might be voluntarily admitted as cultivators or forced
upon the community by the action of State officials. In the latter case the
land owners where fortunate, if they could secure some small grain fee at
harvest as an acknowledgment of their superior title. Residents who are not
landowners sometimes pay to the latter as a body or to their headmen petty fees
periodically, or on special occasions such as marriages. The tendency of our
administration and especially of our legal system has been to loosen the
communal tie and to weaken the authority exercised by the proprietary body over
its individual members and over the other inhabitants or villages.
131. The abadi. - The houses of the members of the brotherhood and
of their dependents are usually built close together in some convenient part of
the village. It may be noted that this inhabited site or abadi is excluded from the operation of the Land Revenue Act
"except so far as may be necessary for the record, recovery, and
administration of village cesses."2 The house of the village
menials are usually placed on the outskirts of the abadi and those occupied by
men of impure castes sometimes occupy a separate site or sides at the time
distance from it.
132. Degree to which separation of rights has
occurred and rule determining the measure of rights. - It is important to ascertain the extent of which
the lands of villages community or as it is sometimes called, a coparcenary
estate, are still held in common an also the rule by which the measure of the
rights and liabilities of the different share holders and the division of the
joint income are determined. Of the farmer every degree is recognized from
complete commonality to complete severally, but either extreme is rare. The
rule, which governs the measure of the rights of each member of the brotherhood
far from uniform. The estate may be held in accordance with definite and well
known customary shares of each man's occupancy may be the measure of his
interest. The customary shares may be expressed in various ways, as by parts or
of a rupee, or of some common land measure, or by ploughs. Thus the whole state
may be regarded as consisting of twenty biswas
or one bigha, of which each patti possesses o many biswas, and each individual share-holder
so many biswas or biswasis.
133. Ancestral and other customary shares.- In an estate in which the bond of kindship
uniting the different members of the brotherhood is a real one, a Settlement Officer, with a
genealogical tree of the landowners before him, may be able to see that the shares
are really ancestral or, in other words. (a) that the owners all claim descent
from common ancestor who is alleged to have founded the village, or (b) that
the original division of the estate was determined by the relationship which
its founders bore to a common ancestor, and in either case that the subsequent
devolution of property has been in conformity with the rules of inheritance
followed in the tribe to which the proprietors belong. Ancestral shares were
inheritance followed in the tribe to which the proprietors belong. Ancestral
shares may never have existed or may no longer be traceable : The first
occupants of the village lands may have divided the property on a scheme of
shares based on each man's ability to bring land under cultivation, thought the
subsequent descent of property has been in accordance with the ordinary rules
of inheritance. The prevalence of a division of ploughs is probably are
indication that this method of distributing the land was common
134. Cases in which possession is the measure of
rights. - Again no definite
division by shares may ever have existed. and each man may simply have occupied
as much land has he could manage. This will rarely if ever be found as an
original feature of a communal village, but holdings of this sort may subsequently
be clubbed together into coparcenary estates by the action of Government
officials. Or, where customary shares once prevailed. All use of them may have
died out owing to the admission or intrusion of strangers into the brother hood
in troubled times or to other causes.
135. Official classification of
village tenures. - The
recognition of these features of village tenures has led to an official
classification of them which is neither complete nor of much practical value,
but which requires notice as it is often referred to in settlement literature.
Tenures
are arranged under the following heads :-
(1) Zamindari (a) landlord (khalis)
(b) Communal
(mushtaraka)
(2) Pattidari .... (a) perfect (mukammil)
(b) Imperfect (na-mukammil)
(3) Bhaichara (a) perfect (mukammil).
(b) imperfect
(na-mukammi)
In
the next few paragraphs free use is made of Mr. Barkelys edition of the
Directions and of the excellent account of Punjab
tenures which he wrote for the Administration Report of 1872-73 and which is
quoted in full on pagers 626-631 of the 2nd volume of Mr. Baden Powell's Land
Systems of British India.
136. Zamindari tenures. - Zamindari tenures
of the landlord type or estates possessed in full proprietary right by a single
owner require no particular notice. Such tenures are not coparcenary Zamindari
tenures of the communal type are those in which the whole of the land is held
and managed in common. Whatever land the owner cultivate themselves is occupied
by them as tenants of the community. "Their rights are regulated by their
shares in the estate, both as regards the extent of the holdings they are
entitled to cultivate and as regards the distribution of profits, and if the
profits from land held by non-proprietary cultivators are not sufficient to pay
the revenue and other charges, the balance would ordinarily be collected from
the proprietors according to the same shares."
137. Confusion in use of terms pattidari and
bhaichara. - Some confusion
exists in the use of the words Pattidari
and bhaichara. Thomason employed patidari
to include both, and bhaichara, or customs of the
brotherhood, means now something quite different from what it meant when first
adopted as a revenue term. Pattidari was once applied only to estates
held on ancestral shares, and villages in which other kinds of customary shares
prevailed were called bhaichara. But
in the Punjab bhaichara is restricted to tenures in which possession has become
the measure or right, and all villages held an ancestral or any other well
known scheme of shares are classed as pattidari.
It is not always to assume that pattidari
has the same meaning in an Act of the Legislatures as it has in revenue rules
or instructions.
138. Pattidari tenures. - Perfect and complete pattidari tenures are those in which all the lands are divided and
held in severalty by the different proprietors according to ancestral or other
customary shares, each person managing his own lands and paying his fixed share
of the revenue while all are jointly responsible in the event of any one
shareholder being unable to fulfil his obligations to Government. Tenures of
this class are very rate. Where they occur the right of pre-emption and joint
responsibility are almost the only ties binding the members of the community
together. Imperfect or incomplete pattidari
tenures are those in which part of the land is held in severalty and part in
commonality, and the interest of the landowners in both correspond to
well-known customary shares.
139. Bhiachara tenures. - In perfect bhaichara
tenures all the lands are held in severalty, but customary shares, if they ever
existed, have disappeared and each man's holding, or rather the portion of the
total revenue which he pays, has become the sole measure of his rights and
liabilities. In a pattidari tenure
the share regulates the revenue payable, in a bhaichara tenure the revenue
payable regulates the share. All are jointly responsible if any individual
share-holder. becomes a defaulter. The tenure of inferior proprietors in
villages in the south-west of the Punjab
consisting of groups of wells, where the waste belongs to the superior owners
is technically of this class, but joint responsibility is rarely, if ever,
enforced. An imperfect bhaichara
differs from a perfect bhaichara
estate in exactly the same way as an imperfect patidari differs from a perfect pattidari estate,
140. Many estates cannot be placed in any one of
these classes. - It is often
impossible to refer the tenure of a particular estate to any one of these
classes, and a settlement officer must be on his guard against a tendency on
the part of his subordinates to label a tenure by some familiar official term
instead of carefully describing its actual incidents. One sub-division or patti may be pattidari, while another may be bhaichara.
In the case of the separate proprietary holdings, possession may have become
the sole measure of right, though the customary shares are not forgotten, and
are recognised as governing rights in the common land and followed as the rule
of partition when it comes to be divided. In our early settlements it was found
that the people were sometimes willing to revert to the old customary shares
even in the case of their separate holdings, but such a measure involves a
disturbance of existing rights and can only be enforced with the consent of all
concerned, which in these days would very rarely be obtainable.
141. Different forms of tenures not permanent. - The different forms of tenure described above
are not in their nature permanent. An estate may easily pass from one class to
another the joint responsibility remaining intact. A landlord zamindari estate at once becomes a
communal zamindari estate when the
sale owner dies leaving several sons behind him. If they again effect a
partition of any part of the joint property an imperfect pattidari tenure results. But the commonest of all changes is the
passing of a pattidari into a bhaichara tenure. As we have seen this
may be caused by the exactions of a native government. Under our own rule the
actual holdings may never have corresponded closely with the acknowledged
shares and even if they did, the unequal improvement of different holdings hand
sales and mortgages of land to outsides may have made the system of paying the
revenue according to customary shares unsuitable. Accordingly when an estate is
reassessed and the new demand is distributed over holdings, the amount of
cultivated land of different classes in each man's possession and do not his
ancestral or customary share is made the basis of the calculation of the
revenue, which he shall in future pay. Under these circumstances a bhaichara tenure is at once created, and
as a rule each settlement shows a large addition to the number of estates
classed as bhaichara.
142. Malik kabza. - Owners are sometimes found in village
communities who do no belong to the brotherhood and are not shares in the joint
rights, profits, and responsibilities of its members. Their proprietary title
is a complete or undivided one, but it is confined to certain fields and does not
include any share in the village waste. The name by which this tenure is
officially known in the Punjab is malkiyat makbuza, and the holder of it is called malik kabza. These terms indicate that the interest of the
proprietor is limited to the land actually in his own possession. This land he
can let, mortagage, or sell as he pleases, and he is responsible for the
payment of its revenue. A familiar instance of this form of landholding is the
right acquired by a Brahman, who
received a dohli or death-bed gift of
a small plot of land from a landowner. The tenure is also created whenever a
landowner sells a part of his holding without the appurtenant share of the
village common land. The malik kbaza
tenure is common in the districts of Gujrat, Rawalpindi,
Jhelum, Attock and Hazara, where it was
introduced at the first regular settlement under circumstances which will be
described in a later paragraph. In some cases the status of malik kabza is combined with that of an
inferior proprietor. The status of an assignee or the heir of an assignee, who
is recognised as owner of the plot which is, or was held free of revenue,
subject to the payment of a proprietary fee in recognition of the superior
title of the village community, of this description (see paragraph 182-185).
This mixed form of tenure is common in the Jhelum District.
143. Superior and inferior owners. - Where the proprietary right is divided the
superior owner is known in settlement literature as ala malik or talukdar,
and the inferior owner as adna malik.
The local names given to these tenures are not uniform. Thus in the Cis-Sutlej
tract the superior owner is called biswadar,
and the inferior zamindar. In the
South-western Punjab the latter title is
appropriated by the superior owner, and the inferior proprietor is commonly
described as chakdar. In case of
divided ownership the proprietary profits are shared between the two classes
who have an interest in the soil. Occupancy tenants holding as privileged rents
are in possession of a part of the proprietary right but they differ from
inferior owners inasmuch as their rents are within certain limits and under
certain circumstances liable to enhancement, and their rights of transfer are
subject to limitationship based on the superior rights of another person who is
recognised as landlord.
144. Usual policy to make the settlement with
the inferior proprietor- As the
greater part of the profits of landowning in India is derived from the
limitation of the Government demand by the British Government, the question of
the persons with whom settlement should be made was, where the proprietary
right was divided, a matter of great practical importance. In the Punjab
following the precedent of the united Provinces, it was almost invariably
decided in favour of the inferior proprietor, the claim of the superior owner
to a share of the crop being commuted into a moderate sum levied as a surcharge
upon the revenue and calculated at a small percentage on its amount. The
general effect was that the benefit of the action of the State in limiting its
claim against the produce accrued almost entirely to the communities, which we
found in actual cultivating possession of the land. This policy represents the
extreme rebound from that which in Lower Bengal,
where the village system had broken down before annexation transformed the
revenue collectors of the Moghal Government into great landowners without
affording at the same time any adequate protection to the cultivators. In any
case in which the superior proprietor still continues to received dues in kind
these may be commuted by the Collector into a fixed percentage of the land
revenue on the application of both land owners or with the previous sanction of
the s Local Government on the application of either of them (section 146 of Act
XVII of 1887). There are few, if any, cases now remaining in the Punjab in which the question with whom settlement should
be made has not been decided. The Financial Commissioner has power to declare
"by rule or by special order in each case" whether the superior or
the inferior landowner shall be liable or whether both shall be liable, and if
so, in what proportions, viding that, in the absence of any special order to
the contrary, the inferior landowners shall be liable.
145. Cause from which talukdari rights have
sprung. - The circumstances from
which talukdari rights have sprung
are very various. In a good many cases the superior owners are descendants of
persons who once exercised political sway or enjoyed a lordship over the soil,
from which they were ousted during the dominion of the Sikhs thought they
managed to collect at harvest with greater or less regularity some small
proprietary fee such as a ser in every maund of the produce (sermain) from, the persons in actual
possession of the land, In other cases the connection of the ancestors of the
present talukdars with the land was
in its origin purely official. They were revenue farmers of jagirdars who enjoyed under native rule
large rights of management, which grew into rights of property. These two
sources of talukdari right were often
united in single individual.
146. Rights of inferior proprietors sometimes do
not extend to the waste. - The
rights of the inferior proprietors sometimes extend over the whole estate
including the waste. In other cases they are confined to the separate holdings
and the waste is at the disposal of the talukdar
subject of certain rights of user enjoyed by the village community. In the
latter case the rights of the inferior proprietor are not very different from
those of the malik kabza described in
paragraph 142 and his liabilities are not in practice much greater.
147. Division of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province with reference to tenures
into five tracts. - In a
discussion of and tenures the province may be roughly divided into five tracts.
-
(1) The
plains of the Eastern and Central Punjab.
(2) The
Himalayan tract to the north of these plains is so far as it is British
territory.
(3) The
Pathan tract lying mainly beyond the Indus and comprising the districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu
and Dera Ismail Khan.
(4) The
South-Western Punjab.
(5) The
North-Western Punjab and Hazara embracing the districts of Jhelum.
Attock, Rawalpindi,
Gujrat and Hazara.
It
must not be supposed that definite limits can be assigned to divisions of this
sort. Tenures do not adjust themselves to geographical, and still less to
administrative boundaries. All that is implied is that there are broad
distinctions in the tenures characteristic of these different parts of the
province, and typical forms can generally be recognized which were probably
once more widely spread than they are at present
I - Tenures of the Plains
of the Eastern and Central Punjab
148. The plains of the Eastern and Central Punjab. - The distinguishing mark of the first division is the prevalence of well
organized village communities. The general features of these bodies have
already been described. They are found in their purest from in the south-east
of the province and here it will generally be found that the proprietary body
in each estate or main sub-division of an estate claim to be kinsfolk, and that
ancestral shares or some other definite measure of right, such as ploughs, is,
or atleast in comparatively recent times was recognized. In the north-west of this division the
communities were often much less homogeneous, and whatever may have been the
original form of land-holding the rule of our predecessors had created a state
of things in which the land in each man's possession had to be recognized as
the measure of his liabilities, and also of his right in any common property of
profits. Talukdari tenures are not
common in the districts of the Eastern and Central Punjab.
The curious survival of the primitive custom of a periodical redistribution of
land in some estate in the Gurgaon District is alluded to in the 158th
paragraph.
II - Tenures of Kangra
and Simla
149. Source of information as to tenures of
Kangra and Simla. - When we pass
from the plains to the hill country which bounds them on the north a very
marked changed of tenures is apparent. The best account of the hill tenures is
be found in Sir James Lyall's Kangra Settlement Report of which very free use
has been made in the following paragraphs.
150. Absence of real village communities. - In the hills no village communities in the
proper sense exist. Historical causes can be plausibly assigned for this
peculiarity, but in any case the physical nature of the country by itself would
have prevented the growth of compact groups, each holding a well-defined area
of arable and pasture land. The village recognized in our records are
artificial collocations of hamlets or holdings corresponding with the tappas or
circuits which the hill Rajas formed for the sake of fiscal convenience and
each of which they put in charge of a single manager. The individuals in
possession of these grouped holdings are united by no real or pretended bound
of relationship.
151. The Raja also the landlord. - "Each Raja was the landlord of the whole of
his raj or principality, not merely in the degree in which everywhere in India
the state is in one sense the landlord, but in a clearer and stronger
degree.........Each principality was a single estate divided for management
into a certain number of circuits...........The waste lands greater and small,
were the Raja's waste, the arable lands were made up of the separate holdings
of his tenants."2
152. Titles derived from deeds of grant given by
the Raja. - Every holder of land
derived his title from a patta or
deed or grant given to himself or his ancestor by the Raja which assigned to
him "certain specified fields or culturable plots...........He called his
rights a waris or inheritance, not a maliki or lordship.3 The waris had a permanent title in his
holding. In the state of society which existed when our hill tracts were still
ruled by Rajput chiefs legal rights do not exist, but popular feeling
distinguishes clearly between what a ruler ought and what he ought not to do.
"A good Raja never evicted an old cultivator without a very strong
cause...........But there was no protection against a bad Raja for a cultivator
of humble position, though a strong family of good caste or social standing had
little to fear...........The rent due from the holder of each field was payable
direct to the Raja..........
The
agents who collected these dues and rents from the wazir down to the village headman were the Raja's servants
appointed and paid directly by himself."
153. Rights of user in the waste. - As regards the waste the landholders had merely
rights to user which were not measured by the amount of land in their
possession and were in fact shared by residents in the same tappa who had no land at all. Grazing
fees were expected from all alike. The cattle were not confined within the
limits of the particular tappa in
which their owner lived. The rights of the landholder were not allowed to
interfere with the power of the Raja to make allotments to new cultivators out
of the waste, and there was no real difference between the title of the oldest
and that of the latest grantee. There were often indeed certain hayfields near
the cultivated holdings which landholders enclosed during part of the year, and
a grant of land of land to an outsider from these would have been looked upon
as an act of tyranny on the part of the Raja. Exclusive rights of user were
granted to shepherds in particulars runs during a portion of each year, and
these men were often not ever subjects of the Raja, but merely drove their flocks
into his territory for convenience of pasturage at particular seasons. Portions
of the waste were also set apart as shooting preserves for the Raja.
154. Effect on tenures of the first regular
settlement. - The Sikhs drove
the hill Rajas of Kangra into exile or degraded them into mere jagirdars and the British Government,
when it took over the country, did not restore them to their old position. The
first regular settlement was made in 1850-52, and its effect on tenures is a
curious example of the extent of which officials in defining tenures are apt to
mould them after some familiar model. The Settlement Officer had a competent
knowledge of the facts with which he was dealing, but the only settlements with
which he was acquainted were village settlements and his native staff knew the
procedure of the United
Provinces and nothing
else." If Mr. Barnes had adapted his settlement forms and proceedings to
the system of assessment and form of tenure which he found existing in Kangra,
he would have made a kind of raiyatwari Settlement
with each family for its holding of cultivated land and patches of appropriated
waste, leaving all the unenclosed wastes............the property of the State
subject of the rights of common belonging by custom to the landholders and
others.........What he did was to apply to the hill circuit, with slight
alteration. The terms and forms, which are in the use for
estate..............of teh kind known...............as a bhaichara mahal. In Kangra proper the waste of each
village had definite boundaries assigned to it and become the shamilat deh though the rights of Government in valuable
trees were reserved. Some miscellaneous items of rent or revenue, and notably
the rent of new cultivation in the waste which properly belonged to the State,
were made over to the new communities, and the principle of joint
responsibility for the Government demand was introduced. Experience had shown
that anything like a real village assessment is in a large part of Kangra
impossible. Each holding has to be dealt with separately and the principle of
joint responsibility would break down if it were translated into practice. In
Kulu, whether by accident or design, the rights of the State in the waste have
been more fully preserved.
155. Talukdari rights in Kangra.- In some cases jagirdars in Kangra who are representatives of old ruling families
enjoy talukdari rights. These as
regards cultivated holdings have been commuted into a percentage of the land
revenue, but the rights enjoyed over the waste are some times very
considerable.2
III. - Pathan Tenures
156. Source of information as to Pathan tenures.
- The settlements of the Pathan
tribes in the country to the east of the Suleiman Hills began perhaps 1,200
years ago and have continued down to our own time. The following account of
Pathan tenures is largely drawn from Captain Hasting's Settlement Report of
Peshawar. But forms of landholding of the same general type in different stages
of development are common in the other districts occupied by Pathan tribes.
157. Partition of a newly occupied tract. - When a tract was occupied by an invading tribe a
partition took place. The lot of each main sub-division of a tribe was
sometimes called a tappa and
described as its daftar, the individual proprietors being
known as daftaris, Where circumstance
required it, the lot was divided into vands
according to the nature of the soil, facilities for irrigation, & c. and
the number of bakhras or shares, which was to be the basis of division was
calculated, one being often allotted to each man, woman and child. Each share
properly included an allotment from each vand
at least from each kind of land, so that a man's possessions might be a good
deal scattered. But the whole or the main portion of the
property of a sub-section (khel) of a
tribe usually consisted of a single block of land, in the middle of which it
built a village called after its name. The block was divided into vand, so that all might share alike. The
maliks or leading men, and even the khan or chief, got on more than any one
else in the division, but the latter sometimes received certain lands, as seri
or a free gift from the tribe.
158. Vesh or periodical re-distribution. - To secure a continuance of the original equality
of conditions, it was customary to make a
vesh or re-distribution of the land by lot fixed intervals, if a majority
of the community so desired. It is said that in Peshawar the custom originally extended to an
exchange of tappas; but in this form
it has been very long dead. Inside tappas
it lasted, however, down to a recent period, and involved the transfer of whole
villages, including the inhabited site, and not only the exchange inside
villages of the Kandis or sub-divisions, or of individual holdings. Vesh is destined to disappear; but it
was still enforced in one form or another in some Pathan tracts in the frontier
districts when they were first settled.2 In carrying it out the
recognized shares were in some places those adopted in the original partition,
in others every male, old and young, got an equal portion.3 In
Marwat a fresh calculation of shares took place, one being allotted to each
man, woman and child. This was known as Khula
or Mounth vesh.4 We
became acquainted with Pathan tenures at a state of their development when
"shifting severalty" still prevailed. But every one with even a
slight knowledge of the history of Indian and European forms of landholdings
knows that a periodical re-distribution of land is a common Indian and European
forms of landholdings knows that a periodical re-distribution of land is a
common incident of primitive tenures.
It still exists under the name of panapalat
in some of the villages of the Gurgaon District.5 The true panapalat or the exchange of whole panas
or sub-divisions of estates is confined to some villages in the Rewari tahsil. But the custom of periodical
re-distribution of wells is also found in the district. It would be a mistake
to suppose that a careful partition of the kind described above invariably took
place among Pathans. In a rough country where the land was to little value each
family was allowed to appropriate all it
could manage.
159. Dependents of Pathan tribes. - A Pathan
village did not consist wholly of proprietors. There were dependent cultivators
known as fakirs and also village
servants and artizans. Both classes held land free of charge in return for
service in peace and war to the daftris.
Hamlets (Bandas) were established on
the outskirts of the tappas and
occupied largely by melatars (loin-girders)
or hamsayas who held land on
condition of repelling rails on the territory of the tribe under whose shade (saya) they sat, and assisting in making
raids on its rivals, but were free from any obligation to render the ordinary
village service exacted from farkirs, manials
and artizans.
160. Shares in land and shares in water. - The original division by shares tended in course
of time of break down especially as regards unirrigated lands. It is natural
that each man should strive to keep the field he has himself reclaimed from the
waste and once he has become responsible for the revenue assessed upon them the
old exact partition by share is at an end. It is more fully preserved in a the
case of lands irrigated from springs and
canal cust, and the water itself is usually carefully divided in accordance
with ancestral or at least ancient shares. In an arid tract rights in water are
more valued than rights in the soil. Where cultivation depended on irrigation
the partition of the country between the main sub-divisions among sub-sections
might depend on the amount of canal excavation performed.2 Where the
supply is abundant the pressure of teh demands of native Government has
sometimes led to a levelling up as regards rights in water, the tribesmen and
their dependants giving labour and taking water on equal terms. where it is
scanty the old proprietary shares were more tenaciously upheld and the soil and
the water are distinct properties, which are brought and sold separately.3
161. Daftri's inams.- The Government which preceded our own often gave
the whole body of the daftris or the maliks a considerable share of teh
ruler's portion of the lands near the village site, which probably represented
the original holdings of the daftris, were
exempted altogether (inam bawajah
daftarial).
162. Encroachment of rights by the khans. - His personal energy and prowess, the favour of
the ruler or the official position he had acquired as a revenue farmer or jagirdar often enabled a khon to assert large rights in the unoccupied
waste included within the bounds of a sub-section of a tribe, and enjoyed for
common purposes of pasturage, etc. In some cases the primitive tribal division
was entirely overborne by the power of the khan,
the latter becoming virtually owner of the whole of the land. He would have
been concerned by the voice of the countryside had he turned out a tribesman
from the land he actually held or debarred him from grazing cattle in the waste
so long as he bore arms in war, paid the customary cesses and rendered the
customary services. But all the fields which he could not cultivate were at teh
khan's Disposal, as was the land of
tribesmen who left the country or died childless, and he could grant it on
allotments out of the waste as seri to men who helped him with their swords on
their prayers. Their gifts were irrevocable so long as the services was duly
rendered, but there were other grants especially to under of this own family
which were held during the khan’s
pleasure.2 The similarity of the tenures thus developed to the hill
tenures described in paragraphs 150-155 is striking.
163. Tenures in independent territory to the
north of the Peshawar District. -
It is interesting to compare the above with an account of the tenures in Dir,
Swat, Bajaur and Utman Khel written by Sir A.H. McMohan in 1901 :-
"Owing
to their greater isolation the people of this country have maintained the
primitive form of their land tenure in its original simplicity. Here also the
portion of each main sub-division of a
tribe is called a tappa and described
as its daftar. Each tappa is sub-divided by division (vesh) between the sub-sections (khel) of the sub-division and then
again in each khel into a share for
each individual. A man possessing any share, however, small, of the land
composing a daftar is cllaed a daftri. Such is the importance attached
to the status of daftri that a man
who ceases to be a daftri is no
longer entitled to the name Pathali
and becomes a fakir with no voice in
village or tribal councils."
"Individual shares bakhra or brakha are calculated in multiples and fractions of some recognized
unit of measurement known diversely in each locality as pucha, nimkai, tirao, rupiya, paisa, tura, or ghwaya. Lands of
various kinds are here also distinguished one from the other as vands bearing different names and a daftri." individual share of land
may include bits in several vands.
Portions of land in the land belonging to sub-sections are village are
sometimes excluded from further sub-division and allotted to Khans and
sometimes to members of the religious fraternity such as Mullahs, Saiyyids,
Mians, Akhundzadas. These lands are called seri.
Those given to the priestly class are generally lands on the border between two
villages, disputed lands, and lands, which for some reason or other are
difficult to hold by other than those whose religious status enables them to
hold them in peace and at the same time form useful buffers for the rest of the
community. I might mention here that the inheritance of shares of daftar follow as a rule the system of chundanand and very seldom that of pagvand."
" The system of periodical
redistribution of lands in these countries is (except is Sam Ranizai as
hereafter described) universal. Redistribution takes place at fixed intervals
which vary in each locality from 5 to 10, 15 and 20 years. This distribution
called in some localities khasanve,
in other vesh, extends, to the
exchange of whole tappas as well as
to redistribution of the general shares of daftris.
The redistribution of tappas, is as might be imagined the sources of serious
dispute. Heavy fighting is at the present moment (February, 1901) taking place
over the khasanve of the tappas of sub-divisions of the Bahozai
tribe in Upper Swat, the object of which after a long period of 25 years
without redistribution is to give the other sub-divisions of the tribe a turn
in the possession of Mongaora not only one of the strongest and most important
villages in upper Swat, but a place whose position on the main trade route
gives it a heavy income from tills. Seri
lands are excluded from redistribution of other lands within tappa. The system of fresh calculation
of shares, at time of vesh called khula vesh is not followed in Dir, Swat
and Bajaur. As far as we know lands have always since the occupation of this
country by Pathans been carefully divided and never appropriated by families
indiscriminately."
"The description given in paragraph 159 of a Pathan village in former
times applies verbatim to present
conditions obtaining in most villages of this country. With however the
increase of peace and order in this country especially Lower Swat the need for
armed retainers, malatars is
decreasing. In some cases banda which
is the past were wholly occupied by malatars
have been reappropriated by the landlords. Sam Ranizai which up to some years
ago was the property of the Ghar Ranizai of the Swat valley, was largely
occupied by bandas of malatars and succeeded moreover in
maintaining it until our occupation of the country where upon it has become
permanent. In this tract only is the system of periodical redistribution of
lands non-existent."
"There are up to the present no
signs of any breaking up in this country of the original division of shares in
lands whether irrigated or unirrigated. Owing the pernicious system of
redistribution of lands no change has occurred in their origin condition. Lands
which might without difficulty be irrigated by new water channels remain
unirrigated, for what Pathan will do a stroke of work for the benefit of his successor"
? Why should he plant trees or make orchards for some one else to enjoy at the
next vesh ? The lands remaining the same the old division
of shares remains the same.
* * * * * * * *
The only lands which show signs of
improvement on which more than ordinary care is devoted are seri lands not liable to
redistribution."
"A portion of village or trible
lands is often set apart for the enjoyment of the village or tribal jirga who manage all matters connected
with the community. These lands are treated as seri lands. On the super session periodically of the jirga in office by the jirga of the faction in opposition these
lands change hands."
In Dir and Bajaur where individual
chiefs such as Umra Khan, the Nawab of Dir, and the Khan of Newagi, having
gained greater power, certain lands have at times been handed over by them in
free gift for services rendered. Such gifts have not however interfered with
interior distribution of the shares composing the daftar or daftars
concerned, but it has of the course led in some cases to the absorption by teh
Khan of seri lands etc., as opportunities offered."
164. Pathan tenures pass into ordinary village
and talukdari tenures.- It is
easy to see how tenures of the kind described above might pass in a period of
enforced peace into forms of property not widely different from the ordinary
village community and talukdari
tenure, and that this process might be hastened by the tendency of officials to
mould tenures into share with which they are already familiar. As a matter of
fact the development of rights in land on the North-West Frontier has been to a
considerable extent on these lines.
IV. - Tenures of
South-Western Punjab
165. True village communities rare in S.W.
Punjab. - The rarity of true village communities which
we have noted as a feature of the land tenures of the hills is reproduced under
entirely different physical conditions in the arid plains of the South-Western
Punjab. Here, the climate by itself is enough to account for the prevalence of
holdings in severalty. The rainfall is extremely scanty, and outside the river
valleys the country was once, and to a considerable extent still is a grazing
ground for sheep and a browsing ground for goats and camels. These animals have
to wander over wide tracts in search of food. Some limits were not doubt
recognised within which the cattle of this or that can grazed, but it would not
have profited smaller groups to appropriate or have assigned to them,
allotments of waste on consideration of being excluded from the remainder.
Hence (one of the most essential features of the village tenure, the common
waste, could not exist. The nature of
the cultivation also opposed insurmountable obstacles to the growth of a
village system. Tillage is very largely dependent on the provision of
artificial means of irrigation of true barani cultivation is practically
unknown. In the uplands the scattered wells are deep and costly. Even in the
wide river valleys wells are required to supplement of the flood water which is
led on to the lands through artificial channels. The unit of property is the
well, or, in the lands adjacent to hill torrents, the larger embanked field or
band. The wed holding is know as "chah"
or "patti" and even where
no well actually exists the holding is often assumed to be a well estate and is
called a "banjari well" or a "patti". How purely artificial
the estate is in Dera Ghazi Khan may be judged by the following extract from
Mr. Diack's Gazetter of the District :-
“The
village is a fortuitous aggregation of independent units. The units in the Sind
tract are wells, i.e. the well and the land irrigated by it, or even not
unfrequently, a compact holding, though no well may exist in it; in the Pachadh
the unit is the area included within one irrigation embankment, and hence known
as a band or embankment. Several of these wells or embankments as the case may
be, are collectively called a village, and are looked upon from an
administrative point of view as forking one community but they are not properly
speaking sub-divisions of a village but a series of proprietary units not
really in any way knit together but thrown into association either by the
necessity for mutual protection or still more often, by the accident of having
been included for administrative purpose within a common village boundary, and
now maintaining that association simply as the result of the revenue system of
the country.
* * * * * * * * * *
In the Pachadh wide tracts belong to
the members of teh same tribe, but even here the lands of each village are said
to have been parceled out to the members of the tribe by the tumandar when the tribe first settled in
the plains; and each members of the tribe has held his land ever since in
complete independence. This view of the formation of villages in the district
is amply borne out by the absence of village common, even in Pachadh village
held by families belonging to one tribe. In the Punjab
proper, it is most exceptional to find a village in which some land or some
right connected with a portion of land, does not constitute a property common
to the whole body of village shares. Here there is no trace of any such relic
of ancient community of property to be found from end to end of the
district."
166. Attempt to introduce the village tenure in Multan. - At the first settlement of Multan communal tenures were introduced
though the Commissioner, Colonel Hamiltor, urged that they were quite
unsuitable. A considerable part of the waste was treated as Government
property, but with this exception the whole country was divided into villages
or mauzas, which were generally of a
very artificial character. In some part, however not a few estates are to be
found in which the landowners are all, or nearly all of one stock, and in such
cases a communal tenure is not markedly unsuitable though the cohesion between
the share-holders is much weaker than in Eastern or Central Punjab. But
generally the village system was forcibly engrafted on a form of property with
which it was incompatible. An estate was often a mere group of scattered wells
with the addition of a large well-owners. The assumption of joint
responsibility was absurd as regards estates consisting of collocations of
upland wells, and both in assessing and collecting the revenue has practically
been abandoned. Even in the riverain tracts it was unworkable owing, to the
shifting character of the floods, but here it disappeared with the introduction
of the fluctuating system of assessment.
167. Division of proprietary right between two
classes. Superior proprietors or zamindars.- A widespread though far less universal feature of land-holding in the
Sough-Western Punjab is the recognition of two distinct classes having separate
proprietary interests in the soil. The existence of certain dominant families
and clans enjoying and admitted social superiority over the large body of men
of very miscellaneous castes, who cultivate the greater part of the land, is
noticeable. The overlordship of the soil, which whatever its actual origin in
each case, was the adjunct of this social rank was here less completely
overborne by the leveling effects of Sikh rule than in Jhelum or Rawalpindi
(see paragraph 174), and was in some cases recognised in our early settlements,
and in others survived without distinct recognition. An excellent account of
the tenure referred to above was given by Mr. O' Brien in the sixth chapter of
his Settlement Report of Muzaffargarh.
"At
the head of the agricultural system is a large body of what are now called
superior proprietors. Most of these are descendants of tribes who came here for
grazing at a time when the country was depopulated. With or without the leave
of the Government of the time being, they occupied tracts, the boundaries of
which were not very clearly defined...........other superior proprietors are
the descendants of jagirdars and
former governors or officials who lost their position in troubled times were
able to retain a right to a small grain fee in the tract over which they once
exercised power. Others are the descendants of .............holy men who
formerly held land free of revenue but whose rights have been circumscribed by
successive Governments. The superior proprietors above-described were from the
first in the habit of introducing settlers to till the lands, but the great development
of the settler class was due to Diwan Sawan Mal. When he took the farm of the
revenue of this district from Ranjit Singh, he saw at once that cultivation
could not be restored or increase by the representatives of former governors,
holy men, broken down jagirdars and
loosely connected tribes whom he fond in nominal possession of the lands. He,
therefore, encouraged strangers and Hindu capitalists to sink wells, dig
canals, and cultivate the lands of the nominal owners. At the same time he
secured to the latter a share of the produce generally half a ser in each maund of weight or one pai in each path
(1/4 th) where the crops were divided by measure. In some cases the old
proprietors were strong enough to levy an institution fee, when a shelter was
located on their lands. In this two distinct classes of proprietors were formed
:-
(1) The
old possessors who were know as zamindars
and makaddims in modern official
language malikan 'ala and talukdars.
(2) The
settlers formerly called riaya and chakdars and now generally malikan adman. The chakdar was so called from the wooden frame on which the masonry
cylinder of a well is built. The name was meant to express that the chakdar has acquired his rights in the
land by his having sunk the well. For this reason he was also called the silhdar or owner of teh bricks of the
well."
The superior proprietary
right had sometimes a different origin from that described above. Writing of
Multan Mr. Maclagan remarked -
"We have been how outside were
introduced, either by the zamindar
himself or by the State, and how they had to pay hakk zamindari. But it often happened when the zamindari family was numerous, and their land limited that no
outsiders were introduced. The various members of the family divided the lands
amongst themselves or as was more commonly the case each man brought what he
could under cultivation without regard to any regular shares. Each became full
proprietor of his own holding, but he had to pay half a ser in the maund as hakk zamindari or mukaddimi to the head of the family.
Sometimes, however where the head was weak, or there was a dispute the due was
not levied. There can be little doubt that the zamindari and mukaddimi
are one and the same due, that the original form was the mukaddimi, and that this was somewhat the same as our lambardar's fee. Indeed this is admitted
by most men who are not directly interested in maintaining the contrary. This
due would originally be collected by the headman from all the proprietors, but
when the number of outsiders became sufficiently great to give the headman a
fair income from them alone, he would cease to collect from the proprietors of
his own tribe. He would also do so when he was weak and required their support,
for instance, when a young man wished to succeed his father to the exclusion of
richer or more powerful uncle, and in extreme cases he would promise not only
to exempt his kinsmen but even to divide amongst them due collected from
others. When this last practice has become firmly established the due has
ceased to be a mukaddimi or headman's
fee; it has become to property of a whole family or zamindari hakk, and the
family speak to themselves as zamindars
or ala maliks in distinction to the
setters of other tribes, who are adna
maliks or chakdars."2
168. Inferior proprietors of chakdars.- The best account of the chakdar or inferior proprietor of the South-Western Punjab is to be
found in the Multan Gazetter (pages 170-171)
"The settlers introduced by the
State or by teh zamindar himself into
a zamindar's village are known as chakdars. The name is also applied to those proprietors of the zamindar's tribe who have continued to
pay the hakk zamindari or mukaddimi to their chief well under
direct permissions of the State in tracts where there has never been any one to
claim a zamindari due. Thus when
Diwan Sawan Mal made his new canal, the Diwanwah, through the mailsi bar, he
gave direct grants to settlers proclaiming at the same time that if any one
could establish a claim to zamindari
it should be allowed, no such claim was established, but still the settlers
were generally described as chakdars.
The supposed connection of the name with the woodwork of the well. zamindari gave rise to the idea that the
chakdar owned the well only; in fact
that he was a capitalist who had sunk a well for the zamindar who remained the true owner of the soil and could buy out
the chakdar on repaying him the money
expended. This idea was still further encouraged by the fact that the chakdur sometimes did not cultivate himself,
but let his well to tenants, and it occasionally happened that the tenant was
one of the old zamindars. There was
consequently rather a tendency at the commencement of our summary settlements
to regard the chakda as an interloper
who by the power of money was ousting the old family from its original rights.
But this was quite a mistake; the chakdar
whether he got his title from the zamindar
direct or through the Stated always held
his land in full proprietary right subject only, to the payment of a quit rent
in the shape of the hakk zamindari.
Of course if he abandoned his land it
reverted to the zamindar but this was
because the latter was the owner of all the waste land and not in virtue any
contract entered into at the time of purchase. On the other hand any right of
cultivation enjoyed by the zamindar was
acquired by a distinct contract between him as tenant on the one side and the chakdar as proprietor on the other the
terms of the contract might very from that of a tenancy-at-will of a full rent
to that of a permanent occupancy on a quit rent; but the original rights of the
zamindar in no way influenced his
position as tenant."
When
the chakdar was an outsider
introduced by the zamindar he paid
the latter an installation fee known as jhuri,
lungi, pagg or siropa.
169. Rights of superior owners and of chakdars.
- The position of the two
classes Muzaffargarh was explained by Mr. O' Brien as follows :-
"The superior proprietors claim
to be owners of all unappropriated land. The malikan adna are full proprietors of the land in their possession,
subject of the payment of the share of the old proprietors and not liable to
eviction on failure to pay it and are entitled to introduce tenants without
reference to the superior proprietors. The superior proprietors as such, have
no right to interfere in the agreement of the cultivation of the appropriated
lands of a village. The settlement has in no case been made with them, except
where they are also inferior proprietors. Their rights are restricted to
receiving their fee in grain or cash and disposing of the unappropriated, waste
in the village **** the fee is know as hakk
zamindari, hakk mukaddimi and malikana,. or more often the specific rate at
which the share is fixed e.g. adh sera man and pai path are used instead of the
generic word. In Sanawan it is called satan
pawan, or the seven quarters of a rupee which equal Rs. 1-12-0 the
percentage on the land revenue at which it is paid.**** The inferior
proprietors in a village have usually no common of clanship. They are a
miscellaneous body each member of which was originally introduced either by the
Government or by the superior proprietors. In villagers where superior
proprietary right exits, the inferior proprietor is usually entitled only to
the land superior proprietors. The inferior can graze his cattle in it
subject to the tirni rules, but
cannot cultivate it without leave of the superior. In other respects the tenure
of inferior and absolute proprietors differs only in that as regards the later
the superior right has ceased to exist. If an inferior proprietor cultivates
through tenants he receives a grain fee which is called lichh on the Indus and kasur
on the Chenab. The rate varies with locality
and in consequence of contract, but it is almost invariably one-seventeenth of
the gross produce and is known as solh
satari.2
170. Division of the produce where this form of
tenure prevails. - Where this
form of tenure prevails the primary division of the produce is no into the mahsul which presents the share of the
State when revenue was realized in kind, and the balance, sometimes known as
the rahkam. Under our rule the person
who pays the land revenue receives the mahsil.
Our settlements have been made with the inferior proprietor and he is therefore
entitled to it, but private arrangement sometimes transfer liability for the
revenue and the right to the mahsul
to the superior proprietor or to the tenant or even to some person who has no
connection with the land. Out of the rahkam
has to be paid the pai fee of the
superior proprietor and where the cultivator is a tenant also the lichh or kasur of the chakdar.
"Under native rule the revenue
or mahsul was taken in kind and as
the rate approached in many cases that of a full rent, there remained after
deducing the cultivator's and the State share's but a small fraction for the
non-cultivating proprietors. This fraction was called kasur (the plural of kasur, and meaning fraction). While to
go perhaps some distance to personally superintend the division of the crops;
the rent he received from the cultivator with tone hand was immediately almost
entirely paid away with the other in the shape of the Government revenue and he
would remain responsible for any balances. Hence the custom would naturally spring
up of the chakdar allowing his tenant
to pay the Government share direct to the Government officials, and to give the
chakdar a fixed allowance in lieu of
the actual balance. It is this fixed allowance, which is now and has for
sometimes been generally known as the hakk
kasur and, its general rate is two sers
in the maund one-twentieth of the
gross produce. The Chakdar
who received this allowance is called the kasur khor or kasur-khwar,
the eater of teh kasur but the word
is often corrupted into kasur-khwah.
From his kasur the kasur-khwah has to
keep in repair the brick-work of the well, and pay the hakk zamindari of half a
ser in the maund
if there is one. Under the system of fixed cash assessment the permission to
engage direct for the Government revenue has grown into a very valuable right
the chakdar finds that he cannot
recover his former position, and the only right left to him is the nominal
ownership of the well, and the right to receive kasur. This chakdar who
has lost his right to engage is now the person generally meant by kasur-khwar, and this position has
frequently been conferred as a compromise on a man who has claimed a well of
which he or his ancestor was undoubtedly the original proprietor, but from all
possession of which he as long been excluded. * * * * * The word kasur is however; still used
occasionally in its original sense of the profits of the chakdar who pays the revenue himself, and such a man is
occasionally known as kasur khwar. In
Dera Ghazi Khan, where the division of ownership into superior and inferior
does not appear to exist, them proprietor takes form the tenant, both the mahsul and a small fraction of the rahkan as lichh, but in come places, the double payment has been consolidated
into a simple fraction of the gross produce."
171. Effect of land revenue settlement of
tenures of superior proprietors. - The tenure described above was at annexation the prevailing type of
landholding in Muzffargarh and a large part of Multan and Mianwali. Its subsequent hisotry
illustrate the fact that rights of proprty depend largely for thir stability on
the extent to which they are recognized at settlement. The title of the
superior landlord has been most fully preserved in Mianwali and in the Sanawarn
tahsil to Muzaffargarh. At the
summary settlement was made with the latter, buy the claim of the former to a
share of the produce was recognized and commuted into a surcharge on the
assessment calculated at the percentage of Rs. anna 12 on its amount. This may
not have been an equivalent to the grain
payments hitherto southern tahsils of Muzaffargarh and in Multan on the other
hand the superior proprietary right has distend to disappear by being sold to
persons who possess the more valuable inferior
title. The tenures in the Trans-Indus tahsils of
Dera Ismail Khan only took shape in the settlemnt effected between 1872 and
1897 and it was a peculiarity of the arrangements then made that inferior
proprietary rights was genearlly conferred not only on the sinkers of wells but
also on lathbands or embankers of
land dependent on hill torrents and on butemars
or breakup of waste in the riverain tract who is adjoining districts were only
held to have acquired a permanent tenant right. Of course a type of
land-holding prevailing over so wide an area is subject to many local
modifications. To describe these would be outside the scope of this book. A
good account of some of them will be found in Part III of Mr. Tucker's
Settlment Report of Dera Ismail Khan and the late Captian Crosthwaite's Demand
Assessment Report may also be consulted. In the Sangarh tahsil the custom of
periodical redistribution of land still exist in few estates under the name of vandara.2
172. Acquisition of proprietary right by
farmers. - In the Dera Ismail
Khan district farmers appointed by Government made permanent and treated as
superior proprietary right. In Muzaffargarh similar arragnemtnes were
frequently made by the people themselves, the farmer being known as mahsul-khor becuse on condition of
paying the cash assessment he was entitled to the mahsul or ruler's share of
the crop. In Jhang and Multan
the tenure of the hathrakhaidar was in its origin similar and, therefore,
would naturally have been terminable wherever the land-owner was prepared
himself to pay the revenue.
"Sometimes a community of zamindars to obtain a lighter
asssessment would valuntarily create this right (to taken hakk zamindari) against themselves in order to put themselves under
a man of power and influence. By a fictitious slae they professed to sell him
thie entire village; he become the normaol proprietor and by his influence
obtained a light assessment, this was paid by the villagers and the new
proprietors received from them the usual hakk
zamindari of half ser in the
maund, but beyond this he had not right in the village." In Jhange on the other and the hathrakhaidar seems to have takne the mahsul for himself and paid the demand
of the estate, giving a small fee to the land-owner. But his "right to
take the proprietor's share of the produce minus a fee varying a amount in
recognition of the title of the original proprietor has there crystallized into
a permanent tranferable and hereditayr right. An account of the curious process
by which the revenure farmer in Jhang has developmed into a right-holder will
be found in the 83rd paragraph of Mr. Steedman's Settlment report. In the same
way he has often been converted in Multan
into a full proprietor.2
173. Adhalpi and taraddadkar tenures. - The adhlapi
tenure of the south-western Punjab must be
noticed. A man who sinks a well in the land which does not belong to him with
the owner's permission becomes proprietor of the half the land which it
commands. He was commonly cultivates or arranges for the cultivation of the
whole of the land, takes of the proprietor's share of the produce, and pays
half the land-revenue. Whether he right of occupancy in the half of the land
which he does not own appears to be doubtful. He has been held that in cases of
dispute, either party may enforce partition.3 The kalapi tenure is
very common in Dera Ghazi Khan, and there a man is sometimes given the share of
the proprietary right in a well simply for clearing the jungle off the land similiar title commanded by it.4 The
Taraddadar in Jhang who had sunk a well acquired by custmer title. When the
landlord himself sunk the well it was sometimes worth his to give a man a right
to cultivate the land on a hereditary tenure on the condition that he could
take half the proprietor's share and pay half the revenue. Such a tenant is
also know as taraddadkar. Of course
the customary incidents of any tenure can always be defeated by the express
provisions of a written contract; and new tenures are in these created by deed.
NOTES
Dhiapi Tenure — A man who sinks a well in land with owner's
permission becomes preprietor of half of the land which it commands—It cannot
be considered as gift and become registration required – The person acquiring
Adhlapi Tenure could exchange or transfer the land. Raj Singh V. Prem Singh,
1987 Recent Revenure Reports 291 (P&H.)
V. - Tenures of the
North-Western Punjab and Hazara
174 Tenures
of the North-Western Punjab Moulded or created by official action :- The
tract is bounded on the south by the Salt
Range and on the west by the Indus. It in of districts of Attock, Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Hazara between the Indus and the district
of Gujrat between the latter river and the Chenab.
There are settlements fo the east of the Indus.
In some of these traces to characteristic Pathan remained at annexation, and
even now they have not disappreared everywhere.2 In of the Punjab
was the influence of our first Settlement Officers in moulding and increating
land tenures more strongly marked.3 This was necessary result of the
effect of sikh rule in obliterating old rights and reducing all persons
dependent of the land to one common level. The process had gone much further in
Gujrat, Rawalpindi and Hazara than in the wilder
tract along the Indus now forming part of the Attock District.4 The
juxtaposition of dominant families and clans and of a miscellaneous collection
of inferior tribes is a feature of the norht-west as of the south-west of the Punjab. The heads of some of the fighting clans, such as
the Gakhar, ruled wide tractrs under the nominal suzerainty of the Delhi
Emperors. But wherever the arm of the Sikh ruler couild reach the great
families and clans fared badly. In Attock they retained in a large measure
their old power and influence, and the leading men among them had up to
annexation to the conciliated by teh grant of libearl chaharam, Some which survive to this day. The
settlement of Jhelum and Rawalpindi were not completed till after the Mutiny, and there was a
disposition, stronger towards their close than at their beginning, to concede
something to the descendants of men, who had been stripped of their influence
by the Sikhs, while at the same time maintaining the actual cultivators of the
soil in most of the privileges which they had acquired.2
175. Forms of ownership recognized :– Our officers had in fact to seek for a fair
compromise of conflicting claims. In Gujrat, which was the first of the
districts to be settled, and where the Sikh mill had ground exceeding small the
old owners, known as warisan do not
seem to have pressed their claims very hotly.3 But in Jhelum and
Rawalpindi, which then included tahsils now in Attock, the former lords of the
soils vehemently contested the proprietary right with the cultivating
communities. The original villages of the leading clans often covered very
large areas, and cultivators had been located in outlaying dhoks, or hamlets, whose occupants now claimed to be treated as
entirely independent communities. Tenants in the parent villages alleged that
they also possessed full right as owners on the ground that the old landholders
had received from them no sort of recognition of proprietorship. A similar
state of things existed in Hazara, where the settlement did not begin till
1868. Four classes of owners emerged —
(a) talukdars or 'ala malikan,
(b) Malikan or warisan,
(c) adna malikan, and
(d) malikan kabza.
The
nature of the tenure of ownership of the last class has been described in
paragraph 142. It was introduced into the settlement of the North-West
districts of the Punjab under the orders of
Mr. Thornton, the Commissioner of Rawalpindi. It has been remarked that he
invented the name, but not the thing. At any rate the solution of the ownership
problem which he proposed was not unfair, and where it was adopted, the form of
landholding produced was not unlike that which had grown up spontaneously in
some of the South-Western districts. Of course new tenures of malikan kabza are created whenever land
is sold without its appurtenant share in the common waste.
176. Tenures of Gujrat and Rawalpindi. — In Gujrat the original landowners were generally
recognised as full proprietors, but a considerable body of malikan kabza was also created, who paid nothing but the revenue
assessed on their holding, but had no share in the village waste. Very few claims
to talukdari rights were made or
admitted, and the percentages of the land revenue allowed were small, and never
apparently exceeded 10 per cent. In Rawalpindi
full proprietary right was conceded to most of the persons found in possession
of the soil. In the plain villages Sikh rule had stripped the old fighting
clans of almost every shred of superiority, and the landowning body as a whole
and genearlly also within each estate is
of a very heterogeneous character, and the communal bond hardly exists. Many
perosn were also recorded as malikan
kabza, but some of them were not full owners even of their own holdings,
but padi a proprietar fee over and above the land revenue. talukdari rights were admittred, the talukdari were given no rights in the common lands. In the Murree
and Kahuta hills the tenures described in paragraphs 150-153, if they ever
existd, had dis-appeared long before British rule began. here the Sikhs did not break up the
old clan orgainzation and the country is still parcelled out among different
tribes.
177. Tenures of Attock. - This is also feature of the land tenures of the
Attock District. Some of the leading families there were able to maintain so
strong a position that we still find large properties conssiteing of several or
even many villages owned by a single person or by a small group of near
relations. Some of the talukdars not
only receive allowances from the inferior owners, but also own the waste. We
have the smae curious combination as in Rawalpindi
of malikan kabza pure and simple and
persons paying proprietary dues to full owners, but themselves possessing no
rights in the village common. A few instances occure of inferior owners paying
a share of the crop to the superior owners, just as if they were tenants. The peculair
mukarraridari tenure of Attock will
be more properly described in the next chpater. The above remarks apply to the
three tahsils of Attock formerly belonging to Rawalpindi,
South, Talagang, which was transferred from Jhelum,
there are a few superior owners receiving talukdari
dues, but having no hsare in the waste. But in a good many othe estates the
representatives of the original malikan
kabza created at the first Regular Settlement of Jhelum are also inferior
owners, for, besides having no share in thw waste, they pay malikana to the rest of the proprietors.
178. Tenures of Jelum .- This combination of inferior ownership with the malik kobza tenure is in fact a characteristic featuer of all original
tenures of the latter class trhroughout the old Jhelum District. But there is a
curious variation variation in some estates, "the proprietors being
divided into three classess -
(1) 'asl malikan' or 'asl warisan'
(2) warisan kabza;
(3) malikan kabza
***** In general the third class has as usual no share
in the shamilat; the second takes is
share therein calculated on its own holdings only; and he first takes a share
calcuated on the holdigs of teh malikan
kabza aas well as on its own."
Talukdars with no share in the waste, and merely having
a right to receive a percentage on the land revenue as an acknowledgement of
ancient claims, are found in some seventy villages.
178-A. Tenures of Hazara.- The dominant tribes of the Hazara District won
their possessions (wirasat) by the
swork in the century and a half which preceded British rule. The Gakhars of the
Khanpur tract form an exception. "The waris
was the last conqueror." The conquering tribe might leave or locate bodies
of cultivators on border lands, from whom little was exacted but feudal aid in war
as lakbans or loin-girders. Or it
might hold the fat lands in the plains, and let the older inhabitants keep the
hill lands on payment of ligh rents supplemented by personal services. The
conquerors had in th end to yield to teh Sikhs. Some fled the country, but most
submitted. The Sikhs as usual treated the waris
and cultivators alike, making exceptions, in the cases of some powerful men
and families whom it was worthwhile to conciliate. They introduced a further
element of confusion by giving leases of villages in a number of cases to
revenue farmers, who had no hereditary connection with the soil, and some fo
these survived down to the Regular Settlement made in 1868-1874. When British
rule began the usual struggle between the old waris class and the actual possessors of the soil began and was
only concluded twenty-five years later at the Regular Settlment. The Settlement
Officer, Captain Wace, described the general result as follows :- "The
cases are few in which a member of the old waris
class has been denied all footing in his old status, we have maintained in
a privileged positiong as owners or as hereditary tenants, those who obtained
possession during Sikh rule, and had continuedto hold the land under our
rule." The revenue farmer pure and simple was dispossessed. In one case at
least where the Jagirdar had always treated the person in possession of the
soil as tenants and levied grain rents, he was recoginsed as proprietor though
an exception was amde when the occupant was a member of an old waris family.
The loyalty of teh Gakhars was rewarded by the restoration to them to their
ownership fo the Khanpur tract, which had been in abeyance for 40 years, and
most of the cultivators there were recorded as occupancy tenants. The malik kabza tenure was introduced in Hazara, though not on
a very large scale, the more usual course being to protect subodinate rights by
the grant of herditary tenancies. There are in a few villages persons holding
an intermediate position between full owners and malikan kabza. They are
known as malikan ba rasad kabza or in
the Khanpur tracts as guzara-khwars and their rights in the waste are the
same as those of warisan kabza in Jehlum. Of course in the hill villages of
Hazara where the people live in homesteads of little hamlets scatterd over a
large area, the communal bond is very weak.2
179. Policy adopted as to the assessment of
jagir estates and other revenue-free holdings. - Under native rule, where rent and revenue are
almost synonymous terms, a revenue assisgnment conveyed to the grantee the
right to take from the cultivators all that a landonwer would now realize. The
principle was gradually established that the limitation by the British
Government of its claim on the produce and the commutaion of this claim into a
cash demand in khalsa villages
involved similar action in jagir
estates. The 43rd paragraph of the despatch consituting the Board of
Administration provided that in order to prevent jagirdars or other revenue-free holders from deriving more from the
land than would be taken by the Government whose place they occupied, each
village or tract which consituted a separate revenue-free tenure should be
assessed. Accordingly the Board of Administration issued orders that, when any
of the districts annexed in 1849 came under rgular settlement, the revenue
payable all the jagir estates
included in it should be determined by the Settlement Officers. Shortly before this the Settlement
Officers in Cis-Sutlej States had been directed to bring all assigned villages,
under assessment2. Hitherto only those jagir estates had been assessed in which a settlement asked for
either by the jagirdar or by the
landowners. For one reason or antoerh there orders were not fuly carried out,
and they did not really apply to the petty grants, the fields included in which
were treated ans minhai, i.e.
excluded from the assessable area. In the early days of our rule landowners
were very sceptical as to the benefits of a cash assessement, and sometimes
preferred to give the jagirdar, his
pure in the way to which they had always been accustomed, and in a few
instance, wher the regular settlement broke down and had to be revised, our
officers shrank from further reducing the income of assignees already affected
by the change from grain to cash collections, and gave the proprietors of jagir estates the option of continuing
to pay the excessive revenue assessed or resuming grain payments. To make a
cash assessment of the small plots held by Brahamans and village servants and
limit the right of the assignees to the receipt of it, would have entirely
altered the character of these assignments and made them almost vlauless to the
grantees. The Financial Commissioner's BOok Circular LIII of 1860 brought
together the instructions issued from time to time as to assignees of
land-revenue. It is there laid down that any exception from the rule that all
revenue-free holdings should be assessed, must be supported by special orders
of the Financial Commissioner. Where both parties the proprietors the Government
assignees were satisified, absolute compliance with the terms of settlment had
not been enforced but in case of dispute the courts must enforce complaince
with them and, when once introduced, they could not afterwards be departed
from.
179-A. Existing practice. - Section 48(3) of the Land Revenue Act (XVII of
1887) provides that "land may be assessed to land-revenue notwithstanding
that revenue, by reason of its having been assigned, released, compunded for,
or redeemed, is not payable to the Government and it is the general policy of
the administration to make no
distinction in this respect between jagir
and khalsa land.As the revenue must,
in the absence of a special order of the Local Government to the contrary
passed under section 48(2) of the Act, be assessed in money (see the 5th of the
Assessement Instructions of 1893 in Appendix I). It is the duty of a Settlement
Officer either to determine a cash demand for assigned estates and holdings
where grain collections have hitherto prevailed, or, if he thinks that the
existing system should be continued, to apply for sanction to the adoption of
this course. Even where the assignee is also land-owner, the revenue must be
assessed in order that the cesses may be calculated in the usual way.
180. Assignee's connection with the land
sometimes amounted to a proprietary status.- While it was the general policy to treat jagirdars and m' afidars
merely as standing in the place of Government, it was hard to deny that their
connection with the land had in many cases grown into something much stronger.
As assignee under the Sikh Government constantly interfered freely in the
management of the lands included in his grant, especially as regards the waste,
sinking wells, locating new cultivators and planting gardnet.s In this respect
the merely claimed the same powers as the kardars
exercised in khalsa estates, but with
this difference that, as he hoped by one means or another to make his
assignment a permanent one, he was prepared sometimes to spend his own money on
the improvement of the property. In the case of small m'afi plots the assignee often cultivated himself or arranged for
the cultivation. From this state of things difficult questions as to the
ownership of assigned lands arose in our early settlemnts, and it was felt that
in some cases the assignee had a claim either to the rights of a full
proprietor or of a talukdar. The
disposition to recognize such claims was somewhat strengthened by the change of
feeling produced by the events of 1857, to which allusion has made in paragraph
118. When as assignee was recognized as onwer
of a m'afi plot, his proprietary
right was usually confiend to the land actually in his possession. He was a malik kabza merely, with notile to a
share in the profits of the village common land. The superior title of th
original owners of the estate was sometimes recognized by the imposition of a
small proprietary fee or malikana, in
which case the m' afidar combined the
tenures of malik kabza with that of an inferior proprietor (malik adna) or became an occupancy
tenant.
181. Settlement with assignees or with their
heirs. - The question of the
status to be assigned to an assignee was, of course closely connected with that
of his right of claim a settlement when his grant was resumed. His admission to
one involved the idea that he possessed a proprietary title of some kind. In
Book Ciruclar LIII of 1860 the following rules on the subject were laid down,
and these were reproduced with some alterations in the rules issued under the
Ist Land Revenue Act (XXXIII of 1871)
The
ex-m' afidars or heirs of decease m'afidars are only entitled to demand the privilege of a sub-lease
supposing -
(i) they
reside in the village and own or cultivate the land.
(ii) they
have planted gardens, or have tombs, temples or buildings on the land.
(iii) they
have sunk wells and improved the land.
(iv) they
can show some particular casue connection them with the land. It is obvious
that the great majority of m'afidars
cannot urge these claims. In cases of peculiar hardship the Deptuy Commissioner
may recommend that the settlement be made with the ex'm' afidars
"If their claim be admitted they are
entitled to a sub-lease on half-assets, but they will pay their assessement
through the lambardars.......Of the
assessment thus calculated 10 per cent is deducted and left at the disposal of
the lambardars to over pachorta patwari's fees, road fund,
school fund, malba, and chaukidari, the expenses of management
and village cesses, but if the m'afidars
was in the habit of paying malikanathe sub-lessees wil pay it still. The sub-lesses
will have power to locate cultivators but they are liable to the ousted from
the lease at once as in intermediate tenure, should they fail to pay on demand
to the lambardars, the assessement
and the 10 percent and malikana (where this last is proved to be demandable at
any time within one month before the instalments of the Goverment revenue fall
due."
Provision
was also made for the settlement of lapsed grants with the heirs fo the late
assignees at half the usual rates of assessemnt if the Deputy Commissioner
considered the case one of hardship proprietary or occupancy rights remaining
undisturbed."
182. Existing ruel on the subjecte. - When the late assignee is not recorded in the
cord-of-rights as owner of the land of which the revenue has been resumed, the
Collector must neverthelss consider whether his occupation or enjoyment of the
land has been, as a matter of fact, such as to entitle him or his heir to be
made liable for the land-revenue and if son, he must make him or his heir
liable for the same forthe term of the settlement
183. Insturctions issued with reference to the
rule. - The following
instructions have been issued with reference to the last section :-
"When an ex'm'afidar or the heir of a
m'afidar claims to become responsibel for the payment of the revenue of a
lapsed assignemnt, the Collector will enquire whether the history and
cirucmstances of the holding lead to the consulsion that the m'afidars have actually held and enjoyed
an interest in the land equivalent to a proprietary or sub-proprietary tenure,
and entitling the claimant to a settlement under section 61 of Act XVII of
1887. The mere fact that another person or the village community is shown as
owner in the record-of-rights must be taken as justifying the summary rejection
of the claim. It throws the burden of proof on the petitioner, from whom the
Collector will require satisfactory evidence before holding that he is entitled
to a settlement. It must be remembered that it is often difficult to decide
from some of the older settlement record whether or not a m'afidar was admitted to be the owner of his mafi plot.His name was usually shown in the ownership column with
the title of m'afidar. Sometimes a note
was added that he was owner as well as assignee, or that on other person was
owner. The tendecy in later settlement has been to assume that the m'afidar had no proprietary title, and
to record his felds as common land of the village if no individual proprietor
appeared to have any special connection with them. When a settlement is
claimed, a careful inquiry must, therefore, be made. The manner in which the
gratn was originally acquired and the quetions whether at that time the land
was waste or under cultivation and whether m'afidar
putting in and ejecting tenants at plesure, are of great importance. Although
possession for three generations does not entitle the heir of a m' afidar to settlement if another
person really has exclusive ownership of teh land, length of possession may be
a weightly element in the consideration. If it is proved that the m'afidars have tombas, temples, or
building on the land, or that they have planted gardens, sunk wells or effected
other improvements, due weight must be given to these facts. The mere fact that
a m'afidar always realized his dues
by a share of the produce as a landlord would have done does not prove that he
was owner. In our earliest settlements m'afi
plots wre excluded from assessemnt and the assignee was frequently allowed
to realize as before the old hakimi hissa
in grain, and, notwithstanding that a cash assessemnt may afterwards have
been fixed at re-settlment in pursuance of standing orders or to facilitate the
calculation of the amount of local rate, the former arangements as between the
assignee and the cultivator were often continued without dispute. On the other
hand the fact that the m'afidar paid
a small proprietary fee or malikana in
grain or cash to the village community or some individual member of it, must
not be taken as conculsive proof that he had no kind of inferior title (malkiyat adna). His heir will still be
liable to pay malikana though a settlement is made with him. When
such a settlement is made in future the assignee's heir will be responsible for
all local rates and cesses in addition to the revenue imposed on the adopted.
Settlements at favourable rates should be rarely adopted, and, when adopted,
they should be distinctly noted and the reasons for them expalined in the
half-yearly statement of lapsed and resumed assignments. Such favourable
assessments will hold good for the lfie or lives of the persons with whom they
are made. The principle laid down in paragraph 174 of the Land Administration
Manual will apply.Should a general revision of the assessemnt of a districk
take place during the life or lives of such person the land will be re-assessed
in the usual manner, and the settlemnt will be made at the same proportionate
rate on the new assessement. In dealing with cases of the nature above
described, it cannot be too clearly kept in view that the status of the
assignee as such is distinct from any status to which he may be entitled as
proprietor, subproprietor, makarraried.
of lenant with right of occupancy. The latter status is not like the former,
exculded from the operation of the civil courts, and in cases of dispute in
regard to such matters the ultimate resort to the court is always availabel.
But the revenue officer who is charged with the duty of settlin lapsed revenue
assignements should not refer the parties to the court before taking action
under the rules for assessement of such assignments adn section 61 of the Land
Revenue Act. He should make the settlement witht the village proprietary body,
the owner in severalty or the assignee or his heirs, in accordance with the
same validity and finality as that of an officer charged with a general
assessemnt of the land-revenue acting under sections 50 and 61 of the Acts.
Mutation of names may follow subject to the provisions of section 37 of the Act
or a civil suit determining the proprietary status of the parites may possible
involve the necessity of a reconsideration of th settlment of the resumed
assignement, but the claim of any person to be laibel for an assessment of
land-revenue is by section 158 clause (viii) of the Act, excluded from the
cognizance of the civil courts and the revenue officer's decision in regard to
this matter will, therefore, not be liable to be disputed in the court.
184. Rights acquired by lessess.-The rights acquried by the lessees of Government
waste land, who have fulfilled the terms of their lease have differed greatly
at differnet times. They must be decided with reference to the stipulations on
the subject embodied in the deeds of lease, the provisions of the rules in
force when they were made, and, where the intention, of the rules is obscure,
by the interpretation put upon them by the orders of Government. The matter is
dealt with at greater lenght in the Land Administration Manual Appendix III.
185. Native Governments claimed large rights
over waste. - We have seen that
native Governements claimed large rights over the waste, whether it was
included in the somewhat uncertain boundaries of villages or consisted, as in
the Western Punjab, of vast tracts of land
covered with scanty grass and scrub jangal
over which certain clans or families asserted a loose sort of dominion. In the
hills, the Raja possessed a definite and exclusive proprietorship in the
forests and waste lands, and any rights over them enjoyed by his subjects were
merely rights of user. The tendency of the British administration has been to
withdraw from all interference with the management of the waste, where any
community could assert any reasonable proprietary claim with reference to it
and was likely ever to be able to bring it under cultivation, and further in
some cases to transmute what were nothing more than rights of user into rights
of ownership.
186. Three ways of dealing with waste-1. To
include all of its in the boundaries of estates.- Without entering into details it maybe said that
Government has dealt with the waste in one of three ways. Where the village
system was strong, the limits within which the cattle of each community grazed
were known. It was the policy of Government define these limits exactly so as
to prevent disputes between adjoining estates which ofter ended in riot and
bollodshed and to treat all unoocupied waste included within the boundary of
each estate as the common property of its owners. This was the plan generally
carried out in the Eastern and Central Punjab.
Even where the cultivated area was only a small part of th total area of the
village there was no though of claiming the excessive waste as the property of
the State. Even area to which no private title could be established such as the
lands of deserted villages were often resorted to the former occupants where
they could be traced. In the early days when the part of the country referred
occupants whre they could be traced. In the early days when the part of the
country referred to above was put under settlement and for many years
afterwards it was the prevailing opinion that property in land was the last
thing Government should seek to acquire or retain.
187. Excess waste included in villae boundaries.
- But at the same time the
Government was prepared to a certain extent to follow the practice of the
native rulers whom it had succeeded by plating new settlements in villages
which had more waste than they could manage or bring under cultivation within a
reasonable period. Accordingly it was provided in section 8 of Regulation VII
of 1822 that "where the waste land belonging to or adjoining any mahal is very extensive, so as considerably to
exceed the quantity required for pasturage or otherwise usefully appropriated,
it shall be competent to the revenue officers to grant leases for the ame, to
any person who may be willing to under take the cultivation, in perpetuity or
for such periods as the Governor-General in Council shall determine, and to
assign to the zamindara or others who
may establish a right of property in the lands so granted an allowance
equivalent to 10 percent on the amount payable to Governemtn by the lessees in
lieu and bar of all claim to or in the waste lands so granted."
188. Second way of dealing with waste to
acknowledge that it belongs to the people, but reserve certain treees. - In Kangra, as we have seen, the State cold
properly have claimed the ownership of all the waste with some unimportant
exceptions. But the policy fo the settlements in the plains was unfortuanately
followed in dealing with an entirely different set of circumstances, and the
waste became village property except that the State's rights in certain
valuable kinds of trees were reserved. In Kulu the waste has been retained as
the property of the State, subject to rights of user enjoyed by the people.
189. Third way of dealing with waste to include
an ample area in village boundaries and claim the rest. - In the Western Punjab
the villages cannot be said to have had any boundaries so far as the waste was
concerned. Boundaries were laid down at settlement in such a way as to include
in each estate an ample area of grazing land, an the rest of the waste was
claimed as the property of the state. In some cases the liberality shown in
the arrangements was carreid to excess. The extension of cultivations in the
tracts in the west of the Punjab is only
possible by the development of canal irrigation of Government expense, and
obviously when the State is landloard as well as ruler, it has greater
facilities for executing such improvements.
190. Appropraition of land thrown up by rivers
for plantations :- It will
sometime be found certain lands on the banks of rivers or islands in streams
are recorded as Governemtn properly. Mr. E. Thornotn, when Commissioner of
Rawlapindi, proposed that when lands suitable for plantations were thrown up by
rivers, arrangements should be made for the appropriation of a portion of them
of them for this purpose. Sir John Lawrence approved of suggestins, and in
drawing attention to it, the Financial Commissioner remarked : "Where the
extent of land thrown up is very large as compared with area of the village
adjoining, to which it would ordinarily appertain, the right of the village to
the possession of the whole may well admit of questions. Every
case............will......be reported to the Commissioner.........and the
Deputy Commissioner should state whether any, and what compensation should be
given to the proprietors of the adjoining village."2 The rules
on the subject issued under the Land Revenue Act of 1871 were reproduced among
the executive instructions contained in Revenue Circular No. 33, when it was
first issued in 890. But they were omitted in the revised edition and would now
perhaps be regarded as obsolete, and the provision that under certain
circumstances lands exposed by the recession of a river will be claimed as
Government property should not be acted on by a Settlement Officer without
first obtaining the sanction of the Financial Commissioner. A purposal to
assert that Government has a proprietary title in riverbeds was negatived in
1877.3 But orders were issued that in the administration paper of
all villages adjoining or including rocky rivers or streams a clause should be
inserted reserving to Government the right to take without compensation
boulders lying in the beds of rivers and streams in the village concerned.
191. Ownership of mines, quarries and Co. - The
ownership of all mines of metal and coal of gold washings by the State was
asserted in section 29 of Act XXXIII of 1871 and again in section 41 of Act
XVII of 1887 where earth oil is also declared to be Government property. The
title of the Governemnt being secured by legislation need not be refereed to in
records-of-rights. But care msut be taken to safeguard any righs possessed by
the State in forest quarries the spontaneous produce of land and the like by
noticing them int he village adminsitration parper. Th law on the subject is a
little intricate. The fact that a record-of-rights framed after the passing of
Act XXXIII of 1871 does not expressly declare that any : forest quarry,
unclaimed, unoccupied, deserted or waste land, spontaneous produce, or other
accessorty interest in land" belongs to Governement raise a presumption
that it belongs to the landowners of the estate records framed before the
passing of that Act. Unless it is expressly in witch it is situatted. No such
presumption arises in the case of provide in them that any forest quarry, etc.
belongs to the landowners it is presumed to be the property of the State. But
the presumption "may be rebutted by showing -
(a) from
the record or report made by he assessing officer at the time of assessement or
(b) if
the record or report is silent, then from a comparison between the assessment
of vilalges in which there existed, and the assessemnt of villages of similiar
character in which there did not exist any foreste, or quarry or any such land
or interest,
that
the forest, quarry, land, or interest was taken into in the assessement of
theland-reveneu."
The
legal provisions referred to above carry out the policy laid down in a despatch
from the Secretary of State, No. 35 of 25th March, 1880, and Government of
India letter No 1-43 dated 15th May 1880.
192. Kankar - The following instructions were issued in 1876 with reference to the
claim of Government to the ownership of kankar
found in village lands :-
"In the case of all village in which kiankar beds are known to exist, or in
which there is any probability of their being hereafter discovered an entry is
to be made in the administration paper. When framed at settlment declaring all kankar ready discovered or which may hereafter be
discovered to be the property of Governement, and in such villages kankar is not to be reckoned as an asset
of the village for the purpose of assessment."
"Where kankar
beds are claimed as the property of the village or of individuals, the
setttlement Officer will investigate the claim and if it is supported by any
relinquishment of the Government rights made by compenet authority wiht
response the case for special orders. If in any such case it is decided that
the Government rights have been lost or relinquished the kankar should be taken into account of framing the assessement of
the village."
193. Saltpetre not treated as Governement
property. - The question of the
rights of Government in saltpetre was raised in 1891 in connection with the
settlement of the Hissar District when the Punjab Government held that neither
the saltpetre earty or the educed saltpetre can properity be brought under the
term spontaneous produce other interest in land, "within the meaning of
Section 42 of the Land Revenue Act. It
was added that Sir James Lyall believed that" " in practice the
Government nowhere in the Punjab claims proprietary right in saltpetre eart or
a title to a monopoly of the rights of educting saltpertre though preceding
native Governmentn may have claimed such a title. All that Government claims is
the right of regulation or preventing the manufacture." Seltpetre of shora must not be recorded therefore as
Government property in the village administration paper, and any profits which
the land-owner derive from it may be taken into account in assessing the
land-revenue. If for the any reason they are left
unassessed the fact that Government has not abandoned its right to assess them
at some future time should be distinctly noted.
194. Management, sale and lease of Government
waste lands. - The exisiting
rules regarding the management, sale and lease of Government waste lands are
noticed in the Land Administration Manual, Appendices III and IV.
CHAPTER IX
On the
rights of tenants
195. Classes of tenants.- Tenants are usually considered to be of two
kinds, occupancy tenants and tenants-at-will. The vernacular equivalents are maurusi or hereditary, and ghair-maurusi or non-hereditary. An occupancy tenants has a right to hold
his land so long as he pays the rent fixed by authority, and to pass it on to
his descendants on the same terms. A tenants-at-will is a tenant from year to
year, andhis rent is determined by the areement between himself and his
landlord, The status of the occupancy tenant depends on law whether statute or
customary, the status of the tenant-at-will depends on contract, though certain
stipulations, if included in a contractr of letting, will be treated by the
courts as invalid.2 A more detailed and precise classification of
tenants is into..
(1) occupancy tenants whose rights are
determined by the provisions of Act XVI of 1887;
(2) tenants of Government lands whose
tenancies have been created under Act V of 1912;
(3) tenants for a fixed tem exceeding one
year under a contract or decree or order of a competent authorty;
(4) tenants from year to year;
But
even this classification cannot be regarded as quite exhaustive. It does not
include the mortgagor tenant whose fixity of tenure is secured by one of the
statutory forms of mortgtage allowed by the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, XIII
of 1900, or some of the local forms of tenure referred to in paragraph 215. The
position of the former is explained in the 41st paragraph of the land
administration Manuai.
196. Early history of occupancy right in the
United Provinces.- The Punjab received the distinction between occupancy tenants
and tenants-at-will the rest of its early revenue Code from the United
Provinces. The possession of a right to fixity of tenure by many cultivators in
northern India
was early recognised. Indeed the fact that in Lower Bengal
the connection of teh persons whom we had recognised as proprietors with the
land was often far more recent than that of the cultivators inevitably
suggested that the latter had rights in the soil that required protection.
Fixity of tenure of resident cultivators at rents determined by authority was a
prominet, feature of the Bengtal settlement as originally planned. Reguiation XXVIII of 1803 professed to
extend the Bengal system to the North-Western
Provisions of Regulation VII of 1822 were more definite. By its 9th section
Settlement Officers were required not only to prepare a record of “persons
enjoying the possession and property of the soil, or vested with any heritable
or transferable interest” in it, that is to say, of proprietors, but also of
“the rates per bigha..........demandable
from the resident cultivators, not claiming any transferable property in the
soil whetyher possessing the right of hereditary occupancy or not.” But, as
alrealdy noticed, small progress was made with the settlement of right till
Regulation IX of 1833 was passed. In the discussion which the preceded the
passing of that Act the rights or tenants, were much referred to, but it is
clear that no very definite conclusions on the subject had yet been generally
reached. Mr. R. M. Birds held that every tenant who lived in a villagelard a
right to have his rent fixed by Govenment, however long or short, had been his
resience, and was entitled to occupy the land as long as he paid the rent.
Rents should be fixed for the term of settlement, and be revised simultaneously
with the revision of the land revenue. Non-resident or pahikasht tenants had no such rights, and should be left to make
their own bargain with the landowner.2 Lord William bentinck in a
Minute, dated 26th September, 1832, observed.3 “I have little
hesitation in declaring my conviction that threr is very generally all over
India a description of raigats having
a proprietary title in the lands cultivated by them. These raiyats are remed mirasidars, mirasi maurusi,4 khudiusht. kadim, and have other
designations. Those resident raiyats, again
who may acquire a sort of possessory title by prescription are called chapparbands, jama, jadid and other
appellations.” The former class had possessd a right “of appropriating the
surplus produce of the soil after satisfying the Government demand, and should
be treated as proprietors as regards the enjoyment of the profits arising out
of the limitation of the Government demand.” The second class had possessed no
defined rights, but were” entitled to consideration on proof of prescriptive
occupancy.” Lord Willam Bentinck dissented entirely from Mr. R. M. Bird’s view
that all resident cultivators were.” “entitled to have their tents fixed
without reference to the tem of their residence.” “It should, “he remarked
“always he borne in mind that, though there may be cultivators who have
prcprietary right or rights of occupancy, it does not follow that all
cultivators have such rights........The or rights of occupancy, it does not
follow that al cultivators have such rights.....The greatest care should be
taken.........to avold confounding.........the greatest agricultuaral labourer
(or individual who, having settled in the village as a stranger many years ago,
has ever since continued to cultivate at the discretion of the zamindar) with he hereditary raiyato
whose ancestors perhaps first broke up the soil and paid the revenue or rent of
the lands direct to the servant of the State.” In an earlier Minute he had
observed that “whenever a resident cultivator may be found who has paid the
same money rate for a consecutive period of twelve years, it is fair onevery
ground to determine that neither he nor his successor shall be subjected to any
enhanced demands.”
197. Accepted ideas as to occupancy right at
annexation of Punjab.-The
accepted ideas on the subject of renant riht fifteen years later, that is to
say, about the time of the annexation of the Punjab, may be gathered form the
following extracts from the Directions for Settlement Officers:-
“There
can.....be no doubt that many non-proprietary cultivators are considered to
have rights of occupancy, and thus two classes are commonly recognized, those
who are entitled to hold at fixed rates, and those who are mere tenants-at-will.
cultivators at fixed rates, and those who are mere tenants-at-will. Cultivators
at fixed rates have a right to hold certain fields and cannot be ejected from
them so long as they pay those rates. are notable to alienate them without the
consent of the proprietors, but theri sons or their immediate heirs, residing
with them in the village, would succeed on the same terms as them selves. NOr
are they compentent of themselves to perform any act which is considered to
indicate proprietary right, such as the digging of a well, or the planting of a
garden, or the laocation of a labourer. The simple right is to till their
fields themselves, or to provide for their tillage, and for these fields they
pay certain rates and afe in some cases liable to be called upon to perform
certain services or to pay certain fees to the proprietors. So long as these
conditions are fulfilled they cannot be ejected form their fields, and if an
attmpt is made to eject them, they have their remedy by summary suit before the
collector. If they fail to pay the legally demandable, the proprietor must sue
them summarily, for the arrears; and, on obtaining a decree.........and
failing........to collect his dues, he may apply to the collector to eject
them......It is impossible to lay down any fixed rule defining, what classes of
cultivators are to be considered entitled to hold at fixed rates. They are
known in different parts of the country by different names as chapparband, khudkasht, kadimi, maurusi
hakkdar, & c,. all of which terms imply attachment to the soil or
prescriptive right. Those who have no such right ar commonly called kacha asamis or pahikasht. It has sometimes been suppposed that all raiyats resident in the village (khudkasht) are of the former class, and
that those who reside in another village (khudkasht)
have no rights, But there are frequent excepitions to this rule, Many
cultivators residing in neighbouring
village may have marked and recognized rights. Prescription is the best rule to
follow. Those who have for a course of years occupancy whilts those whose
tenure is not similarly sanctioned are considered tenant-at-will.” Mr. Thomason was unable to lay down any
fixed directions as to the dettermination of the rents of occupancy tenants.2
198. Grounds of occupancy right recognized in
early Punjab settlements.- It
seems to have been common in United Provinces to admit twelve year’s
uninterrupted possession of a holding at the same rate of rent as a sufficient
proof of occupancy righ the twelve years rule3 was very generally
adopted in early Punjab settlements, though the best revenue officers held that
it should not be regarded as the sole criterion, and that the quality, as well
as the length, of occupation should be considered.4 Afterwards it
became usual to draw a distinction between resident tenants, to whom the tem asami was some times exclusively applied
and on-residents tenants, to whom the tem asami
was some times exclusively applied and on-resident or pahikasht tenants, and to accept twelve possession as sufficent in
the case of the former and twenty years in the case of the latter.
In
some settlements a file embodying the decisions as to the status of all every
estate, and this is of great value in case of disputesp. As a matter of fact in
the absence of definite rules every Settlement Officer decided such cases as
came before him according to his own view of what was right and proper. For
example, grounds which one man whould have considered enough to establish a
claim to a proprietary title, anothe might regard as only sufficient to justify
him in treating a cultivator as an occupancy tenant. Patwaris and other infreor
native officials, who practically decided the status of cultivators in a great
many cases naturally followed the only definite rule they knew, which was that
bases on length of possession, landlords had not awakened to the
profits to be dervid from a cash assessment, and indeed these profits were
mostly prospective. They were, therefore, little disposed to contest entries,
the immediate effect of which was to make tenants share in teh bured of a money
demand which they dreaded, and where land was abundant and hands scarce the
landwner was sometimes more eager to concede, than the tenant was to accept, an
occupancy title.2 In some places tenant right was held to
betransferable, in other not, and the local customs on this point were really
various.
199. Determination of rent in early Punjab settlements.- In the matter of fixing rents there was great diversity. In many
instances it appeared that with the exception of a few headmen, all
sultivators, whether they belonged to the original proprietary body or not, had
paid revenue on eqal terms by division of crop or appraisement to the Sikh
taxgatherer, in others it was shown that the landowners had been in the habit
of reveving from the iferior cultivatiors undre the name of malikans, biswi, or ismi some triflingshare of teh produce, or an anna in the ruppee in
the case of zabti crops, i.e. crops for which the state took a occupancy
tenants, and even it would seem in some districts of tenants-at-will. In Rawalpindi and Attock
Major Cracroft fixedthe rents of both occupancy tenants and tenants-at-will,
and very generally at exactly the same rates.3 Conditions were
entered in villagge administration papers forbidding any alteration of teh
rents of occupancy tenants durin the term of the settlemtne, and a general
provision to the same effect was inserted in the Punjab Civil Code. Our first Settlement Officers exercised
the power of reguating the rents of occupancy tenants, and even it would seem
in some districts of tenants-at-will. In Rawalpiondi and Attock Major Cracroft
fixed the rents of both occupancy tenants and tenants-at-will, and very
generally at exactly the same rates. Conditions were entered in village
administration papers forbiding any alteation of the rents of occupancy tenants
during the term of the settlemtn, and a general provision to the same effect
was inserted in the Pujab Civil Code. Our first Settlement Officers had a strong
prejudice against grain rents, and it seemend to them natural and only
equtiable when they. commuted the grain payment into a cash assessment in the
case of the lanlord, to do the same in the case of the tenant. And the
landlord’s great distrust of their ability to pay a money demand regularly no
doubt often led them willingly to acquiesce in these proceedings. Very
frequently no malikana at all was
fixed unless the tenant was whon to have been in the habit of paying sermani or some other proprietary fee.
Where one was imposed, it took the shape of trifling percentage on the land
revenue. Gradually the expedinecy of always making the tenant pay more or less malikana was admitted.2 more liberality
was shewn to the landlords after 1857 than had been usual at an earlier petiod.
There was less disposition than formeraly to commute grain into money rents.
The official objections to division of crop had grown weaker, and landlords
were now anxious to maintain it wherver it still existed.3
200. Tenant-righ controvesy arguments for
restricting occupancy rights.- In
the sisxties when th first regulare settlements of the districts of the Central Punjab were being revissed under Mr. Prinsep’s
supervision trenant right became the subject of a keen countroversy. It was
urged by Mr. Prinsep that occupancy right had no real foundation in village
custom or even in the condition of things produced by the levelling fical
adminisiration of the Sikhs, but was in fact a creation of our own rule4
and amounted to the 1 confisctation by amdinistrative action of the rights of
the landowners. The iattter had always possessed a right to evict, and had
exercised it much more freely than was usually supposed. The extent of the
interference of Sikhs kardars in much
more freely than was usually supposed. The extent of teh interference of Sikh kardars in such matters had been greatly
exaggerated. It was not denied that certain classes of cultivators deserved,
and would by village usage receive more consideration than others. But the rules
by which Settlement Officers had determined what these classes were, and the
degree of protection which they had afforded to them, were quite inconsistent
with native customs and ideas. The importance attached to mere length of
occupation and the grant of a permanent tenure to village menials and to
non-resident tenants were examples of the first kinds of error, the assation
that an occuapancy tenant ould under no circumstances be evicted so long as he
paid his rent was an instance of th second. The entries by which tenants were
recored as hereditary at the first regular settlements had been made in the
most mechanical way without any real inquiry. A few of the recorded occupancy
tenants should have been shown as inferior proprietors, while others had a right
to retain possession of their holdings except where the landowner required the
land for his personal use, and even in that case were faily entitled
to protection for a limited period or perhaps to compensation for disturbances,
if they had effected improvement. But very many of them ought to have been
classed as mere tenants-at-will. As each district was reassessed the mistakes
made at the first regular setttlment should be rectified, and under Regulation
VII of 1822 and executive intructions Settlement Officers had power to make
such corrections. The use of the term maurusi
was objectionable. Privileged tenants should be recorded under the names by
which they were locally known, and the particular incidents of each tenure
should be carefully noted.
201. Arguments on the other side. - It was urged on the other side that, although
the name by which occupancy right was described was new, the thing itself had a
substantial existence before our rule began. The liabilites of very many
tenants had been the same as those of the landlords and their privileges had
been little, if at all les.. Resident tenants had often been settled on the
land by the Sikh kardars and would
have been maintained in possession had any landloard attempted to oust them.
Even where they got the land originally frome the landwoners the latter had
never thought of evicting them. It was only equitable that men who had borne
the burdens of native rule should share in the benefits of the more liberal
adminsitration which had succeeded it. The statement that the entries at the
first regular settlements had been made without inquiry was exaggerated. Native
subordinate had to guide them by the decisions of Settlement Officers in
contested cases. If there were not numerous, it showed that at all parties were
satisfied with what was being done. At any rate it would be unjust and
impolitic to distrub at a revised settlement entries which had been acted on
for years, and in fact no legal power to do so existed.
202. Alteration in Mr. Prinsep's Settlements of
entries of former settlements. -
There was a large element of truth in Mr. Prinsep's contention. The degree of
protection which tenants enjoyed and the ground which entitled them to
protection differed in different parts of the country. The rule that twelve
years' possession conferredc occupancy right was quite arbitrary. The sinking
of a well would probably have been accepted even rywhere as a sufficient
foundation for a claim to permanent title of some sort. But in the case on
non-proprietary cultivators fixity of the tenure as a thing which could be
earned by bringing waste land under the plough or by ordinary improvements had
perhaps no real existence except in the hills and in the south-western
districts. When a body of loose and varying local customs is poured into the
mould of rigid definition it is certain to be changed in the process, and it is
well to delay the operation till the
customs have been fully escertained. It might have been better,
therefore, at the first regluar settlements to record tenants by the names by
which they were locally known and to note carefully the incidents of the tenure
in each case. But the policy of altering former records of right was open to
grave doubt. This, is however, what Mr. Prinsep did with the sanction of the
Financial ! Commissioner.2 A few of the recorded occupancy tenants
were made proprietors a muct larger number continued to be shown as maurusi,
but the majority were treated either as tenants-at-will or as protected (panahi) for life, for the term of
settlement, some religious institution maintained, or some revenue-free grant
was continued.
203. Passing of Act XXVIII of 1868. - The
tenant-right controversy which arose in connection with Mr. Pirnsep's
settlements led to the passing of the
first Punjab Tenancy Act, XXXVIII of 1868, the main features of which ahve been
reporduced in Act XVI of 1887. The changes in status of tenants effected by Mr.
Prinsep were held to be invalid and measures were taken to restore the netries
of the first regular settlement. These were not carried out completely, and at
the resettlement of the districts concerned it was found that a number out
completely, and at the resettlement of the districts concerned it was found
that a number of teants were still shown as panahi
or protected for various periods. It was held that under section 37 of the Land
Revenue Act of 1887 the record could only be altered by agreement of the
parties or in consequence of a decree of court declaring whether the tenant was
or was not an occupancy tenant.
204. Working of Act XXVIII of 1868. - A full account of the provisions of Act XXVII of
1868 will be found in paragraphs 145-147 of the Direction for Collectors
(Barkley's edition). With its passing it eceased to be the duty of a Settlement Officer to revise the rent of
occupancy tenants at a re-settlement. Rents consisting of the land revenue and
cases with or withoug the addition of malikana
were re-adjusted in the manner described below (paragraph 217), and in a few
cases ht eold rents were left untouched at the request of the landowners.2
The provisions of the Act relating to enhancement were unsatisfactory and
diffcult to work. But fortunately for many years very few enhancement suits
were instituted. "This was partly due to ignorance of the law and partly
to the fact that the proprietors with very few, exceptions (did) not believe
that they had any real right to claim an suuhanced rent.3 Entries in
the village administration papers of teh first regular settlement declaring that
rents should not be changed during settlement, which operated as agreements between landlords and tenants
under section 2 of the Act, were also a bar to enhancedment during the term of
settlement.
205. Act XVI of 1887. - The apprehansion that difficulties would arise
in Hoshiarpur and elsewhere when this bar was removed by revision of settlement
was one of the reasons for the passing of Act XVI, of 1887. The tenancy law of
the Punjab concerns all revenue officers, and
a description of the chief provisions of Act XVI of 1887 is given in Chapter II
of the Land Administration Manual. A few remarks on rent and a brief discussion
of the different kinds of occupancy right will, however, not be out of place
here.
206. History of rent in the Punjab.
- Rent is defined in the Act as
"whatever is payable to a landlord in money, kind, or servce by a tenant
of account of the use or occupation of land held by him [section 4(3)] and
tenant as "as person who holds land under another person, and is, or but
for a special contract would be, liable to pay rent for that land to that oterh
persons." The kind of rent commonly met with are
noticed in Chapter XVIII. The cheif fact in connection with the history of rent
in the Punjab is that it owes its origin mainly to fiscal arrangements, and not
directly to economic causes.2 This is obvious in the case of the
rents consisting of the land revenue and cesses with or without a small
additional payment on account of malikana,
which are still commonly paid by tenants-at-will, some parts of the country.
But it is equally true of batari and zabti rents. The former represent the
share of the produce which native govenremnt claimed under the name of mahsul or hakimi hissa (i.e. the ruler's protion). When the British
Government comunted this into a cash revenue demand the landlords continued to
take it under the old names and at the old rates from the tenants, and the
rates have often remained unchanged to the rpesent day. The small grain fee
which the proprietors sometimes realized in th days of Sikh rule is even now
very frequently set aisde as a separate item when the crops ar divided. In this
case too the former names are used and the traditional fractions is commonly
taken. Zabti rents are still paid in
many placed for the crops for which the Sikhs took cash payments. Chakota rents, i.e., rents consisting of
a fixed amount of grain in the spring and a fixed amount of cash in the autumn
harvests have a similar history.3 Even fixed cash rents often
originated in the revenue arragements, bu they are more susceptiable of
readjusted on an economic basis than other kinds of rent. The importance of
studying the history of rent in any tract which is being assessed will appear
in teh sequel (see Chapter XX).
207. Acquisition of occupancy right. - Under Act X2VI of 1887 no tenant can obtain a right of
occupancy by mere lapse of time (section 9), and, unless a special custom to the
countrary is proved, no joint owner of land can acquire one in any part of the
land (section 10). For example, a proprietor who is in cultivation possession
of field in the village common, cannot claim of right of occupancy under
section 5(1) (a), though all the cirucmstance exist which would enable another
person to so successfully. The first of these provisions embodies a marked
difference between the law of the Punjab and that of other parts of Northern India as to the acquisition of occupancy right.
The facts which are sufficient to establish a right of occupancy are set forth
in sections 5 and 6 of the Act, while section 8 saves any local customs by
which a permenent tenure is acqurd on grounds other tahn those described in
these two sections, and section 11 any rights already acquired under Act
XXXVIII of 1868. If the tenant voluntairly exchanges one plot for another the
land taken in exchange is held to be "subject to the same right of
occupancy as them to which the land given in exchange would have been subject,
if the exchange had not taken place." (section 7)
208. Classes of occupancy tenants. - Considered with reference to the incidents of
their tenures occupancy tenants fall into three classes :–
(1) Tenants
under section 5 (1) (a)
(2) Tenants
under section 5 (1) (b), (c) and (d).
(3) Tenants
under section 6 and 8.
209. Occupancy right of the first clas how
established. - The first class
includes every tenant, who on Ist Nov. 1887 had "for more than two
generations in the male line of descent through a grand-father or grand-uncle
and for a period fo not less then twenty years been occupying ladn paying no
rent therefor beyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the rates and
cesses for the time being chargeable tereon. " [section 5(1) (a)]. The
date mentioned is that on which the Act came into force. Thirty year's
occupation at the rent named raise a presumption that the tenant possesses the
qualifications described above, but this presumption may be rebutted.2
It must be remembered that "tenant" in Act XVI of 1887 includes
"the predecessors and successors in interest of tenant,"3
and that words in section 5(1) (A) denoting natural relationship denote also
relationship by adoption, including the customary appointement of an heir and
spiritual relationship by adoption, including the customary appointment of an
heir and spiritual relationship, such as that of a chela to his guru or
father in the faith. Sir james Lyall construed "land-revenue" in section
5(1) (a) as including batai and zabti collections made by jagirdars before a cash assessment had
been introduced. He considered that the definition of "land-revenue"
in section 4(10) as "land-revenue assessed under any law for the time
being in force" did not prevent this interpretation, whic was clearly
equitable and in accordance with the intentions of the Act. He remarked :-
"I am of opinion that it is necessary to construe the word (an) here as it
was equivalent with Act. I believe there was no Act or Regulations for the
assessement of the land-revenue, strictly speakin, in force in the Punjab
before 1871, and the present day in Madras
or the greater part of the Presidency, there is no statue law for the
assessment of the land-revenue. The Governemnt of Madras acts in imposing it
upon the old customary law of Inida. It is to this law that I understand the
preamble of Punjab Land Revenue Act, XXXIII of 1871, referes, No. Enactments
were repealed by that Act.
"Putting
aside the question of intrepretation of the work law in section 4(10) of the
Act, and coming to section 5(a) it is manifest that section is intended to deal
with a question between the landlord and tenant, and the question is, has the
tenant paid as rent (i.e., as due to teh landloar-seee definition of rent)
anything more tha land-revenue and rates and cesses chargeable ? Now, as a
matter of fact, unless the tenants we are concerned with (i.e.those who have
paid revenue and cessess without malikana
since Settlement) paid the proprietors a sermani
fee while barat was in force (in
which case we may be sure a cash malikana
was put on in place of sermani as
that was the invariable rule in the old settlements), they really paid the
landlord no rent at all so long the jagirdars
maintained bata collections in
respect to both proprietors and tenants of this class, for teh jagirdars collected direct from these
tenants as from theproprietors; these men, therefore, paid nothing in those
days as rent to the landlords, and what they paid direct to the jagirdars they paid undoubtebly as the
old land-revenue and cesses of the country. These batai and Zabti collections
are teh ancient from of teh land-revenue of India."2
210. Occupancy right of the second class how
establised. - The second class
includes every tenant. -
(1) "Who,
having owned land, and havig ceased to be land-onwer there of otherwise then by
forfeiture of the Government or by any voluntary act, has, since he has ceased
to be ladowner, continuously occupied the land," [section 5(1) (b)]. The
right may be claimed by the representative of the person who lost the
proprietary right (Revenue judgement No. 6 of 1895 in Punjab Record of September,
1895).
claim
is realy maintain under this sub-section.
A man who has sold his land but continues to
cultivate it is of course a mere tenant at-will of the purchaser
(2) "Who,
in a village or estate in which he settled along with or was settled by, the
founder thereof as a cultivatior therein, occupied land on the twenty-first day
of Oct., 1868, and has continuously occupied the land since that date"
[Section 5(1) (c)], unless the landloar proves "that the tenant was
settled on land previously cleared and brougth under cultivation by, or at the
expenses of, the founder." The 21st October, 1868, is the date on which
the first Punjab Tenancy Act came into force.
(3) "Who,
being jagirdar of the estate or any
part of the estate in which the land occupied by him is situate, has
continuously occupied the land for not less than twenty years, or having been
such jagirdar, occupied the land
while he was jadirdar and has continuously occupied it for not less than twenty
years." [section 5 (1) (b)]. Jagridar
includes any assignee of land other then a village servant. A jagridar under a grant made by a former
Native Government falls within the definition of that term in the Tenancy Act
(Revenue judgments 2 of 1892 and 2 of 1897 in Punjab Record of March, 1892 and
February, 1897, respectively).
211. Occupancy right of the third class how
establised. - The third class
includes
(1) any
tenant entered in a record of rights sanctioned by the Local Government be fore
the passing of Act XXVIII of 1868, as a tenant having a right of occupancy in
land which he has continuously occupied from the time of the preparation of
that record unless by a decreee of a competent court in a suit instituted
before the passing of Act XVI of 1887 he has been declared not to posses such a
right (section 6), and
(2) any
tenant who can establish a right of occupancy on any gorund otherthan those
described in section 5 and 6 (section 80. This refers specially to the rights
which by the custom of particular parts of the country persons efecting
improvements or bringing waste under cultivation acquire. Exampies are the lathband or lathmar tenant of Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan who obtains
hsi title by embanking fields and the butemar,
or mundhimar who earns it by
clearing/jangla. The rights of the tardaddadkar tenants of th Jhang District seem to have been
acquired by merely engaging to keep in cultivation the lands attached to a weel
constructed by the owner. They mist by distinguised from those of the well
constructed by the owner. They must be distinguished from those of the taraddadkar owner described in paragraph
173. It is very doubtful whetehr the right of taraddadkar to sublet is limited by section 58(2) of the Tenancy
Act. According to Mr. Steedman "all taraddadkars have the power of
arranging for the cultivation. It does not matter wheter the taraddadkar cultivates himself for by a
tenant."2 The mukarraridar
tenant of Attock cannot be considered as falling under secion 8 or any other
section of the Punjab tenancy Act for the has by custom more unrestriced powers
of alienation than any class of occupancy tenant enjoys under Act XVI of 1887,
and holds his land at a fixed rent which can not be altered during the term of
settlement. It has been judicially decided that some mukadmadairs descend like owner's holdings, and are not subject to
the special rules referred to in the next paragraph. 3
The
mukarraridar almost invariable
acquired his title by sinking a well. But there and few mukarraridars in Attock whose holdings consist of irrigated lands.
The kumhar tenant of Dera Ghazi Khan
got his itle in the same way, and "his tenure lasts as long as the pakka brick or wooden well he has sunk
last."4 In Hazara wefind that curious feature of occupancy
tenants holding their land not from the proprietors, but as sub-tenants of
otehr occupancy tenants.5
(3) During
Mr. Barry's settlement of the Attock District (1923-27) the Punjab Tenacny Act,
XVI of 1887, was amended in 1925 at the instance of the Settlement Officer in
order in include specific provisions regarding muqarraridars in that district. The amending Act XI of 1925,
defined a muquarridar in that
district. The amending Act XI of 1925, defined a uqarraridar as any person who
holds land in the Attock District and who, on the date of the commencement of
the Punjab Tenancy (Amendment) Act 11925, was recorded in the revenue records
as muqarraridar in respect of such land or who, after the said date, was so
recored with his consent and the consent of the proprietor of such land and
includes the successors in interest of a muqarraridar.
It futher provided that for the purpose of section 22 of the Teancy Act a muqarraridar shall be deemed to be a
tenant of the class specified in section 5 (1) (a) of the Act, and that for the
purpose of sections 24, 27, 27-A, 38 and 39 of the Tenancy Act a muqarraridar shall be deemed to be a
tenant having a right of occupancy. The amending Act also provided that the
provisions of chapter IV of teh Tenancy Act shall not apply to nuqarraridars.
212. Devolution of occupancy right. - On the death of an occupancy tenant his holding
passes on a like tenure -
(a) to
this male lineal descendants in the male line of descent,
(b) failing
them, to his widow for life or until remarriage, but without any pwoer of sale,
gift, or mortagage, or of subletting for a period exceeding one year
(c) failing
male descendants and a widow, or when a widow succeeds, then after her death or
remarriage, or in the event of her abandoning the land, to agnates or male
collateral relatives in the male line of descent, provided that the common
encestor of the later tenant and the agnates occupied the land. Among agnates
the right of occupancy falls to the person of persons who would have inherited
the land if it had been owned by the deceased. On failure of legal heirs the
holdings revers to the landlord (section 59)
213. Rights possessed by all classes of
occupancy tenants. - Every
occupancy tenant has a right to make improvements as defined in section 4 (19)
of the Act (section 63), not withstanding any conditions in a record-of-rights,
or in an agreement between himself and his landfor a term not exceeding seven
year (section 58). He can, with the consent of his landlord, transfer his land
to all the memeber of a co-operative society, for the consolidation of holdings
of which both he and his landloar are mambers, and obtain from them any othe
hand in exchange land so obtained in exchange being subject to the same right
of occupancy as the land given for it (section 58-A)]. He forfeits his right if
for over a year he fails withoug sufficient cause to cultivate his holdings
either by himself for some other person and to arrange for payment of the ent
(section 38), but he can only be ejected (a) in execution of a decree for
adjectment, or (b) when adecree for an arreas of rent has been passed and
remains unsatisfied of a revenue officer (section 44). A decree for ejectment
wll only be passed on one or other of the following grounds :-
(a) that the tenant "has used the land comprised in the tenancy
in a manner which reders it unfit for the purpose for which he held it."
(b) "where
rent is payable in kind, that he was without sufficeint cause failed to
cultivate that land in the manner or to the extent customary in the locality in
which the land is situate." (section 39)
214. Occupancy right how far tranferable. - A tenant belonging to eighter of the first can
transfer his right of occupancy by sale, gift, or morgage. But the must first
give notice of his intention through a revenue officer of his landload, and the
latter may then claim to purchase the right as it fall value as determined by a
revenue officer (section 53). The landlord's power of pre-emption does not
arise in the case of collateral mortgages not involving any actual or constructive
transfer of possession to the mortgagee unless the transaction to be of the
dexription known as bai-bil-wafa, or
mortgage by conditional sale. Tenant righ of the third class cannot be
transferred by private contract without the previous written consent of the
landlord (section 56). Nor can it be attached or sold in execution of a decree
or order of Court (section 56). Tenant right of the first two classess is not
protected from sale in execution, but the landlord has a right of pre-emption
if it is sold (section 55).
215. Rights not expressly provided for by law. - Rights possessed by any class of occupancy
tenants, which are not expressely provided for by law, should be carefully
described in the village administration paper. Under orders issued in 1887
Settlement Officers were enjoined to "notice in their records of local
usage the custom relating to the right
of occupancy tenants of lands submerged by fluvial action and
subsequently restored."
216. Enhancement and redcution of rent. - Where an occupnacy tenant pays a grain or zabti rent it can be enhanced or reduced
if the quality of the cultivation is changed by the land becoming, or ceasing
to be, irrigated or flooded (sections 20 and 21). If he pays a cash rent it may
be enhanced on the suit of the landlord on the grund that, after deducting the
land revenue and the rates and cesses chargeable on the holding, the balance
does not amount to a malikana -
(a) of
two annas in the rupee, or 12-1/2 per
cent, on the land revenue in the case of a tenant of the first class;
(b) of
six annas in the rupees, or 37-1/2
per cent, on the land revenue in the case of a tenant of the second class;
(c) of
12 annas in the rupee, or 75 per
cent, in the case to tenant of the thrid class. Enhancement may be decreed up
to the limited fixed for the class of tenants to which he defendant belongs
(section 22). Subject to these limits a Revenue Courth has full discreation as
to the amount of enhancement to be decreed (section 25). Too much weight should
not be given to the class to which the occupancy tenant belong. Tenants of old
standing who have hitheto paid a very light malikana
may often only be able to prove that their status falls under section 6. The
most important points to consider are the rate of malikana hitherto paid and those commonly realized from similar
occupancy tenants in the neighbourhood. The law has given the landowners a
claim to an increased rate of profit, an this must be fairly satisfied. But
sudden and severe enhancemnets drawn up by the Settlement Officer has been
approved as a useful general guide for Revenue Courts. But of course they are in no way bound
to follow it exactly.
If
enhancement has been decreed or a suit for enhancement has been dismissed on
the merits no further suit will lie for ten years, unless the land has
menawhile become irrigated of flooded [section 24(3)]. The cash rent payable by
an occupancy tenant may be reduced on the ground that the productive powers of
his holding have eben lessened by a casue beyond his own control (section 23).
The reduced rent must in no case be less than the land revenue and cesses
payable on the holding (section 25).
251. Common base line for a large number of
estates. - In the case of
estates near a river the plan introduced by Mr. Francis of having a common base
line may be usefully adopted. Where possible there should be a corresponding
base line paralleled to the first on the opposite bank. By this device the difficulty of relaying
boundaries which are liable to be obliterated is diminished. The full benefits
of the plan are secured where the boundaries of the estates which face each
other on eithe side of the stream are fixed. In the last settlement of Peshawar the plan of
having common base running due east-west and north and south for the whole
district was adopted.2 Any help which officers of the Imperial
Survey Department can give in laying down or checking base lines should be
welcomed. It is beyond the capacity of a revenue staff to lay down a base line
for any great distance which will not show considerable divergence from the
true direction. If for any special reason a long line is required, it is better
to lay it down in separate short sections say, of about two miles each, so that
the errors in one section may not be continued in the next. In recent
settlement surveys of several riverain tracts much valuable assistance has been
obtained form plotted sheets supplied by the Survey Department. They show in
correct relative position certain convenient points (chandas) or corners of squares which have been fixed by skeleton
traverse survey run along or over the tract bordering both banks of the rivers
concerned. Identical orientation of squares on either side of it can thus be
secured. The system is one which should be utilized whereever possible.
252. Survey work in Hissar and hill tracts. - In the settlement of the Hissar district carried
out betwen 1887 and 1892, the field measurements were based on a somewhat
elaborate traverse made by the Survey Department byt his plan has not been
followed in other plain districts, except in the case of riverain tracts as
noticed in the last paragraph, as it is found that the squares laid down by the
patwaris furnish an accurate
framework for cadastral surveys. But in hilly tracts the sqaure system is
impossible. Recourse has therefore, to be had to a modification of the
plane-table system, and no great accuracy can perhaps be looked for unless the patwari is supplied with mapping sheets
on which the positiong of several conspicuous points been marked by the Survey
Department.3 In the tracts under reference, and possibly in others,
an increasing amount of assistance of this kind will, it is anticiapted, be
required as time goes on, from the Survey Department. Plotted sheets showing
survey marks fixed and traversed by the Department were supplied in the Kangra
District for th epurpose the facilitating settlement measurement and mapping.
In all settlements for which such plotted sheets are supplied, three traverse
points in each esstate should be marked with stone pillars under the orders of
the Settlement Officer. It may be possible to utilize tri-junctions as traverse
points and thus to reduce the expense of laying pillars.
253. Re-measurement avoided where possible. - It is the policy of Government to get rid as
soon as possible of the necessity of re-measuring villages at settlement, and
one of the first tasks which a Settlement Officer must take in hand is to
decide to what extent remeasurement is required. The field maps should be not only
accurate enough for revenue purpose, but also capable of being utiltized after
reduction for topographical purpose by the Survey Department. Unless the old maps were really accurate
when made it is a mistake to attempt to retain and correct them. When really
good maps have once been provided no re-survey should hereafter be necessary in
tracts unaffected by the action of streams the spread of ravines, unless great
extensions of cultivation and changes in field boundaries have taken place by
the introduction of canal irrigation.
35. Testing of old maps. - It will be
well to note some of th tests which can be applied to the old plane table
survey maps. One of the best is to see whether the patwari with the map in his hand can or cannot register the crops
with ease and accuracy. If he find it immpossible or vary difficult to make it
the foundation of girdawari work, it
is better without more ado to prepare a new map on the square system. Even
though the old one is drawn pretty accurately to scale, its correction would
under such circumstance take a long time and it is better to have a really good
map as the basis of future operations than a patchwork of old and new
measurements. It the old map was incorrect from the first to any serious mind
on this point a Settlement Officer can apply several tests. The maps of
adjacent villages should be compared to see if the boundaries dovetail, and
testlines can be drawn across the map connecting well marked points, such as
tri-junciton platforms, and the results of chaining along these lines noted. If
the total length as chained and as read off scale from the old map, and also
the distance between the field instersection compared in the same way, agree
very closely, and the result of carrying the chain right the left along sides
of some of the fields traversed by the test line is satisfactory, the map is
probably a good one. Or squares may be laid down on the ground and marked on
the map, and tests noted by Mr. Francis in Appendix III of his Manual applied.
255. Boundary disputes. - Section 101 of the Land Revenue act gives a
Settlement officers power to define village boundaried. Fortunately boundary
diputes are now rare except in the case of estates subjecte oto river action.
The subject of boundaries and of riverain custom is dealt with fully in the
Administration Munual.2 A Settlement Officer must remember that is the case of a boundary
dispute between a British Village and an estate lying the territory of an
Indian chief, he can only investigate and report his opinion to the
commissioner of the division. Recent orders of Government require that -
"Where a regular settlement is in progress
along the boundary line of an Indian State due intimation of the fact will be
given to the State by the Commissioner of the division in which the operations
are being carried on. This intimation will be to the effect that survey
operations along the boundary with be presently under taken, and that the
Settlement Officer will give due notice of the date when the measurement work
in each estate will actually approach the boundary, and it will contain a
request that the necessary orders may be issued to the proper State oficials to
be present both when measurements are being made, and when it is desired to
attest the boundary resulting from these measurements. It will also request
that the names of these officials may be at once intimated so that the
Settlement Officer may correspond direct with them in all unimportant matters
conncect with the subject in question. During the first stage of operations
above mentioned it will usually be sufficient for the State patwari or kanungo or other subordinate revenue officer to be present. If
during the progress of this accepted boundary line, the Settlement officer must
first intimate the necessity to the State and obtain its assent, unless the
work is done with the assent and in the presence o the revenue officials to be
present. If during the progress of this accepted boundary line, the settlement
officer must first intimate the necessity to the State and obtain its assent,
unless the work is done with the assent and in the presence of the revenue
officials of th state. On the occasion of the actual attestation of the
boundary an officers corresponding the rank of Tahsildar or Extra Assistant
Commissioner should be deputed by the state, and in any special case in which
the Settlement Officer himself may think it desirable to be present an official
of suitable rant should be sent to meet him. The procedure to be followed
thereafter will be the same as that laid down in paragraphs 2 and 3."
The procedure referred to it as follows :-
"If an agreement be arrived at it will be
carefully recorded by the revenue officials of the British district in the
necessary papers which should always include a map showing the accepted line.
The finding and the map should be attested by the officials on both sides. In
case in which no agreement can be arrived at or not, the proceedings will be
submitted to the Commissioner. The Commissioner will make any enquiries which
he may deem, necessary from the British authorities and from the Indian State,
and if the dispute is between a village or villages in his division and in an
Indian State under his political control, will pass orders in the case. If
other fixed, forwarding a copy of his report to the Deputy Commmissioner and to
the proper officer of the Indian
State concerned. It will
be open to the Darbar to make any representation which it may choose to prefer
to the Punjab Governement on the subject of this report, if it should consider
it necessary to do so. But such representation should be made within sixty days
of receving the report in the Deputy Commissioner will during the same period,
if he thinks it necessary to do son, make any representation which he may
consider necessary throught the Commissioner. If neither and Indian State nor
the Deputy Commissioner take action as above indicated within sixty days on
which the Commissioner's report is received, it will be taken that the boundary
proposed by the Commissioner is accepted and the matter will be held to have
been finally settled."
256. Procedure in case of complete
re-measurement.- The existing
instructions as to the procedure to be followed by patwaris when complete re-measurement of a village takes place will
be found in Appendix VII. The directions given there as to soil classification
should be compared with the remarks on the subject in the next chapter.
257. Cancelled.
CHAPTER XIII
Classes
of Land and Soils
258. Soils and classes of land. - The knowledge of soils which a settlement
Officer should possess must be the fruit of close and constant observation. But
as an aid to the understanding of what he observes or hears from the people he
will find the 3rd Chpater of Moreland's "Agriculature of the United
Porvinces" useful. Soils differ naturally one from another in respect of
their mineralogical and chemical composition, and (what is often more important
in a country of scanty or capricious rainfall) in respect of the mechanical
arrangement of their components parts. Thus we have the broad classification of
clay, loam, and sand. They are also distinguished by adventitious difference as
irrigated and unirrigated, manured and unmanured, dofasli and ekfasli. It
is the best of use the word "soil" only to denote varieties due to
adventitious qualities as "classes", but this distinction is not
always observed. When the differences whether natural or adventitious, are so
great as to cause a marked inequality of renting value, theri recognition in the
record is essential both for assessment purpose and for the proper distribution
of the demand over holdings. A Settlement Officer must make up his mind at an
early stage of his operations what classification of land he will adopt. Till this is decided the field entries in
the khatauni must remain incomplete.
259. Classes of land. - In a country of small rainfall the most important
division of land into classes is that founded on the source from which the
moisture required for the growth of the corps is derived. Thus land is
classified as -
(a) barani - dependent on rainfall;
(b) sailab - flooded or kept permanently
moist by rivers;
(c) abi - watered by lift from tanks, jhils
or streams. This term is also applicabel to land watered from springs;
(d) nahri-
irrigated from canals. Where a Goverment canal and small private canals
exist in same district the land served by the former is sometimes distinguished
as shah nahri;
(e) chahi - watered from wells. The term is
sometimes sketched so as to include irrigation form jhalars erected on the bank of a steam. It is better to describe
land dependent on jhalars as or abi.
The
first two classes full under the general head of unirrigate, and the last three
under that of irrigated land.
260. Limits of chahi and nahri lands. - All land should be recorded as chahi or nahri which is watered by a well or canal from time to time in the
ordinary course of hunbandry. The limits of well or canal irrigation can be
fixed by the indications on the ground, and especially by the evidence of the
water channels, and if any doubt remains, examination of the entries in the
crop insepction registers for a few years will solve it. Much of the land
recorded in the khatauni as chahi or nahri is not irrigated every year. There are some parts of the
province where the whol attached to a well yields at least one irrigated crop
in each year. But it many tracts the whole of the land for the protection of
which a well has been sunk cannot be watered annually. It is sometimes found,
for example, that the regular practice is to irrigate one-half of the land
attached to a well in one agricultural year and the other half in the following
year. And where the average rainfall is fairly large, but subject to great
variations from year to year, the extent of irrigation fluctuates to an
extraordinary degree with the character of the seasons.
261. Classes based on use of manure in course of
husbandry.- Manured land has
sometimes been treated as a separate class under the names of niai or gora. The latter term was imported from the United Provinces, and
properly denotes the block of land lying immediately round the village site,
which is often the only part of an estate that is regularly manured. In the
eastern districts the gora land is
usually occupied by wells, and there is much double cropping. In some of the
districts north of the Salt Range, where it is as a rule unirrigated, it is known
as lipara or bari.
Doasli or double cropped land has in a few settlements been regarded as
sufficiently distinct to require a separate rate. The term dofasli does not imply that the land yields every year either two
crops or can, which occupies the ground for ten or eleventh months and may be
considered equal to two ordinary crops: it merely indicates that it often bears
two crops in a single agricultural year (kharif,
rabi), thus use of the word dofasli may
giverise to confusion and misapprehension, and where lands of the same class (e.g., chahi-barani) have to be
sub-divided with reference to the number of crops annuallyu raised, it is best
to mark the difference by number, as barani
I, barani II, or to employ the
local term, if any, by which these sub-divisions of classes are described, In a
few of the settlements made between 1880 and 1890 a more elaborate classification
based on the course of husbandry was superseded to that founded on the presence
or absence of artificial means of irrigation. The terms employed were dofasli,ekfasli, hari and sawani. the first has already been
explained. Ekfasli was used to describe
land tilled accrding to the famillar rotation under which a spring crop one
agricultural year is followed immediately by an autumn crop and the land then
lies fallow for a twelve month. Experience has shown the advantages of this
system for unirrigated land in upland tracts which enjoy a fair rainfall. Hari and sawani mean land devoted respectively to the production of rabi and kharif crops. Little use was made of the above classification for
assessment purposes, and it is no longer employed.
262. Soils.- The first Punjab Settlement [Officers brought from the United Provinces
the distribution of soil into dakar or matyar
(clay, rausli (loam) and bhur (sand)],
and they jound this or some such simple Punjabi classification as, for
examples, as rohi, maira and tibba
sufficient for their purposes. Niai was
sometimes treated as a separate class, and distinction founded on the presence
or absence of irrigation or inundation were recorded though not always, under
the names now in vogue. The natural soils with addition. perhaps, or niai, formed sub-divisions of the
classes based on the presence or absence of irgation. Some officers found even
this amount of elaboratin useless when they came to frame revernt rates, and
two of the best of teh early Settlement Officers, Sir Richard Temple in
Jullundur and Mr. Philip Melvill in Hoshiarpur and Ambala, rejected all soil
cilations, and simply classed land as irrigated or unirrigated. In some of the settlements made between
1870 and 1880 a minute classification of soils under their local manes was
attempted, those supposed to be of nearly equal value being grouped together
for assessment purposes. Thus in the Nawanshahr Tahsil of Jullundur Mr. Puser
recorded distinctions of which no practical use was made, and he was anxious
that no elaboration should be admitted into settlement procedure which would
afterwards increase the difficulty of maintanintg the parwari’s annual records and returns. Accordingly, when Financial
Commissioner, he issued instructions, the effect of which has been that the use
of soil distinctions has been very generaly abandoned, and Settlement Officers
have confined themselves to a record of the classes based on the presence or
absence of the several kinds of artificial irrigation or river flooding.
263. Arguments against recognition of soil
distinctions. - The arguments
put for ward in favour of such extreme simplicity are as follows. In a great
part of the province the rainfall is so seanty and capricious that water is
everything and soil notihing. The best land is of small value without the
existence of artificial means of irrigation or advantages of position on the
bank of a river or in abollow which
receives surface drainage. The effect of irrigation is to diminish the natural
differences between soils. In the level country away from the hills the land
over large areas is often of very equal quality and, even where this is not the
case and distinctions are clearly discernible and are recognized by the people,
one soil passes imperceptibly into another, and the question under which
variety a particular field should be classed is often a fine one. Our surveying
staff is only fitted to record obvious distinctions, and by setting it to
decide disputable questions involving the amount of revenue which a petty
landowner is to pay for the next twenty or thirty years we open a wide door to
contention and corruption. The dnowledge which a seettlement Officer acquires
in his village inspections enables him to give due weight in actual assessment
to variatins in he value of teh landd in different estates. Moreover, it is the
crops that we really assess, and we have now sufficient evidence in the crop
returns to ensure that good and bad soils are not assessed at equal rates. A
Settlement Officer who makes a proper use of these instruments is in no danger
of pitching the demand in a sandy village in which th autumn crops consist
chiefly of bajra and month as high as in an estate with a
soil capable of producing maize. Even where differential soil rates have been
framed it has often been found that the peple disregarded them in disturbing
the revenue over holdings.
264. Arguments for recognition of soil
distinctions.- These
considerations are of weight, but it does not follow that the ermarcations of
soils is a useless refinement in all parts of the Punjab.
It is not true as regards the submontane districts and large tracts in the
centre and east of the province that water is everything and soil nothing.
There are marked differences in the unirrigated soils, and the system of
cultivation on the well land near the village site is sometimes quite distinct
from that followed on outlying wells. If in certain cases one soil passes into
another by imperceptible gradations, in other the boundary between then is sharply
defined. No one can fail to observe the line where ordinary loam ends nad the
low-lying stiff clay, sometimes known as kalar
dahr, which yields precariouscorps, of coarse rice, begins, and the
strength or weakness of an estate may be directly traceable to the
preponderance of one or other of these soils. Though loam passes into sand by
degrees, and level sandy land under certain conditions of rainfall and sub-soil
yields excellent crops, the distinction between uneven wind-blown sand and the
level land with which it is intermixed is clearly marked, and the difference in
productiveness is very grat. Even where the transition is gradual it will
commonly be found that the soils lie in blocks and that the only dispute is
where exactly the line of demarcation should be drawn. In the United Provinces
the soils are usually recorded field by field at measurements, but it is the
business of the Settlement Officer whem he inspects and estate to determine the
limits of each block, of soil, after which the bounddaries which he adopts are
graphically shown on the map and no further dispute is possible. It is
perfectly true that a Settlement Officer’s local knowledge and careful stydy of
the crop returns will probably save him in any case from maing gross errors in
the pitch of his assessment in different villages. But he has not only to
satisfy his own mind, but to justify his action to the controlling authorities
and simplicity may be pushed so far as to make intelligent supervision
difficult. A proper analysis of cash rents may be impossible wihout some
demarcation. The fact that some of our early Settlement Officers worked without
soil distinctions in act of much weight. Rent was then in a very undeveloped
state, and they made that fact their apology for failure to frame differential
soil rates. Moreover, assessmetn circles were then smaller and more homegeneous
than they now are, and the estates in a single circle were often grouped in two
or three classes for which separate rates were employed. Nor does the fact that
in distributing the demand over holdings the people have often rejected soil
distinctions count for much. They did so largely in early settlement’s from
ignorance or inexperience, or because in the originalallotment of the land
between the different members of the brotherhood every proprietor has obtained
a share of each sort of land in the village, or because ancestral or customary
shares were still fully recognized. Where the more powerful coparcents had
managed to posses themselves of an excessive share of the good land, it was to
their interest adopt an all-round rate (sarsari
parta),and this mode of distribution saved subordinate settlement officials
a great deal of trouble. the landowneres of to-today are less inclined to such
simple methods of distribution, and even where the allotment of the village
lands as it existed at the first regular settlement was loghly equitable, the
changes of half a century may have altered it profoundly. Land has mortgagees,
especially when they belonged to the money-lending class, to acquire an undue
proportion of the more valuable land.
265. Classification should be simple. - No general rule can be laid down, for everything
depends on local circumstances. All that can be said that the classification
should be as simple as possible, and be based on broad difference of fairly
permanent character which affect in a marked degree the economic rental of the
land. The test ot be applied to it is its sufficiency for practical pupsoses,
for, as has been well remarked, a “Settlement Officer must remembers that he is
a land values, and not a mineralogist”. The use of such of stinctions an niai and dofasli is dangerous, unless it is cerain that the conditions these
tems denote are permanent attributes of the land to which the terms to record
separately the unirrigated manured land near houses (see paragraph 261) for the
people themselves recognize that such lands are far more doubtful whether
another distinction in vogue in these districts between embanked land or las and ordinary loam or maira is
worth retaining in our records, for landowners often refuse to make any
difference between them in distributing the revenue over holding. Poor stony or
very sandy land below the hills is known as rakar
and very sloping land on hillsides as kalsi,
and they ought to be so recorded, because the assessment rates appliesd to them
must be far lower than those adopted for maira.
A wide divergence between the cash rents usually paid on two classes of
land is the best proof of the necessity of showing them separately in the
record. This affords ample justification for recording sendy uneven land as bhur in some of the south,-eastern
districts. Where the produce is divided, both the share taken by the landlords
and the crops grown must be considered. Any change in the classification
hitherto followed in the annual returns, unless it be in the direction of
greater simplicity. must embarrass a Settlemen Officer in his use of the
statistics which they contain. But this should not prerent the alteratin at
settlement of an existing classification which is clearly insufficeient. The
scheme adopted must be on the same lines throughout a district, but a division
of land among different so ls which is found necessary in one circle should not
carried on into another where it is not required. Every needless elaboration
should be avoided, for example it may be quite useless to record for irrigfated
lands the soil dirrerences which are of practical imporatnce in the case of
unirrigated lands. But it is sometimes advisable to record the difference
between lands irrigatyed by sweet and bitter wells.
266. Marking of soils on maps. - The plan follwed in the United provinees of
colouring the boundaries of the different blocks of soil in the field map is a
good one. A similar device is used in
the Punjab for indicating the limits of the
area attached to each well.
267. Classification of uncultivated land.- So far we have been dealing only with cultivated
land. For assessment purposes all land is regarded as cultivated which is under
crop or fruit ftees in the three previous harvests.2 Uncultivated
land is classes as banjar jodid, banjar
kadim, and ghair mumkin. If for four successive harvests land which once
was cultivated has not been sown it is classed in the last of the series as jodid or new fallow. If it continues to
be uncultivated this entry should be maintanined for the next four harvests
after which the land will pass into the category of kadum or old fallow. But kadim
also incluturable waste whether it has evr been under the plough or not and
it is proper to class all grazing land of fair quality as kadim, even though existing conditions of rainfall and sub-soil
water level preclude its cultivation unless canal irrigation can be, and is,
introduced. The term ghairmumkin is reserved for barren land. It is necessary
to instruct patwaris carefully as to
the distinction between kadim and
ghair mumkim, otherwise they are apt
to record land which isuseless either for tillage or pasture as kadim because it yields for a dbief
period in the rains a scanty supply poor grass. Lands under buildings, roads,
streams, canals, tanks, etc. and barren and (ret)or kalar should be entered as ghairmumkin any further desctitpin whcih
seems necessary being added. e.g., ghair mumkin abadi, ghairmumkin sarak, gharmumkin ret. However, the classification of land affected by thus or sem in villages under thus and sem girdawari the classification contained in paragraph 9.3 (x) (i)
of Land Records Manual, should be followed. For the colours and signs used in
field maps to ditinguish the different kinds or unclutivated land the specimen
map given in the Patwari's Manual of Land Measurement may be consulted. Copies
of a sheet of conventional signs to be used in cadastral maps for depicting natural
and artificial features, as approved by the Survey Department of India, are
supplied to Settlement Officers.
CHAPTER XIV
The
Record of Rights
268. Elaborate revisions of records of rights at
settlement to be avided. - It
was as we have seen, the object of the framers of Act XVII of 1887 to avoid
elaborate penodical revisions of village records of rights by the expensive
agency of a settlement establishment. The complete records drawn up at regular
and revised settlements before 1887 and the measures introduced by Colonel Wace
for the improvement of the patwais
and kanugo establishment made this
improtant change in settlement procedure reasonable, thought it has not been
possible to go as far in the direction of making the action of the district
record agency at settlement identical with its action at the other times as
Colonel Wace contemplated. Before dealing with the records framed under the
provisions of the present Land Revenue Act, a brief description of the contents
of the record of earlier settlements and of the principles on which they were
prepared may be useful.
269. Thomason's remarks on records of rights. - mr. Thomason's remarks on the duflies of a
Settlement Officer in connection with the framing of records of rights apply to
a condition of things now past. But some of them are still worth quoting, not
only because of thier interest from an historical point of view, but also
because the principles laid down are of permanent value. In the fifth chapter
of the Directions for settlement Officers he observed :-
"The
object of the investigation is not to create new rights but to define those
that exist. The full exercise of old acknowledged and still existing rights may
have been partially in abeyance, and these it may be necessary more fully to
develop, but, generally speaking, no change should be made in existing rights,
or in the mode of their exercise, without the full concurrence of those whose
interests may be thereby affected.
"The process (of forming the record) is
essentially judicial; it is judging between man and man; but
all authoritative decisions should be avoided as much as possible. The great
advantage of the procedure is that the Settlement Officer comes amongst the
people as their friend and peacmaker rather than as their judge.
*** "The task is a delicate one, and he must
be very careful lest in th attmept to prevent disputes he exciste them, and
lest whilst endeavoring to allay animosities. He only inflame them. "The
Settlement Officer will find his end best answered by doing everything as much
as possible through the people and deciding nothing himself that he can avoid,
and also by being most careful that every minute feature of a tenure and every
possible bearing of a right is fully recorded. * * * *
"Completness of record can only be ensured
by great vigilance on his part. The villlagers are themselves reluctant to lay
open to public scrutiny the internal economy of their village. They are
distrustful and slow to appreciate the mjotives which lead to the enquiry. The strong,
the crafty, and the dishonest wish to avoid a procedding which will tie their
hands and close every door against future encroachment and intrigue. Again, the
process is a laborious one, which the persons employed in the formation of the
record are apt ot slur over. Each peculiarity of the tenure probably has to be
elicited by repeated questions and the expressions to be very carefully
adjusted, so as exactly to meet the case. The natives of this country not
excepting those in official employ as well as all persons, who work for show
and effect rather than from principle, are peculiarly prone to accuracy and
slovenliness. Here then all depends upon the Settlement Officers. By well
selecting his agents and thoroughly tutoring them, and by marking gradations of
scrutineers, he may lesses his work or increase its polish, but all must
ultimately centre in hiself. He must understand the subject hiself thoroughly,
he must accustom his mind to classify and methodize his work, he must learn to
detect the weak or incomplete points of a statement, he must call into practice
all these powers with unremitting watchfulness and diligence; above all he must
be actuated by a simple desire to promote the interests or the people; and by
the uniform and conciliating exhibition of this feeling, he must win their confidence and attachment. In proportion as
he possess these qualifications. He will be entitled to the character of being
a good Settlement Officer."
270. Records of rights in early Punjab settlements. - The contents of a record of rights according to Mr. Thomanson'
directions, which were followed with more or less exactness by our earliest
Settlement Officers, were :-
(1) Naksha thakbast or sketch map of the
boundary with a record showing how each boundary was laid down.
(2) Shajra or field map.
(3) Khasra or register of fields.
(4) Tharij Asamiwar.- An abstract of the khatauni showing tenant's holdings with
their areas and rents but without any detail of fields.
(6) Darkhwast malguzari, or engagement of
landowners accepting the assessment.
(7) Khewat showing the area and revenue of
each proprietor's holding. This was no a separate document, but formed part of
the next paper No. (8)
(8) Ikrarnama or wajid-ul-arz, i.e., the
village administration paper which the Thomason regarded as "the most
important of all the papers, for it is interested to show the whole of the
constitution of the village."
(9) The Jamabandi.- A list of holdings
cultivated by owners, occupancy tonure and tenants-at-will with the fields
contained in each and the sums payable either as rent or revenue. It was based
largely on the khatauni, but was
prepared at the close of settlement, and was intended to be the first of the patwari's annual jamabandis.
(10) The
rubakar-i-akhir-, or brief abstract
of the settlement proceddings.
The
preparation of a shajra-nasb or
genealogical tree of the proprietors was not as a fule considered necessary.
271. Imperfections fo early records of rights.- It was inevitable that these first records should
be in many respects imperfect. Mr. Prinsep, whose zeal for reform made him a
severe critic of the past traced their deficiencies mainly to the prominence
given in the directions, framed origianally for a province in which settlement
officers had no judicial powers, to possession as their rule of decision, and
to the tendency or our officers and the establishments to think that
"possession meant actual cultivation of the land." He classified the
principal errors to be found in them consisting of -
(1) failure
to understand correctly records village tenures, very many estates being
described as bhachara, where the
members of the community were of one ancestral stock, the land divided in
shares whether ancestral or customary, and the profit and loss regulated by such
shares ;
(2) mistakes
as to separate holdings the most common being -
(a) the
omission of names of coparceners, and of windows, minors and absentee owner;
because they were not in actual cultivating possession;
(b) the
description of common holdings as separate and the divided interest as comjon
(c) the
clubbing together of two holdings, occupied on different tenures, as one;
(3) the
indiscriminate creation of occupancy tenant right.
272. Question whether records of rights could be
corrected at a revised settlement. - He believed that a revised settlement the record of a firts regular
settlment could be corrected by a simple order of the revenue officer, and that
a judicial decision in regular suit was not required, and in the settlements
under his supervision he acted in this belief. This appreas to have been also
the view held in the North-Western Provinces when the second adition of the
Directions for Settlment Officers appeared in 1858 and Mr. Thomson develto several
paragraphs (245-252) of teh directions for Collectors scription of the
imperfections of the records of the first regular settlement and the duty of
the Colector to amend them.2 Some of the best revenue officers of
the day, however, held that in a records of rights could be corrected at a
subsequent settlement except by agreement or in consequence of a degree of a
court, and their view was accepted as sound in policy and embodies in Section
19 of Act XXXIII of 1871.
273. Measures taken to improve the record of
rights.- Mr. Princep took great
pains to temedy the defects indicated in paragraph 271, and essayed to close
the door against future litigation by makding his records exceedingly minute.
To ensure a correct account of village tenures he made very elaborate
genealogical trees of the proprietors, tracing the existing owners back whre
possible to the first founder or founders of the estate. Notes were added at
the foot of the shajra-nasb showing
the measures of right followed in each sub-division of the estate, and
describing its early history and circumstances out of which its existing tenure
sprung.3 To guard against the second class of errors, parchas showing the entries to be subsequently made in the khewat khatauni with reference to each
owner's holding were compiled in duplicate from the khasra as measurements proceeded, and one copy was given to the
proprietor concerned so that he might have an opporunity of satisfying himself
that his rights had been fully secorded. These parchas and khataunis based upon thme showed not only fields, but
the number of trees, and the holder. "The omission of these particulars
in former records had in Mr. Prinsep's opinion been a fertile cause of
litigation2. Particular pains were also taken to make a complete
record of rights of irrigation from wells and chambers (marshes).
274. Documents included in Mr. Prisep's record
of rights. - While he
aimed at marking his records minutely accurate he sought ot reduce their bulk
by getting rid of all superfluous papers. He dropped the tahrij which some of his predecessors had also discarded; and he
combined the khewat and the khatauni into one form. While he made
very full enquiries into village customs he got rid of the separate village
administration papers (wajib-ul-arz)
in which these had hietherto been recorded, substituting for them general
records of customs drawn up for tribes or groups of villages (see paragraph
560). References to these codes and any special entries as to custom required
by the circumstance of any particular village or holding were scattered through
the other documnets included in the record of rights. Thus customs relating to
irrigation were noted on the well statement, and those concerning the rights of
tenants in the khewat khatauni. Mr.
Priscep's settlement record consisted of (a) the general index. (b) shajra kishtwar, (c) khaw (d) shajra nasb, (e) khewat
khatauni (f) naksha chhat, (g) darkhwast malgujani, (h) bakar-i-akhir
275. Records of rights Act XXXIII of 1871. - The records of rights perscribe by the rules
under section 15 of Act XXXIII of 1871 consisted of the same document with the
addition of a list of revenue assignees and their holdings (naksha lakhriaj of a wajib-ul-arz. Mr. Princep's plan to
distributing among the other parts of the record of rights entries which had
hitherto been grounded under appropriate heads in the wajib-ul-arz was considered inconvenient.
276. Records of rights under Act XVII of 1887. - It is provided in Act XVII of 1887. That there shall be a reocrd of rights for each
estate (setion 33(1)) or in exceptional for group of neighbouring estates
(seciton 47(1)). Any records framed before the passing of the Act are, so far
as may be, deemed to have been framed under the Act (section (3) If the local
Government finds that there is no record of rights for an estates, or that an
isting record requies special revision, it may be notificiation direct the
making of special revision of such a record (section 32(1)). A specially
revised record-of-rights supersedes the former record, but the entries in it do
not affect any presumption in favour of Govenment which has alrealy arisen from
any previous record of rights (section 32(2)). A reference to paragraph 193
will show that this exception might possibly have important consequences.
277. Standing records and annual records. - A record framed at a settlement made fore Act
XVII of 1887 was passed, or in pursuance of a notification issued under section
32 of the Act, is known as a "standing record" as a convenient way of
distinguishing if the from the "annual record", an amended edition of
the record of rights prepared for each estate yearly or at such intervals as
the Financial Commissioner may precribe in which changes which have occureed
since the standing record was framed are, or should be, corporated (section 33)
278. Presumption of truth attaching to entries
in a record of rights. - Under the
sent Land Revenue Act entries in standing record and in an annual record
have presumption of truth attached to there. An entry in either is :presumed to
be true until a contrary in proved, or a new entry lawfully substitued
therefore." (section 44)
279. Alteration of entries in records of rights.
- Existing entries in standing
annual records, except entries relating to change of yearly tenants, can only
be varried in subsequent records by -
(a) making
entries in accordance with facts proved or admitted to have occurred.
(b) making
such entries as ae agteed to by all the parties therein, or are supported by a
decree or order binding on those parties.
(c) making
new maps where necessary (section 37)
Section
37 of the present Act differ from section 19 of Act XXXIII of 1871 no limit of
time within which the facts justifying the alteration of an entry must have
accured. Perhaps the change was accidnetal, at any rate its effect was not
perceived by the of author of the Act, Colonel Wace, who wrote in 1888 :-
"This section repeats the law on the
subject, which was first enacted section 19 of the Act 1871. The main provision
of both these sections is that the alterations made must be based on changes
which have occurred since the settlement record was drawn up". In reveneu judgement No. 4 of 1888 he
held, that "the law does not give the revenue officer authority to make an
alteration of this kind except with the consent of the parties, or pursuant to
a decree, or in order to make the record agreee with facts which have
occurerred since it was made."
This
is the reasonable construction to put on section 37 (a). It follows that an
entry which was incorrect when it was made cannot be altered except by consent
or in consequence of a decree or oder binding on the parties. It is of course
open to a revenue officer to apply under section 15 of the Act, for sanction to
review an order by one of his predecessors didecting the erroneous entry to be
made.
280. Questions of exclusion of names of
absentees. - The provisions of
section 19 certainly cause some ambarrassment in dealing with questions of teh
entry of the names of co-shares who were in possession of their shares, but
whose names did appear in the record, and of the striking out of the law was
strictly carried out in the case of absentees, the result was the maintenance
of considerable number of obsolete entries. The question was raised after the
passing of Act XVII of 1887 in connection with the re-set-question was raised
after the passing of Act XVII of 1887 in connection with the re-setment of
Guranwala, where the records were found to be burdened with the names of good
many persons who had been absenteven at the first settlement in 1856. The
Finacial Commissioner ruled that -
"Al questions regarding the exclusion of the
names of absent right-holders, who have long been out of possession, from the
record-of-rights, must be dealt with strictly in accodance with the provisions
of secion 37, Act XVII of 1887. These provisions are not in any way affected or
relaxed by the provisions of section 107, 108 of the Evidence act (1 of 1872)
or by those of the Law of Limitations (Act XV of 1877). Thus no lapse of time,
however long, will of itself justify the removal of the name of an absentee
from the record."
The question was afterwards recognised in 1896,
and the Government Advocate gave opinion, the most material parts of which are
quoted below:-
"Death and intentional abandonemnt are both
'facts'......As regards the fact of death..........as soon as a person proves
to the satisfaction of the courth that another person has not been heard of for
seven years by certin individulas described in section 108 (of the Evidence
Act), the burden of proof is placed by th law on those who assert that the
absentee is still alive and the court is entitled to say to them : "well
you must prove the fact; if you fail to do so, I shall find the fact against
you and decide that he is dead." As regards international abandonment the
proof of this would scarcely ever be direct proof of a specific declaration to
this effect. It would almost invariably be a fact to be gathered, inferred from
conduct; an I have no hesitation in thinking that actual abndonment, if
sufficiently prolonged and continuous, does under the general power given by
section 114, justify the court in presuming, i.e. regardings as 'proved' the
element of intention in the absence
of explanation warranting a contrary inference.
"It seems to me perfectly clear that if the
fact of death or the fact of internationl abandonment be thus legally held as
'proved' to have occurred, this does, under section 37(a) of Land Revenue Act,
justify the making of an entry in accordance with that fact.
* * * *
"The record is prepared in accordance with
facts believed at that moment to be ture. If at any later date it be proved
that this belief was enormous, e.g. that a person entered as merely absent had
as fact died at an earlier date, although his death was not known or suspected
when the entry was being written, - this in my opinion is undoubtedly a fact,
prooft of which warrants an alteration of the entry.
281. Existing rules on the subject. - The
existing rules the subject are as follows -
"(1) When
a right-holder entered in the record-of-rights or annual record whetehr he is
or is not described therein as an absentee (ghar
hazir) or as out of possession (ghair
kabiz), has not been heard of for seven years by those who would natually have
heard of him if he had been alive, the officer attesting a mutation may (unless
he seed reason to the contrary) presume that he is dead and pass orders on the
case accordingly; but before ordering the omission of his name from the
record-of-rights or annual record such office should satisfy himself that all
reasonable endeavour has been made to ascertain whether the absentee is alive
and to give him an opportunity of appering."
"(2) When
a right-holder entered in the record-of-rights or annual record as ghair hazir or ghair kabiz has been heard of within seven years, but has been so
entered for more then twlve years. The patwari
shall enter the case in his register of mutation and shall report it to a
Revenue Officer. The Revenue Officer to whom the case is reported shall enquire
into the question whether the right-holder has abandoned the land or his
interest therein. All reasonable endeavour shall be made to give the
right-holder an opportunity of appearing and stating his claim. Directe
evidence of an intention of abandonment will rerely be forth coming; but the
intention of the right-holder may be inferred from what can be ascertained in
regrard to his conduct. Long absence coupled with entire sevenace from all
concern with land or interest is a strong circumstance to be takne into
consideration in determining whetehr there, has been abandonment or not. If the
Revenue Officer finds that the right-holder has abandoned the land he shall
pass an order accordingly.
"Provided that, if the right-holder was minor
when first recorded as ghair hazir or
ghair kabiz, no such order shall be
passed until it appears that he is, or if still living would be, thirty years
of age.
"(3) No
new entry o fnay one as ghai hazir
should be mad. A right-holder should not be entered as ghair hazir if he is
himself in legal or constructive possession as when he has put some one else in
possession on his behalf or the land is lying waste, or he is by reason or
poverty unable to cultivate it. A familiar instance would be where a sepoy has
left his land in his brother's possession while he is with his regiment. In
such a case the sepoy should be entered as in possible of the land through his
brother. An entry of ghair kabiz
should not be made unless some other perosn than the righ-holder is in adverse
possession.
"(4) No
effect shall be given to any order (1) directing the ommission from the record
of the name of a right-holder who has been entered as ghair hazir or ghair kabiz,
or (2) directing the entry of right-holder as ghair kabiz, until such order has been confirmed by the Collector
or Revenue Extra Assistant Commissioner.
"(5) All
such orders shall be preserved as orders sanctioning mutations is the
records."
282. Record of mutations. - As the rules which regulate the in-corporation
of mulations in records-of rights are exactly the same whether the record is a standing one framed under the
supervision of a Settlement Officer, or an annual one prepared in the course of
the ordinary routine of district work, they will be found in the Land
Administration Manual. The procedure connected with the framing of the
record-of-rights where the complete re-measurement of an estate is ordered has
been noticed in Chaper XII.
283. Documents included in standing records and
annual records. - A standing re ord and an annual record must
include-
(1) Statement
shwoing-
(a) the persons who are land-owners,
tenants, or assigness of land revenue in the estant, or who are able entitled
to receive any of teh rentgs, profits or produce of teh estate, or to occupy
land therein;
(b) the nature and extent of the interest of
those persons, and the conditions and liabilities attaching thereto; and
(c) the rent, land revenue, rates, cesses,
or other payments due from and to each of those persons and to the Government;
(2) such
other documents as the Financilal Commissioner may, with the previous sanction
of the local Government, prescribe.
A standing record must also comprise-
(3) a
statement of customs respecting rights and liabilites in teh estae;
(4) A
map of the estate.
2Under
clause (2) above the Fiaancial Commissioner with the previous sanction of the
local Government has prescribed that the record-of-rights for an estate shall
include a document recording the parentage, casete and residence of the persons
described in paragraph (a) of clause (1) above provided that if such parentage,
caste and residence are entered in any document prepared accordance with clause
(1) above, a separate document need not be prepared for the pupose of this
prescription.”
3Under
clause (2) above the Financial Commissioners with the previoous sanction of the
provincial Goverment, have prescribed that the record of rights for estate
shall include a detail plan of any nronerty belonging to the Crown in the
estates.”
284. Contents of the annual records.- The annual record should consist usually of (a)
the jamabandi, (b) a list of revenue
assignments, and pensions and (c) such map as are required to show the changes
in teh maps of the estates that have occurred since the previous record was
prepared. Under existing orders a fresh jamabandi
of each estate is only prepared once in four years, so that the legal
description of the record as the “annual record” has become a misnomer.
Attached to the jamabandi is a copy
of all entries in the register of mutations attested by a revenue officer since
the last jamabandi was field. The
annual record must also include an amended copy of the genealogical tree. Certain statistical returns are filed
with the jamabandi but they form no
part of the annual record.
283. Contents of standing records.- A standins record should contain the following
documents:-
(1) A
preliminary proceeding.
(2) A
shajra kishtwar or field map and a
detailed plan of any property belonging to the Crown in the estate. 2
(3) a
shajra nasb or genealogical tree.
(4) A
jamabandi or register of the holding
of owners and tenants showing the fields comprised in each, the revenue for
which each owner is responsible, and the rent payable by each tenant.3
It should also show particulars about the owner and tenants as given below:
(i) In
the case of the owner, the father’s name, tribe or caste, got or sub-tribe, if
any, and residence.
(ii) In
the case of the tenant or the cultivator the father’s name tribe, or caste, got
or sub-tribe, if any, residence, and status (c.g., maursi or ghair maurusi).
(5) A
list of revenue assignment and pensions.
(6) A
statements of rights in wells.
(7) A
statements or rights in irrigation, if any, from other sources.
(8) A
wajib-ul-arz or statement of customs
respecting rights or liabilities in the estate.
(9) the
order of the settlement officer determining the assessment.
(10) The
order of teh settlement officer distribuing th assessment over holding.
286. Advantage of issuing a notification under
section 32(1).- The chief
difference between an annual record made after complete re-measurement and a
standing record is that the former does not include the wajib-ul-arz. If no wajib-ul-arz
exist or if it is considered desirable to revise the entries in an existing
wajib-ul-arz, a notification under
section record 32 (1) directing a special revision of the record-of-rights must
be issued. It has become the rule to issue such a notification whenever a
general re-assessment of a district is ordered. By doing so certain technical
difficities are got rid of, and the principle of assimilating settlement and
ordinary district procedure in the matter of framing records is not infringed
to any extent wroth mentioning.
287. Language, &c, of records or rights.- records of rights are written in the Urdu
language. The sheets of which the field may consist are most congeniently kept
in steel cases with shelves on which they can be laid flat. The other documents should be bound in
one or more volumes. If the genealogical tree is prepared on a coutinuous
sheet, it may be placed in a pocket in
one of the volumes. If it is desired to alter the authorised forms of any of
these documents to suit local conditions or requirements, the sanction of the
Financial Commissioner should be obtained.
288. Preliminary proceeding.- The preliminary proceeding should state-
(a) the authority under which, and the
collector by whom, it has been prepared;
(b) the documents comprised in the record;2
(c) the date of the beginnig and completion
of the record.
289. Shajra Kishtwar.- the shajra
kishtwar will be an entirely new field map or an ammended copy of the old
map according as complete remeasurement has, or has not, been ordered (see
Chapter XII).
290. Shajra nasb, jamabandi, list of revenue
assignments and statements or rights wells.- The form of the shajra nasb with
instructions for its preparation are given in andix VIII. If and older and more
complete shajra nasb already exist
and a new one is drawn up in less detail a note should appear on the latter
showing where the former documents will be found.
The
jamabandi and the list of revenue
assignments and pensions should be in the same form as the similar documents
included in the annual record with the addition inthe jamabandi of a column to show the former field number. The forms of
these statements and instructions rearding their preparation will be found in
Financial Commissioner’s Standing Order No. 23. The khatauni prepared in accordance with the instructions in Appendix
VII supply nearly all the aterial for the jamabandi
which is to be included in the standing record-of-right and that jamabandi for the most part a transport
form the kholaunis. The arrangement
by which the is only prepared for each estate once in four years cannot be
carried out when a district is under settlement.
The
form of the statement of rights in wells with instructions for filling it up
will be found in Appendix VIII. It may be useful to add a culumn showing the
area irrigated form the well in each harvest of the past four years in order to
ascertain what is the average actually watered. No special form has been laid
down for the statement of rights in gation from other souces. Records showing
in the shares enjoyed by different estates individual proprietors in the water
of hill torrent and provate canals, and the manner in which the water is
distributed,are very valuable. It is usually convenient to prepare such records
for groups of villages or for all the estates on a stream or a canal. A good
burns Settlemen report of Bannu. When the local Government has ordered the
preparation of such records under sections 28 and 356 of the Punjab Minor
canals Act longs to entries in a record-of-rights made under the provisions of
the Land revenue Act (No III of 1905), the same presumption of truth attaches
to entries made in them as belongs to entries in a record-of-rights made under
the provisions of the Land Revenue Act, section 28(3) of the former Act gives
similar authority to statements of the sort drawn up at past settlemens.
The
statements of rents, sales and mortgages, forms of which are given in appendix
IX, are prepared when an estate is re-measured or its map revised at
settlement.
291. Survey and record work to be carried out
simultaneously. - Settlement
Officers should bear in mind that their record work is of even more importance
to the welfare of the people than the assessment, and should not sacrifice the
accurancy of the record merely to the convenience of their assessment work. It
is of course much more satisfctory to a Settlement Officer to have the figures
of the new measurements before framing his assessment proposals, more
especially in tracts where cash rents are common. But where the previous
recourd-of-rights and the past crop-returns are fairly accurate he need wait
till the survey of a tract is finished before writing its assessment report.
When a sufficint number of villages have been re-measured to enable him to
judge of the trustworthiness of the statistics of each assessment circle, as a
whole, he will ordinarily be in a popsition to sibmit a report proposing
revenue rates and the total assessments o be imposed. The new knataunis of a lestates should be
complete before the assessment is announced and distributed over holdings and
the Settlement Officer must make his arrangements in connection with survey and
record work to secure this end. But a considerable time usually eiapes between
the writing of the report and the receipt of orders.
It
is sometimes necessary (as, for instance, in a tract where it is difficult to
get water in the dry season, or where the floods make it impossible to carry on
measurements in the summer or the rains, or where the ground is covered by snow
in winter) to push on measurement work as fast as possible, leaving some part
of th record work to be completed. later on, but this
should be allowed only be the express permission of the Settlement Officer. It
is only in such circumstances that permission should ever be given to collecute
establishment, or any part of it in one place; even if the Settlement Officer
finds it necessary to allow time for a re-examination of finished work in the
cirucmstances to which reference is made in paragraph 291-A, there is no neet
to collect the establisment in one place for that purpose. There is no
objection, however, to their being collected for the preparation of the
statements required for the assessment report. The Settlement Officer is
required to report his action for the information of the Commissioner and Financial
Commissioner if he decides to collect establishment at one place.
In
ordinary measurement work he should insist that the record be made in all
repects complete from day to day along with the map. Field measurements should not be begun in
any village until all the squares of triangles have been laid, marked and
checked, or where the area of the village is very large, a sufficient number
for the working of one field season, and until the pedigree-table has been
corrected and khataunis up to date
written out by the kanungo. The patwari should not be allowed to map a
new field until he has calculated the area of the last, and entered it up in
the field book, the khatauni, the
lard owner’s parcha and all lists in which it
is ultimately to appar. He should total up each page in his field book
as soon as it is completed and should enter up at once in the mlltation
register any mutation that comes to his notice. No patwari should be allowed to begin measurement work in a new
village until the records connected he has finished are in every respect
complete so far as he can make them so. Nor shold any village entere in the
quarterly business statement as having its measurements finished until all the
conected papers have been completed also. Each inspecting officer should devote
its himself correct as mmany as possible of teh mistakes and ommissions he may
discover, and he should see that any others he points out are corrected without
delay Whenever naibtahsidar or tahsildar visits the village he should attest as
many as possible of the pending mutations, and when in the couse of his check
or attestation of the record, he finds that a mutation has taken place and has
the parties before him, he should have it entered up and attest it at once,
instead of leaving it to be entered up after he has gone and attesting it at
his next visit, after the parties have been summoued before him again. As far
possible each survey party should be inspected by the kanungo weekly, by the naib-tahsidar once in each month, and by the
tahsidar once in each quarter.
291-A.
Attestation to be done promptly.- The chief guarantee of correctness of the whie it is proceeding, by the
tahsildar and their suberdinates. There is a stron tendency to hurry through
the mere mapping measurement work leaving the attestation of the
record-of-right to be completed at a later date. This leads to hasty and
inaccurate work and to the introduction of many mistakes which take much longer
to correct in the end than if they had been avoided from the *first by careful
attention of the record work. the tendency is due chiefly to two cuases, first
the desire of the Settlement Officer to obtain as accurate staatistics as
possible for his assessment report; and second, the desire of the subordinate
staff to show a large out-turn of work in their business statements and to get
through as quickly as possible the irksome work done in the field leaving the
reocrd work to be completed in the office. The risk of a final attestaion
legging far behind survey is greatly increased when many extra patwaris as amins are employed. It should be one of the chief aims of the
Settlement Officer organizing the work of his staff to have the attistion done
as soon as possible after measurements are completed while the facts are still
fresh in the minds of all concerned and before there has been time for many
changes to take place. Time should not be wasted on minute investigation in the
interval between the completion of field work and the naib-tahsildar
attestation of the work already finished which if the instructions in paragraph
291 have been complied with should require no further checking at this stage.
If as a result of tax supervision by kanugos
or nabi-tahisldar the Settlement
Officer is compelled to allow it, it should bot unless the supervision has been
grossly inefficient, materially add to the time allowed to the patwari to complete the totaling of his
field book and khataunis and the
preparation of the list of rents, sales or mortgages which ordinarily
calculated at one day for every hundred khasra
numbers.
292. Order in which work should be done. - When the shajra
nasb, the khataunis, the jamabandi, the list of revenue
assignments, the statement of the rights in well and other statements
regardings irrigation rights and the village lists of rents, morgages and sales
(Appendices VII and IX) are ready they must be finally approved after
attestation by teh Settlement Officer himself or one of his subordinates with
the powers of an Assistant Colector. In the ordinary course, however, all these
statements are finally attested first by the kanungo then by the naib-tahsildar and lastly by the tahsildar.
Final Attestation should take place in the village concerned or at a place in
its immediate vicinity and all interested persons should be summoned to attend.
When
measurement are finished the patwari
whould inform the girdawar that he is
ready for final attestation. After the gridwar's final attestation the patwari should begin the preparation of
the copies of the field map (part tahsil and
latha giridwari). This will keep him
employed till the naib-tansildar can come round of attestation. At the
naib-tahisldar can come round for final attestation he should prepare the wajib-ul-arz for the Extra Assistant
Settlment Officer's attestation, take up the report on all cases of exemption
certificates for wells, prepare mafi
files for the tahsildar's attestation and get ready the bacch file. After the
naib-tahsildar's attestation the patwari
should write up both copies of the jamabandi
(with statements), colour the maps and prepare the khasra girdawari. He should then and not till then go on the
another village. The only subsequent formal visits paid by the Settlement staff
to the village will be -
(a) the tahsildar's visit for final attestation
and report of mafis;
(b) the Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer's visit to attest the wajib-ul-arz;
(c) The Settlement Officer's visit to
announce and distribute the new demand.
293. Naib-tahsildar's attestation. - The naib-tahsildar should read out the explain
to the persons interested all the entries in the khataunis paying special attention to those regarding ownership and
occupancy rights. He should at the same time pass orders on all outstanding
mutations and incorporate them in the khataunis.
In short he should see that the khataunis
represent accurately the state of affiars at the time of his attestation as
regards soils, rights of owner and tenants, rents, etc. and should file with
them a certificate to the effect tha the has done so and is satisfied that the khataunis are fit to be accepted as
correct material for the standing record-of-rights. The khatunis will ordinarily be full of corrections and possible
difficult to decipher and as soon as possible, after the naib0tahsildar's
attestation the attested material contained in them should be transcribed into jamabandi from and the naib-tahsidar
after satisfying himself that this jamabandi
from of the standing record of rights. In the case of each of the other
statements, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the naib-tahsilar should
ascertain by such inquiry as he deems sufficient that it has been duly and
correctly prepared, and on being so satisfied, he should sign it adding at the
foot an order of attesation declaring it to be correct in all respects.
In
dealing with the well statement, the chief matters to be attested are the
shares in the well and the wate; and any entries as to the area of crops
matured in the past years. Seeing that rents are basis of the assessment it is
obvious that the list of those actually paid should be attested very carefully.
The standing record of rights is prepared in duplicate, the object being that
each duplicate shall have the same degree of evidential value as the other. In
the case of the documents to be included in it the naib-tahsildar should see
that both copies are correct and enter his certificate on both in identical
terms in the manner described above.
293-A. Tahsildar's attestation. - When the tahsildar checks the attestation of khataunis or jamabandi, he should ordinarily re-attest at least 20 per cent of
the entries and should satisfy himself that they correctly represent the state
of things at the time of the naib-tahsildar's attestation, leaving any changes
that have taken place since to be incorporated in the next jamabandi. He should have any errors or omissions he may discover
corrected at once and should then endorse the certificates entered by the
nabi-tahsildar on the khatauni and
both duplicates of the jamabandi. He
should also as far as possible satisfy himself of the correctness of the other
statements mentioned in paragraph 292 and having done so endorse the
naib-tahsildar's certificates on them. No village should be entered in the
bunsiness statements as having been attested by an officer until he has
certified that all mistakes have been corrected and that the papers are
complete in every respect.
294. In what circumstances the measurment
jamabandi should be accepted as the jamabandi of the standing record.- When the tahsildar's final attestation has been
completed, the map, khataunis, jamabandi,
etc. should be filed in the tahsil
kanungo's office and it will be for the Settlement Officer to decide
whether he will accept this measurment jamabandi,
that is to say, the jamabandi
prepared from the attested material contained in the khataunis, as the jamabandi
of the standing record-of-rights. It is not necessary that the standing records
of different villages should be of the same date either throughout a district
or throughout a tahsil. The accuracy of the record is the first consideration.
As a rule the measurement jamabandi
need brought up to date throughout a tahsil. The accuracy of the record is the
first consideration. As a rule, the measurement jamabandi, need not be brought up to date towards the end of
settlement operations. For instance the measurement jamabandi attested as above described may be accepted as the
standing record when the Settlement Officer is satisfied that it correctly
represents the state of things at the time of the settlement naib-tahsildar's
attestation and that no important changes have taken place since. A new
up-to-date jamabandi to form the jamabandi of the standing record must be
prepared, if the Settlement Officer is not satisfied that the measurment jamabandi was correct and complete up to
the time of the settlement naib-tahsilda'r attestation. A new jamabandi for inclusion in the standing
record should not be ordered merely because a number of changes have occurred
since the naib tahsildar's attestation as these will be brought to record in
the next quadrennial jamabandi
When the Settlment Officer decides that the measurement jamabandi may be accepted for inclussion
in the statindi record either he or the Extra Assistant Settlment Officer
should enter on both duplication of it an order to that effect. When, however,
he determines to have a frest jamabandi
prepared for the Standing record, he should have a girdwari made and checked with sepcial care and all changes brought
to light incorporated in the new jamabandi,
special attention being paid to changes in ownership and occupancy right.
Changes in field boundaries should not be shown on the original map but on
suppliementary sheets. CHnages in cultivation and in the holdings of
tenants-at-will whould be given effect to in the new jamabandi. The jamabandi
prepared in accordane with the results of this girdawari should be very carefully checked and all changes made in
the entries relating to ownership or occupancy rights since the preparation of
the measurement jamabandi should be
attested by teh kanungo, nabi-tahsildar and
thsildar. When all errors and
ommissions brought to light have been rectified, the naib-tahsildar and
tahsidar should record on both copies of the jamabandi a certificate to the effect that has been attested and is
fit to be considered as the jamabandi of
the standing record-of-rights. The Settlement Officer or the Extra Assistant
Settlment Officer, if they agree, should also record on both duplicates of it
an order to that effect.
294-A. When should a new jamabandi be prepared to form
the basis of distribution of assessment. - The list showing the distribution of the revenue over different holdings (fard bachh khatewar) will usually be
compiled direct from the jamabandi
which has been declared to be the jamabandi
of the standing record, but where there has been any long interval between the
completion of the standing record jamabandi
of the standings record jamabandi and
the distribution of the revenue, a quadrennial jamabndi should, when the new assessment is about to be announced,
be drawn up after a specially careful girdawari.
In this should be incorporated all
mutations that have taken place since the date of naib-tahsildar's attestation.
It should be attested only as a quadrannial jamabandi
is attested and should rank only as such. From it should be prepared the fard bachh khatewar of the new revenue
which should be included in the standing record-of-rights as a part thereof so
that if at any subsequent time it should be necessary in any case of dispuute
to refer to the standing record, the authoritative paper will be for a question
of rights the jamabandi which incorporates the entries contained in
the carefully attested khataunis, and
for a questions of revenu, the original fard
bacch khatewar itself. In this connection it should be rememebred that
changes in holdings of tenants-at-will are of much less im-offical importance where the assessment fluctuates
with the area cropped at each harvest or where the owners agree to distribute
the new revenue on shares or on the soils as classed in the measuremnet jamabandi. Where, however, the onwers
wish a re-classification of soils a bsis for the distribution of revneue, it
will ordinarily be necessary to prepare a new up-to-date jamabandi.
294. Standing record in killabandi measurements.
- Where the boundaries of
ownership have been altered by Killabandi operations, the standing record
should be a jamabandi specially drawn
up and attested after careful insepction of the cropping (girdawari) the two harvests after killabandi in order to make sure that the villages have understood
and acted upon their new field boundaries.
295. Wajib-ul-arz. - The wajib-ul-arz, or village administration
paper should be a record of existing
coustoms regarding rights and liabilities in the estate. It should not be used
for the creation of new rights or liabilities, or for what may be called
village legislation. Entries have sometimes been made which do not profess to
embody existing usage, but to declare a course of action which the landowners
agree to follow for the future. An example of this is the insertion of a
stipulation that a fixed amount of the common grazing land will always be
excluded from partition. It is doubtful whether this is strictly legal wotj referemce to the words used to describe
the wajib-ul-arz in section 31(2) (b)
of the Lnad Revenue Act, and, even if it is, it is questionable whether it is a
wise use to make of the village administration paper. There is always a danger
that some stipulation may be inserted as an agreement of all the landowners on
which all are not as a matter of fact of one mind, because adherence to it is
likely to produce results which offical think would be beneficial to the
people. But orders issued by Government in 1881 distinctly allowed entries to
be made in the wajib-ul-arz to facilitate the setting apart of
portions of the common village waste for the planting of trees if the
landowners agreed. With reference to the provisions of
section 42(2) of the Land Revenue Act it is a convenient, though somewhat
anomalous, arrangement to recrd the rights of Government in quarrie, kankar,
etc., in the wajib-ul-arz (see
paragraph 194)
296. Wajib-ul-arz of early settlements. - The wajib-ul-arz
in the first regular settlement was sometimes a formidable document but its
real value as an evidence of village custom was not always proportionate to its
length. Some remarks by Mr. Arthur Brandreth as to the way in which it was
often drawn up may be quoted:
"The
paper deciaring the customs and containing the Code of rules for the future
management of the manor (called now the administration paper) is always
considered a most important document. Indeed, if fairly, an properly drawn up
it is all-important, but this can so seldom be done that its value has been
much exaggerated, and I fear that many officers have been in the habit of too
rigidly acting upon it. It has often been merely an elaborate Persian document
in the best office language, drawn up be some learned Hindiustani Munshi, and copied for every man or of
the pargana. Some few points have
been ascertained in each case, but in general the villagers did not know their
customs very well, and when they put their seals to the paper, no doubt they
thought it very grand, though they did not know what it was about, as they
could little understand the language. The rules are of two sorts one, the rules
laid down by Government, or points on which the whole paragna have the same
custom, and secondly, the special customs of the particular manor; these
together take up a great number of pages, and the villagers are confused by the
ong code of rules and merely say 'yes, yes' and put their seals to the paper,
hoping it is nothing very dreadful."2
The
existing rules on the subject are reproduced in Appendix VIII-E.
296-A. Revision if Wajib-ul-arz. - when the tahsildar's final attestation has been
finished the tahsildar or the Extra
Assistant Settlement Officer should proceed to revise the wajib-ul-arz in according with the above rules, those rules are
subject to section 37 of the Act, which says that entries in the record of
rights shall not be varied in subsequent records otherwise than by making the
changes there detailed. The revising officer shold not attempt to re-arrange
the old wajib-ul-arz, but bringing an
existing one up to date. In case of a dispute the object of the revising
officer should be to ascertian what the actual existing custom is and how far
it differs from that entered in the wajib-ul-arz
under revision. If he can arrive at no definite and satisfactgory finding on
this questions of fact he should repeat the former entry and leave the parties
to a suit in the courts. If on the other hand he is able to arrive at such
finding he should amend the existing record by entering the custome actually
found to exist. Such a procedure is not contrary to section 36(1) or 37 of the
Land Revenue Act, while any entry so made would of coruse be subject to the
operation of section 45 of that Act. Tahsildars are authorised finally to attest
undisputed entries only in a wajib-ul-arz.
All entries which at the time of their attestation they find to be disputed
should be referred by them for decision to the Collector or to an Assistant
Collector of the Ist grade. When the wajib-ul-arz
has been faired it can be filed in the district record office as part of the
standing record, any necessary addition being left to be made to it as a
supplement after the new assessment has been announced, and the village can
then be old that revision of its records is complete, and that its settlement
is over except for the announcement and distribution of the new assessment.
297. Orders determining assessment and its
distribution over holdings; -
The orders of the Settlment Officer determining the assessment and its
distribution over holdings are referred to in paragraph 518 and 534.
BOOK
III
THE
ASSESSMENT
CHAPTER XV
Preparation
for Assessment
298. Clear understanding of principles and
methods necessary. - A
Settlement Officers should start with some general idea of assessment work. It
is not enough that he has learnt to survey and prepare records and obtained
some idea of a principles of land revenue assessment. In the course of the
short deputation for settlement training. He should if he is to employ his time
from the first to the best advantage have a clear understanding not only of
these principles but of the methods of enquiry which have in practice been
found most fruitful. A warning of this sort may appear needless, but the daily
work of a Settlement Officer is very absorbing, and there is real danger that
he may become so occupied with its details as to forget to acquaint himself
sufficiently with the literature of the subject. In that case he may some times
fail to see the wood for the trees. He may be reduced into the use of methods
which have already been found faulty, or may neglect lines of enquiry which
experience has shown to be valueable. Or, again having himself arrived at sound
conclusion, he may fail to present them to the controlling authorities in the
way most likely to carry conviction to their minds. Besides mastering some
general treatise on settlement work, he will find it useful to study carefully
one or more assessment reports of special merit, as, for example, Mr. Purser's
reports for Jullundur, Mr. Kenisington's for Ambala, or Mr. Wilson's for the
Shahpur district these being supplemented by reports of recognised excellence
published within recent years. Some of the reviews which Colonel Wace wrote
when Settlement Commissioner are worth perusal as examples of the way in which
assessment statistics should be handled.
299. Study of agriculture of tract. - A competent knowledge of the agriculture of the
tract under assessment is necessary for a Settlement Officer everywhere and
under all circumstance, but is of very special improtance in tracts where cash
rents cannot be appealed to as a test of the values of different soils and
classes of land. Such knowledge is only to be got by careful observation and
enquiry in the field supplemented by an intellignet use of the crop statistics.
If a Settlement Officer sets himself from the first to the acquire it he will
lay the best foundation for his work. To learn the husbandry of each class of
land and soil in the different circles, the crops grown and their yield, the
ordinary rotations, the extent to which the strength of the land is restored by
fallows and manuring the labour expended in preparing it and keeping it free
from weeds, the amount and numebr of waterings required, the kind of the cattle
used and the cost of procuring and feeding them, the expenditure by which
artifical means of irrigation are supplied and maintained, is the first step
towards a proper valuation of the land. Failing cash rents, the Settlement
Officer's chief reliance in calculating the standard assessment at one-fouth
net assets referred to in the next chapter must be on the produce estimate, and
his power to prepare a good produce estimate depends largely on his knowledge
of the local agriculature. In practical assessment work a proper understanding
of the processes and instruments of farming, of what they are, and what they
cost, is the best corrective of any tendency of over-assess highly farmed land
simply because the produce is valuable, or to under-assess soils of which the
tillage is easy and cheap, because the crops growns are not of a high class.
CHAPTER
XVI
Assessment
circles and circle rates
300. Wide diversities of agricultural conditions
in most districts. - A
Settlement Officer making a general survey of one of the submontane districts
may find below the hills a rough country seamed with revines. As he marches
southward the uneven land may pass gradually into a wide plain of good easily
worked one to be succeeded in its turn perhaps by stretches of stiff clay. On
lasm side the plain drop abruptly or in a long slope of broken land into the
valley of one of the great rivers, part of which may now be beyond the reach of
ordinary floods, while the remainder is subject to all the vicissitudes of
fortions which the vagaries of a Punjab river
involve. The plain above the valley may be record with the sandy beds of hill
torrents, dry in the winter, but spilling over a wide area in the summer rains,
droppoing here sand, there rich loam and finally, when all the good silt has
been lost, making the flooded land stiff and untraceable by deposits of fine
mud. The river valley and the belts of land along the hill streams may present
a great variety of soils, perplexing becuase of the abruptness with which one
passes into another, and the doubt whether existing conditions may not undergo
speedy improvement or deterioration. In most of the ditricts at a distance from
the hills physical cahnges are less rapid, but the country can still be divided
into a few tracts of widely different character. The Settlement Officer will
not only find that the natural aspect of the country and the quality of equally
striking changes in the rainfull and the depth of the subsoil water. He will
soon re-energy of the people, and that the various tribes of landwoners also
possess a very unequal vironment. All these things combined - soil, rainfall,
depth of water, climate, and the vator of canal - produce notable variations in
the agriculture of the different tracts. The amount of irrigation, the high or
low style of farming, the crops sown and the certainly of their yeilding a
harvest, nearly everything in fact on which the amount of reveneue which land
can pay depends, spring from these causes.
301. Necessity of assessment circles. - No set of rates could be devised which would be
of any use in assessing all the villages of a district. This is one reason for
making Settlement Officers draw up proposal for each tahsil separately, but
there are few, if any, tahsils which it is wisw to treat as units for rating
purpose. If after weighting the matters referred to above the Settlement
Officer can break up the country with which he is dealing into more or less
homogeneous block, the estates in each of which have, with many individual
peculiarities, a strong general likeness as regards the chief factors affecting
the value of land, his own task in devising a fair assessment will be much
assisted, rates can framed as general guides, and the scrutiny of the
assessment proposal by controlling authoriteis will be greatly simplified. Such
blocks or gourps of villages are known assessment circles. As noticed in
paragraph 227 the division of the tract under settleent into assessment circles
is one of the matters on which the Settlement Officer must obtain the orders of
the Financial Commissioner at any early stage of his proceedings. If further
knowledge shows theat the original proposals were faulty, he should not
hesitate to suggest their amendment at any stage of settlement. It is important
that the next Settlement Officer should find the statistical information
referred to in the next chapter tabulated according to circles which he himself
can accept. It must also be remebered that assessment circles are not only
useful to Settlement Officers, but ought to be so defined as to aid Deputy
Commissionera in the ordinary revenue management of the district, and
especially in the matter of land revenue collections.
302. Assessment circles and circle rates. - An assessment circle then is a group of estates
sufficiently homogeneous to admit of a common set of rates being used as a
general guide in calculating the demands which can fairly be imposed upon them.
This does not imply that the revenue of each village shall be the exact product
of the application to its lands of the sanctioned circle rates. The general
similarity which will admit of a single set of rates as a guide is quite
compatible with difference leading in individual case to greater or less
divergence from them in actual assessment. But such a detviation must be
justified by reasons to be recorded in the village note-book, and if it amounts
in any estate to as much as 20 per cent, the Settlement Officer must give a
special explanation of the divergence in the detailed village assessment
statement submitted to the Financial Commissioner (see paragraph 522). The
rates should bring out the demand considered suitable for the whole circle
within a margin of 3 per cent, either way of the demand approved of by
Government.
303. Change of policy as regards the size of
assessment circles. - As noticed
in the last chapter it was usual in the earlier Punjab settlements to form a
larger number of circles than is now deemed necessary, and inside these circles
to group villages supposed to possess similar revenue-paying capacity in
classes for each of which a separate set of rates was framed. In some
settlements very big circles have been adopted in accordance with the view
advocated by the late Colonel Wace as part of his general policy of simplifying
in every possible way the work of the patwari
and kanuugo staff both during and
after settlement. It is to be feared that the reduction of the number of
circles has in some instances been carried too far.
304. Objections to very small circles. - The plan of having very small circles is undoubtedly open to criticism. It increase
the labour of reporting assessment for approval and of maintaining annual
returns after settlement. It is liable to the more serious objection that it
prevents a Settlement Officer from taking a wide enough view of his subject and
encourages a machanical application of rates without sufficient regard to the
circumstances of individual estaes. The conclusion to be drawn from statistics
becomes more reliable when the area to which the figures relate is fairly
large, for in that case accidental and temporary aberrtions on this side or
that to great extent neutralize one another.
305. Very large circles, when inconveninet. - No fault can be found with very large circles if
the natural features and the rainfall of the country produced a broad equality
of condition over a wide area. But if estates which are in no sense homogeneous
are grouped together, the simplicty which results is only anotehr name fro
confusion. An examination of the different villages and a study of their
statistics produce no distinct impression regarding the circle as a whole the
picture is blurred by a mass of inconsistent details and the Settlement
Officer's work is reduced to a village by village assessment, which may be
excellent in itself, but which he cannot justify to himself or to others by any
general arguments. The rates are in no true sense assessment guides; they are
merely the averages deduced from the sum of the village assessments.
306. Proper
policy. - A middle course
is the best. In grouping estates into circles attention should be steadily
directed to those matters which must have a marked effect on the pitch of the
assessment or on revenue management by the Deputy Commissioner, and small
points of difference should be neglected. Where the existing classification is
too minute it will genearlly be possible to reatin the old circies unbroken,
merely clubbing them together in larger groups. It is not worthwhile to make
small changes simply because a more symmetrical arrangement could be obtained
by moving as estate here and there from one group to another. The Settlement
Officer has power in his village assessment to make the existence of small
inequilities harmless. If the old circles are broken up much trouble arises
from the necessity of retabulating past statistics from the village note-books
stead of taking the figures straingt from the circle registers. But where great
changes have been brought about be the action of rivers or torrents, or by the
introdcution of a new means of irrigation, it may be necessary to face in
inconvenience involved in a redical construction of assessment cirlces, the
Settlement Officer should also consider the desirability of the formation of
urban assessment circles under sub-section (4) of section 51 the Land Revenue
Act 1887. His proposals in this connection should be submitted through the
Commissioner for the approval of the Financial Commissioner. Draft
notifications for publication, declaring the areas as urban assessment circles,
in case they have not alreday been so declared, should be forwarded at the same
time.
CHAPTER XVII
Assessment
Statistics
307. Village, assesment circle, and tahsil
revenue registers. - It was one
of the chief objects of the reorganization of the land record agency effected
in 1885 that Settlement Officer should have ready to hand in a convenient form
a continuous record of statistics which could be utlilized as assessment data
(see paragraph 82). A Settlement Officer of the present day finds most of the statistical
information he requires in the village assessment circle and tahsil revenue
register, and the time and labour are saved which were formerlyt spent in
compiling elaborate special assessment returns. A description of the contents of these
registers will be found in the Land Administration Manual, Chpater XI. The
abstract village note-books will be found useful. Each Settlement Officer
should report before he finishes his work whether the form in use is suited to
the district. It ought to present in a striking way the data which will help
the Deputy Commissioner to decide whether a suspension of revenue is needed in
any particular harvest, or whether on the which the revenue registers contain
are the crop returns. Settlement Officers have now in many cases a failry
accurate record of the harvests of past years in each estate, which no amount
of diligence could obtain for them under the old system. Men will certainly
wonder in future that village assessments were made with any measure of
success, when no trustworthy information regarding so vital a matter existed.
It is necessary when a tract is being reassessed to supplement the information
respecting rents and land transfer to be found in the registers by drawing up
village lists of rents, mortgages and sales in the forms given in Appendix IX.
CHAPTER XVIII
The
Standard of Assessment, Net Assets and Rents
308. The standard for assessment of a
proporation of the net assets. -
The preamble to the first Punjab Land Revenu Act, XXXIII of 1871, declares that
"the Government of India is by law entitled to a proportion of the produce
of land of the Punjab to be from time to time
fixed by itself. The English Governemnt inhertited his
claim, which is really rounded on immemorial custom, from the native rulers
whom it replaced. The principle being admitted, the question at once arises how
this proportion is to be fixed. Obviously it would be unfair to take in all
cases the same fraction of the gross produce. Two plots of land of equal size
may yield exactly the smae amount of wheat, but in one case the crop, fovoured
by a fertile soil and an abundant rainfall, may be raised at the cost of little
labour and money, while in the other it may be result of laborious tillage and
the expenditure of capital on deep wells and the costly cattle required to work
them. Native rulers met the difficulty in a rough and ready fashion by varying
the share of the produce demanded according to the character of the soil and
rainfall, and sometimes by allowing sepcial excemption in the case of wells.
The same result is reached by making the standard of assessment a fixed
proportion, not of the gross produce or gross assets, but of the "net
produce" or "net assets". The last phrase is defined in the
settlement instuctions (see rule 6 of the Instuctions of 1893, revised in 1914,
in Appendix I) as follows :- "The net assets of an creat mean the average
surplus which the estate may yield after deduction of the expenses of
cultivation. A full fair rent paid by a tenant-at-will, though sometimes
falling short of the net assets, may genearlly, in practice and for purpose of
assessment, be taken as a sufficiently near approximation to them on th eland
for which it is paid.' The definition adopted in the amending Act and now
incorporated in the Land Revenue Act as clause 18 of section 3 is identical.
The net assets also include any income which the proprietors derive from the
spontaneous products of their waste and cultivated lands, and strictly,
speaking, any dues of whatever sort which they get in their capacity of
land-owners.
309. Assesment must not exceed one-fourth net
assets. - The successive steps
by which the Government share of the net assets has been reduced from
five-sixth to one-foruth have been shown in Chapters III and VI. A Settlment Officer should enquire what
the "full fair rent" of an assessment circle would be if it were all
cultivated by tenants-at-will not holding the land on specially favourable
terms. If he can determine what is a "full fair rent" rate for each class
of land in as assessment circle in the case of fields held by ordinary
tenants-at-will, he can, for the purpose of calculating the assessment, assume
a rental for the whole assessment circle by applying the rates not only to the
area in the possession of tenants-at-will, but also to the areas cultivated by
the owners themselves or by privileged tenants, and 25 per cent of this rental
and of the net income from miscellaneous sources will be the highest revenue
which he can impose. In future "rental of an estate" and "net
assets of an estate" will be used as synonymous tersm.
330. The net assets estimate must be honestly
framed. - It is admitted in the
instructions [(see rule 6, appendix I (D)"] that the process of
determining the net assets of an estate is in, Punjab genearlly very difficult,
and that in case in which the bulk of the land is cultivated by the petty
proprietors themselves "the calculation, becomes not only difficulty but
hypotetical, and the results of greater uncertainty and less value." Could
we, more over, calculate with perfect accuracy the standard assessment, many
circumstances might convince us of the prudence of foregoing a part of it when
fixing the revenue demand. This is implied in the fourth of the rules of 1893
revised in 1914 [(appendix I (D)]. Which after asserting the claim of
Government to a share of the produce of the land to be fixed by itself, adds -
The exact share to be taken is a question to be settled separately for each
tract and estate under assessment according to the circumstances of the
case," and also in rule 7 - "The
assessment of an estate will be fixed according to circumstances, but must
exceed one-half the value of the net assets." This limit of assessment
for particular esates has now bheen modified and the standard of assessment for
assessment circle reduced. But the main principles determining the pitch of
assessment in relation oto the net assets still apply. Neither the admitted
difficulty of determining the true rental nor the fact that the circumstances
of the tract under settlement seem to him to make it expedient to deviate
pretty widely from the theoretical standard in actual assessment absolves a
Settlment Officer from the duty of framing
the most carefull estimate possible of the net assets. It is dishonest to
manipulate the estimate in any way with a view to diminish the divergence
between it and the proposed demand. If the reasons for deviating from the
standard are really strong the Settlement Officer should be able to convince
his superiors of thier validity.
311. The net assets estimate founded on an
analaysis of rents. - The net
assets estimate must be founded a careful analysis of existing rents with a
view to discover what is the normal rental to each class of land for which it
is proposed to frame a separate revenue rate. All rents which are obviously of
a favourable character. Such as those paid by occupancy tenants, or rents whose
very form suggests that they are purely customary, as when a tenant-at-will
pays the land revenue with the addition of a small proprietary fee, must be
excluded from the calculation. The extent to which ohter abnormal rents can be eliminated will be
considered later on. For further remarks on the nature and purpose of the net
assets estimate reference should be made to paragraphs 2 and 3 of appendix XX
and to rules 1-12 of the rules framed under section 60 of the Land Revenu Act.
312. Classification of rents. - The kinds of rent which are commonly met with
are-
(a) a
definite share of the crop. (batari rents);
(b) cash
rents for particular crops which cannot conveniently be divided, at fixed rates
per kanal or bigha (zabti rents);
(c) Cash
rents paid on land irrespective of the crop grown upon it. (nakdi rents);
(d) lump
grain rents or rents consisting of fixed amount of grain in the spring and a
fixed amount of money in the autumn harves (chokota rents).
The
crops for which money rates are usually taken are sugarcane, cotton, opium,
tabacco, vegetables and chari.
313. Cultivating occupancy of land in the Punjab. - The
Punjab is in the main a country of peasant
owners tilling their own fields. The return of cultivating occupancy for the
quinquennial period ending June 15th, 1927, show 44¼ per cent of the cultivated
area of the province as tilled by the proprietors themselves and 8¼ per cent as
in the possession of occupancy tenants.2 In six districts the
proportion cultivated by owners is between 60 and 70 per cent, while in three
others in the South-West of the Punjab it falls below 30 per cent. The ramaining 47 per cent was in the
hands of tenants-at-will, and regards rent may be classified as follows :-
Per cent
(a) Paying
in kind with or without an addition of cash......................33
(b) Paying
the land revenue with or without a proprietary fee (malikana)......................4
(c) Free
of rent or at a nominal rent............................9
More
than a third of the area under "other cash rents" is in three
districts in the South-Distt. of the provinces.
314. Rent data available to be clearly stated. - The extent of the date on which a Settlement
Officer can rely in estimating the assumed rental or net assets of the trach
under assessment is a matter of such importance that it always well to give in
an assessment report a table showing for each circle the percentages of the
cultivated area tilled by :-
(1) oners;
(2) tenants
with rights of occupancy
(3) tenants-at-will
(a) free of rent or paying rents consisting
of the revenue alone or the revenue plus a malikana;
(b) paying
other cash rents;
(c) paying
batai or zabti rents;
(d) paying
chakota rents.
Under
the head 3(a) will come all rents paid by tenenat-at-will which can be rejected
without further discussion as uneless in etimating the net-assets. Further
examination may show that some of the rents under the next three heads must
also be excluded, but prima facts
they furnish material for calculating the real renting value of the tract.
Separate estimates should be deduced from the rents grouped under each of these
three heads, unless the area under any one of them is so small that conclusions
drawn from it as to the under fixed and pert under fluctuating assessment, it
is a good plan, if possible, to frame separate net assests estimates for each
of these parts.
CHAPTER XIX
The Net
Assets Estimate based on batai and zabti rents
315. Produce estimate. - The estimate based on batai and zabti rents is
sometimes called the produce estimate, as the framing of it involves an attempt
to determine the money value of the whole yearly produce of the tract under
assessment. Strictly speaking, the estimate of the value of the gross produce
and that of the share thereof due to the State should be distinguished. The
latter is properly called the one-fourth net assets estimate. Both are best
conbined in a single statement, a suitable form for which is given in Appendix
XII. A separate estimate is framed fro each assessment circle. It is good plan
to prepare one also for each estate as a guide to the distribution of the
revenue fixed for a whole circle over the villages contained in it.
316. Factors contained in produce estimate. - The evaluation of a correct net-assets estimate
based on batai and zabti rents depends on our knowledge of
four things namely :-
(a) the
average acreage of each crop on each class of land for which it is proposed to
frame senarate rates.
(b) the
average yield per acre of each crop so grown for which rent is taken by
division of produce;
(c) the
average price obtainable by agriculturists fro each of the crops referred to
under (b); and
(d) the
actual share of the gross produce received by land-owners in the case of crops
which are divided and the rent rates in the case of zabti crops.
In
the actual condition of agriculture in the Punjab it would be absurd to
estimate a fixed money assessment to be paid for the next twenty or thirty
years on the results of any single year. Acreage, outturn and prices all vary
within wider or narrower limits, and the fluctuations of the past will tend to
repeat themselves in the future.
317. Deduction or ental and standard assessment.
- The process of deducing the
rental of any class of land from the above four factors is simple. In the case
of crops which are divided the acreage multiplied by the yield gives the gross
produce, and the last divided by the price gives the money value. The portion
of the crop taken by the landlord being known, the rental can at once be
deduced from the value of the whole produce. In the case of zabti crops no estimate of yields or
price is necessary. The acreage multiplied by the rent rate gives the rental.
One-frouth of the rental is the full theoretical assessment. To deduce
theoretical revenue rates the assessment may be divided by the area to which
the assessment or revenue rates will be applied. This will usually be the
cultivated area of some particular year as shown in the area statement or milan, rakba, or where the estates have
been remeasured, the cultivated area of each when it came under survey. It has
been more usual in recent years to divide the sum of the half net assets which
was then the standard of assessment by the average cultivated areas of teh
years of which the average crop areas have been embodied in the produce
estimate. This plan should mutatis
mutandis be adopted where the record of the cultivated area contained in
the past milan-rakba statements is
fairly reliable, which is not always the case. All the steps of the process
described above are exhibited in the from given in Appendix XII. It is on the
whole, to be preferred to that used in some settlements which showed under each
crop not the actual acreage, but the percentage which that acreage bore to the
total cultivated area. Where this plan was adopted the result was of course, to
give a prodcue estimate for 100 acress of each class of land, the 100 acres
being an exact type of the whole cultivated area of that class. The produce
divided by 100 gave the half net assets rate. and this multiplied by the
cultivited area gave the maximum assesemnt. In some recent settlement
assessment rates have been framed for, and applied to, the average area of
harvested crops under each class of land, and not eh cultivated area under each
class recofed in the milan-rakba. In
very insecure tracts this is the better plan
318. Entry in produce estimate of everage crop
areas. - The reforms introduced
in 1885 with the object of securing accurate crop inspections and the
continuous record of harvest results have a very direct bearing on the value to
be attached to produce estimates. It now possible to deude the acreage under
each crop from the figures for a considerable member of years, adn prima facie, the more harvests that can
be brought into account the better. But no use should be made of any statistics
whose substantial accuracy is doubtful. Enquiry and his own observation of the
way in which the patwaris carry out
the crop inspections at the beginning of settlements can be trusted. In a tract
where the process of bringing waste lands under the plough is proceeding
rapidly or wher the character of the cultivtion has been changed for example by
the introduction of canal irrigation, attention must be confined to those
recent years in chwih the conditions have been similar to those traviling at
the time. The object is to take the data of a period whose reuslts have been
such as are likely to be repeated in the near future. The oders of the
Finanical Commissioner should be obtained at as early settlment as possible in
regard to the cycle or period of years of which the averge mature crop areas
are to be taken basis of the produce restimates in the different tahsils under
settlment. In submitting his proposals on this
subject the Settlement Officer should give figures for matured crops by
assessmnet circles for each year of the expired settlement.
319. Character of harvests.- The ground for considering the Series of
harvests from which the averages are duduced to be a fair sample of the
ordinary fluctuations characteristic of the agriculture of the tract should b
stated in the assessment report and some account should be given of each these
harvest. This is specially important when the Settlement Officer finds that he
can nonly rely on the statistics of a few years. He will find some information
regarding harvest which he has not himself observed in the reports which the
Collector sends to the Director of Land Records with the half yearly crop
returns.
320. Failure to record kharaba- Another point of importance is the degree of
correctness with which the patwaris
record the area on which the crops have failed to come to katurity (kharaba). To under-estimate this is
certainly their tendency when they have a motion that to themselves. To do so
saves them trouble, and thye are left it is well to make the entry which may be
supposed to be most favourbale to the intersets of Government. If a Settlement
Officer is convinced that the failed area have not been fully recorded, he must
make allowance for this either in framing or in using his produce estimate. He
should expalin in his assessment report in what way he has made this allowance.
321. Irritations entries in milan-rakba and
jinswar. - Another difficulty in
connection with these estimates arose from the disagreeement between the record
of land on the one hand and of crops on the other as irrigated and unirrigated.
In the jamabandi and the yearly area
statment (milan-rakba) all lands
should be put down as irrigated which in he ordinary course of hunbandry are
watered from time to time but at harvest
inspection only those crops are entered as irrigated which have actually
been watered. A very slight equaintance with the agriculture of the Punjab will
show how much this detracted from the worth of the produce estimate so far as
is professed to show separately in the rental of the differnt classes of land.
In the unirrigated columns of the estimate thousands of acres of steps might
appear which were actually raised on land which had been recorded and would be
assessed, as chahi or nahri. Occasionally in a season of
drought irrigation may be pushed beyond its normal limits and crops on barani lands be watered. But the usual
effect on produce estimates of the different methods followed in preparing the
area and crop statements was to inflate the rental of unirrigated and reduce
that of irrigated lands. The discrepancy 'betwen the two systems of record
often made it impossible to lay any stress on the produce estimate for each
class of land as a separate item, but it did not seriously affect the
trustworthines of the aggregate of these separate estimates as showing what the
value of the outturn of all classes of land was. There are, as will appear in
the sequael, other ways of arriving at an estimate of the relative vaule of the
various classes of land and framing differentail soul rates, and if, when all
was said and done the Settlement Officer made a mistake under this head, the
people had an opportunity of correcting it when the demand was distributed over
holdings neverthless, it is very desirable that the produce estimate for each
class of Land should show all the crops grown on that clas,s and there is no
great difficulty in excerpting the required information from teh khasra girdwari. Orders were, therefore,
issued fro the amendment of the annual area statement by adding a new column to
show "the total area of crops grown on each class of soil * * *
irrespective or irrigation". Settlement Officers will be wise not to
rely on entries under this head in the area statements without having them
carefully teste; but when this process has been applied the annual averages of
such entries fro the years comprising the sanctioned cycle should be included
in the statistics funished with the assesment report. It may be observed that
even with the aid given by the figures contained in the additinal columns the
calculation of accurate differntial net asset soil rates is generally nor
practicable without resort to certain further assumptions and adjustments the
nature of which depends on loacl conditions. As an exmaple reference may be
made to paragraph 33 of the Zira tahsil assessemnt report of 1912.
322. Fodder deductions. - In the
drier parts of the Punjab, where rain crops are few and the fodder to feed the
well bullocks must be grown on the well lands, a landlord must allow his
tenants to devote part of area to the raising of turnips, gree wheat and jowar
fro their oxed. Of the crops grown on that area he receives no share adn they
should therefore, be omitted in calculating the rental. After a careful
observation of local usages a Settlement Officer must make the best estimate he
can of the crop areas to be excluded on this account. The actual amount a
tenant is allowed to appropriate doubtless averies with the character of the
season. Thus in his assessment report of tahsil Chiniot in the Jhang district,
Mr. Steedman wrote - "Practically tehre is no limit to a tenant's
privileges in cuting jowar and wheat
for fodder. I have always been given the same answer to my enquiries. A tenant
ought not to cut more than so much, but in a year of deficient pastuarage he
cuts as much as is required to support his well bullocks." It was formerly
usual in produce estimates to exclude the value of the straw of grain crops,
and Settlement Officers had authority for this practice in the 60th paragraph
of Barkley's edition of the Directions. But the proper course is to show in the
combined produce and net assets estimates the value of the whole of the crops
both grain and straw, but ot deduct before calculating the amount of the net
assets all items of which the landlord does not take a share. It is always well
to know what share of the gross produce the one-fourth net assets really
represents. In case where the straw is divided it will
often be found that teh tenant retains a larger proportion of it than he does
of the grain.
323. Difficulty of estimating average yield. - To estimate the avergae yield of each crop on
the different classes of land in a tract as large as an ordinary assessment
circle is a task of great diffculty. Since the attempt to record soils with any
minuteness has been abandoned, it is quite usual to find all the land dependent
upon rain in a large circle put into a single class. Obviously the thousands of
cres so classified will vary widely in natural fertility and the avergae
outturn will be greatly affected by the degree of skill and industry possessed
by teh cultivators. The yield of different harvest also varies to an
extraordinary extent, especially in the case of unirrigated crops. In essaying
to make the best estimate in his power a Settlement Officer must be guided by
the results of experimental cuttings, by his own observations and information
gathered from trustworthy persons, by the accounts of land-owners or
mortagegess, where obtainable, and by the yields assumed for similar tracts
else where.
324. Crop experiments. - Teh defects of the system of experiments carried
out under the orders contained in Financial Commissioner' Book Circular XX of
1871 and the improved parctice introduced by Colonel Wace in 1879 have been
noticed in Chapter VI. The exdisting instructions on the subject will be found
in Financil Comissioner's Standing Order NO. 9-A, and in Appendix X. The
quality of the experiment is more important than their mere number. No
experimetn should as a rule be accpeted unless its selection has been approved after
inspection by an officer not below the rank o tahsildar. An exception may be
made under the orders of the Settlement Officer, in the case of very
experienced naib-tahsildars. The Settlement Officer hiself or the Extra
Assistant Settlement Officer, and the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer should
themselves see and approve of as many of the plots as possible, and accordingly
and instructions lay stress on the necessity of the inspection of as many as
possible of the fields selected by the Settlement Officer, and on the actual
carrying out of experiments being entrusted only to trustworthy subordinates.
When inspecting a field the Settlement Officer should make a preliminary
estimate of its outturn which he can afterwards compare with the results of actual
weighment by the official in charge of th experiment. In using the results of
crop experiments some allowance may be made for the fact that in fields
selected fro experiment less wastage is probably allowed to cocur than in
ordinary fields.
325. Eye should be trained to estimate outturn.
- It is hopeless to make in the
curse of a settlement sufficient experiments to justify an assessing officer in
accepting their average results without further inquiry as a true indication of
the yield of crops. Experiments are only one among several guides in arrivng at
a conclusion upon this point. A Settlement Officer's power of, making a
realiable estimate of average yield for the purposes of produce estimate
largely depends on the degree in which his eye has been trained to appraise
crops.When the girdwari is being made otehr work must give way, especially in
the early stages of a settlement, to the supervision of the patwaris in this branch of their duties
and the assessing officer should make it his aim to get by personal observation
a sufficient acquiantance with the state of the crops in every part of his
charge, and some good general idea of the yield of the harvest. He should be
constantly making his own metnal estimates of the outturn of the crops which he
sees in the course of his inspection and comparing them with those of
respectable landowners and of his own sabordinates.
326. Yield of dofasli crops. - Care is needed in estimating the yield of the
spring harvest in double cropped land. The fact that a field bears two crops in
the year is often not a sign of good soil or good tillage but of the reverese.
Any one who uses his eyes can see the miserable results which frequently follow
from the common practice of sowign barely or masri after rice, and double-cropping in riverain lands sometimes
merely marks the struggle to get the most out of a poor over-saturated soil. In
hilly tracts, where maize is the great crop on manured homestad land,s the rabi crop which follows it is often very
ligth. At the other extrme we have the heavy wheat crops raised after maize on
richly manured well lands in Ludhiana of Jullundur.
327. Produce estimate of each harvest observed.
- For every harvest which he
observes a Settlement Officer should, if possible, prepare a produce estimate
according to what he conceives to be the actual average yield of each crop in
that particular season. If he does son, he wil be less likely to make gross
blunders in his final calculations.
328. Accounts of landowners and mortgagees. - No opportunity should be lost off examining the
accounts of large landowner or mortgages, who coolect in kind. It is sometimes
possible to get valuable information from the rent relatzations of estates
under the Court of Wards, and occasionally a Settlement Officer may be able to
refer to the results of kham tahsil
management by Government. Where fulctuating (batai) and fixed (chakota)
grain rents exist side by side, the amount of the latter per acre should be
compared with the estimated amount of the former.
329. Cancelled.
330. Enquiry into prices. - A Settlement Officer must at an early stage of
his operations obtain the sanction of the Financail Commissioner to the
commutations prices which he proposes to use in the produce estimate.
The object of the enquiry into prices is
two-fold-
(a) to
determine the commutation prices; and
(b) to
ascertain the general rise or fall in the prices of agricultural produce since
the last settlement.
For the latter purpose the investigation must be
carried further back than would other wise be necessary.
331. Prices to be adopted. - For commutation prices we would use were they
ascertainable the average prcies which will be obtained fro their crops by
agriculatureists from village traders during the coming settement or, if its
term is a long one, during the first ten or fifteen years of its currecny. But
eschewing matters of speculation the only safe plan is to take the
average of a sufficiently long period in the past, and assume that the range of
future prices will not be dissimilar. Accrdingly the rules under the first
Punjab Land REveneu Act (XXXIII of 1871) required Settlement Officers to submit
with their assessment reports as statment showing the changes in the value of
produce during the last twenty years divided into quinquennial periods, and the
58th paragraph of Barkley's edition of the Directions, published in 1875,
precribes the use of the average prices of twenty years int he produce
estimate. It is a mistake to lay down any geneal rule to this sort. In deciding
what period should be taken for the calculation of avergaes much will depend on
th past history of the district. If a tract formerly isolated has been recently
opened up by the construction of a railway, and access to new markets has led
to a large and apparently permanent rise of prices, it may be right to neglect,
the figures for the years before the change took place. But a Settlement
Officer must be on his guard against that common weakness of the human mind
which leads us to attirbute to existing conditions a greater degree of
stability than they actually possess. When high prices or low prices have ruled
for several years we are too apt to tassume a permanent rise or a permanent
fall and it is quite pssible to mistake the effects of short harvest for those
of extended markets. Once a firm grasp of th facts is obtained the matter is
one for the excercise of commonsense.
332. How far back history of prices should be
traced. - The history of prices during, the whole term
of the expiring settlement must be traced in order to determine the rise or
fall of agricultural values since the assessment under revisin began to run.
But it is well to carry the enquiry back to a priod five years befroe it
introduction. In this wa we learn not only the prices at which the assessemnt
has worked, but hose which wre present to the Settlement Officer's mind when he
made it. The argument for enhancement to be drawn from th rise of values will
be dealth with in a later chapter.
333. Scope of enquiry - Insturction regarding the inquiry into prices
will be found in Appnedix XI. The commutation prices should be based on the
prices which the farmer obtain fro his produce. On may parts of the country he
still sells on the sopt to the village grain-dealer at rates fixed once for all
soon after harvest. Subsequent fluctuations of th market do not affect him one
way or the other. In examining shop-keeper's books in selected villages the
transactions of teh month in which the harvest rate is fixed should be
scrutinize. The results of the inspection of grain-dealer's books should be
compared with the harvest prices for each assessment circle reported by the
field kanugos for entry in the circel
note-books. These should also represent prices got
by farmers from the locak ship-keepers. The data for a series of years derived
from the above enquiry are sometimes, except in the case of the chief crops,
frametary, and the figures for different villlages are occasionally
conflicitng. They should therefor, be supplemented and checked by tabulating
the harvest prices derived from the returns publised in the Gazette, which will
usually be a good deal higher than the village prices. An officail record of
the prices of agricultural produce has been made at first monthly, and
afterwards forthnightly, in an districts ever since 1851, and tables showing
the yearly average prices of the principal agriculaturla staples in each
district were appended to the Financial Commissioner's Annunal Revenue
Administration Reports from 1856-57 to 1900-1901, and are now published in the
yearly Season and Crops Report.
If
it is found that in any tract most of
farmers take their produce to market towns and dispose of it there, the
line of enquiry must be adapted to that state of things, and it will be necessary
to make allowance for the cost of cartage and for any fees paid at the markets
to agents, weighmen, etc.
334. Methods of reckoning prices. - Formally the method of ascertaining the average
price of any grain was to add together the number of sers per rupee at which it was sold in each year and to divide the
total by the number of years, of which the prices were tabulated.The result (so
many sers per rupee) was entered as
the prices in the produce estimate. Mr. Francis pointed out that this method is
arithmetically incorrect. Thus if the price of wheat in two years in Rs. 4 and
Rs. 2 per maund, or 10 and 20 sers
per rupee respectively the average price is Rs. 3 per manund, and estimated in
sers, in not 15 (as usually shown),
but 134/2 sers per rupee. In the net
assets estimates prices should be expressed in even tamas per maund.
335. Exclusion of famine prices. - The prices of years of amine or serve scarcity should be excluded from
the calculation in the case of crops grown on soils or classes of land of which
the outturn is much affected by seasons of drought. But even when this has been
done the remaining years will consist of seasons of very varying
productiveness, and it must not be assumed that the bare average of the prices
prevailing in them should necssarily be taken. Other things being equal, low
prices mean good and high prices bad harvest. If follows that while the average
produce of two years is half of the total outturn of both, the avergae price
cannot be got by a similar process; for the part of the whole produce sold at
the lower rate is far greater, perhaps in the case of unirrigated crops three
or four times greater, than the part sold at the higher rate. If we assume that
the outturn of fulfield is in one yaer 10, and the next 4 maunds, and thatt eh
prices of the two years are Rs. 2 and Rs. 4 per maund. respectively, the whole
produce is sold at an average price of Rs. 2-4/7 and not Rs. 3. The old method
of calculating prices, though arithmatically wrong, had the accidental merit of
makin some allowance for the low outturn in years of high prices.
336. IIIustrations from case of wheat and gram.
- The greater the fluctuations
in prices the less regard should be paid to bare averages. It is worthwhile to
illustrate this by condiering as typical cases wheat and gram. In the Punjab
the former is either an irrigated crop or is grown where the rainfall is
comparatively abundant or the land is kept moist by the neighbourhood of a
river. Gram on the other hand is an irrgated crop mostly raised in tracts of
scanty and uncertain rainfall. The effect of the seasons on the area sown and
the yield is of course great in the case of both crops, but it is far more
sweeping as regards gram than as regards wheat. In a year of drought gram
practically diappears in insecure tracts. Again there is a steady foreign
demand for wheat, but practically none fro gram. The result is that the
fluctuations in the value of wheat are comparatively small, and it is rerely
very cheap. One good seasn may sent the prices of gram down very low, while in
famine years it may easily be dearer than wheat. If an acre of wheat yields 16
manuds in a good and 8 maunds in a bad year, and the prices Rs. 2 per maund in
the former and Rs. 2-8-0 per maund later, the true average price is Rs. 2-2-8
or very little less than avergae of Rs. 2-4-0 calculated in the usual way. But
suppose an acre of gram yeilds 8 maund in a good season and nothing in a bad,
and the proces are Rs. 1-2-0 per maund in the former Rs. 2-8-0 in the latter.
The second figure is obviously of no use in framing an estimate of the avergae
price the former receives, and it would be of very little use, if the field
yielded one or two maunds instead of nothing at all. It follows that in fixing
the commutation prices of a crop the Settlement Officer should carefully note
how often in past years the price current has fallen below that which he
proposes to adopt. The fact that the latter is less than the average dedue
arithmetically will not make the estimate a safe one, if the actual prices in
lower whenever the are favourable.
337. Tendency to assume too low prices. - It must admitted that, if we accept some
settlement made in the first few years after annexation, the prices assumed by
Settlment Officers have genearlly been markedly lower that those which have
prevailed for any long period during the currency of their assessments. This
has been due to serveral casues. The general trend of prices since 1861 has
been upwards, a fact which could not have been foreseen.Again, some officers in
their desire to make cautious estimates included the figures for too many
years, and even the very low prices which prevailed before 1860-61 in striking
their averages while others reached the same end by assuming prices is the most
speculative part of the produce estimate, and caution is no doubt called fro,
casution must not degenerate into anything which may fairly be described as
playing fast and loose with facts.
338. Deductions on accound of dues of villages
menials, etc. - We are now in a
position to calculate the money equivalent of the total produce and when this
has been done it only remains to estimate the value of the landlords share
one-fourth of which is the maximum assessment. The rent is usually expressed in
some simple fraction one-half; two-fifth, one-third & c. But it is
customary before the landowners and the tenant divide the grain on the
threshing floor to set aside a portion of it for payments to village artisans
and menials and for charitable purposes. The amount varies greatly with the
caste of the proprietors and the nature of the cultivation. It wil usually be
largest in the case of crops irrgated from wells. In making deductions on this
account it must be remembered that only those payments must be considered which
are made from the produce when the land is tilled by tenants. A landloard who
cultivates his own fields may find it convenient to employ reapers and to pay
them by giving them a part of the crop, but it does not follow that the will
allow a tenant to do the same. It is only when tenants usually engage reapers
and are permitted to pay them out of the produce that any deduction should be
made on this account. So far as the payment of artisans and menials are given
for help in tillage, or for the supply or repair or agricultural implements, or
in fact for any work subsidiary to agriculture done for the benefit of the
tenant, they form part of the cost of production and should be subtracted
before calculating the rent. But when they are the reward of personal services
tendered to the landloar, or of a purely charitable character they should be
left out of account. When we know the proportion of the crop payable to
artisans and menials which can farily be included in the cost of production and
the fractions which represents that rent, it is easy to calculate the
landlord's share of the gross produce. Thus, if the payments absorb 10 per cent
of the crop and the rent rate is one-half the landlord's share is 45 per cent.
339. Batai share not always true measurment of rent.- But the matter is not alwasy quite so simple as
would at first sight appear. Where landlords take their share by appraisment it
is well to enquire whether the fractional share which is recorded as the rent
witht he consent of both parties is really taken. How are payments to artisans
and menials provided for in this case ? It may be found, for example, that
there is an understanding which is regularly acted on that one-half is to mean
in appraisement, tow-fifths. The tenant sometimes pays lower rate of Batai for crops whose cultivation is
expensive owing to the need of irrgation, manure, & than for ordinary
crops; sometimes the retn-rate is the same, but the landlor meets part of the
cost of production. Thus, he may defray part of the cost of seed or manure, or
weeding, or he may maintian the woodwork of the well or he may pay a share of
the acreage duty on poppy, or of the water-rates in the case of canal irrigated
crops. In Shahpur, where the rate for sugarcane as for other crops was
one-half, Mr. Wilson found that the landlord met so much of the cost of
cultivation that his real share of the total yield was only one-fifth. On the
other hand, landowners sometimes get payments in excess of their batai share under the name of kharch, lichh, & c. or on account of
the whole or a portion of the canal advantage or canal owner's rate, and these
must be included in the rent.
340. Village produce estimates. - In the village produce estimates the circle
rates of yield and rent may be used. If an estate is above or below the
average. The Settlement Officer will allow for the fact when using the estimate
as an assessment guide.
341. Well and plough estimates. - So far as we have been dealing with produce
estimates which treat as a unit the total area of each soil or class of land in
an estate or assessment circle. It may be useful to work out a separate
estimate for an ordinary well holding, actual or supposed, All crops raised
within the will area whetehr watered or not should be taken into account. Two
estimates may be framed one on the supposition that the land is cultivated by
tenants paying a share of the produce, the other on the supposition that it is
tilled by the owners themselves with or withoug the aid of farm servants. In
the latter case the deductions from the value of the gross produce in order to
obtain the netassets will include reasonable interest on the initial cost of
purchasing the bullocks, the expenditure on annual repairs and replacing the
livestock, the cost of seed, the wages of labour, & c. If the bullocks are
also used for ploughin other lands their full value must not be debited to the
wll expenditure, and if the owenrs cultivate themselves a reasonable sum must
be allowed as the price of their laboure. Whether anything should e included in
the account for interest on the capital sunk in the construction of the well
depends on the questions whether the concession of assessment at unirrigated
rates allowed by the rules for the grant of protective leases (see Chapter XXIX
and rules 24-28 of the rules framed under section 60 of the Land Revenue Act)
is sufficient to cover interest charges and also to replace the capital within
the period for which the concession is made. A plough estimate can be framed on
the same lines after the average area worked by each plough has been
determined, but it serves no very useful purpose.
342. Date of produce estimate uncertain. - It is well frankly to recognize the ract that a
net assets estimate on rent paid by divisions of crops rests on date of a
somewhat uncertain character. With an improved system of record the average
area of successful crops can now be determined with a fair degree of accuracy,
but a good deal of doubt must surround the estimates of yield, however careful
the observations on which they are founded. The prices assumed must in the
nature of things be speculative and even the rent rates are subject to
deductions, the real amonut of which it is difficult to determine. There are
indeed some deductions not yet mentioned to which it is impossible to assign
any definite value. Who sahll say how much of the growing ccrop the tenant and
his family appropriate without the owner's leave ? Or how much of the produce
on an average is damaged by weather after the crop has been reaped, but before
the garin is divided ? In some parts of the province tenants are so much in
demand that they can make pretty walthier own terms, and can inssit on
receiving advaces which the landlord often finds great diffuculty in
recovering. High rates of batai may
sometimes be a measure not of the real value of the land, but of the anxiety of
landlord to protech himself against dishonesty on the part of the tenant. Or
the rate may be what it is not as the result of competition for land, but
because the native ruler claimed that particular share of the crop as his due.
Even so its pitch is not withoug significance, for our predecessors had a very
shrewed idea of what land could pay and still remain under tillage, and they
varied their demands roughly in accordance with the productive qualities of
different tracts.
343. Conclusion as to produce estimates. - But while recognizing the defects inherent in
produce estimates, a Settlement Officer should never forget that it is his duty
to use all means at his disposal to make them as close an approximation to the
truth as possible. In the process he will be led into lines of inquiry which
would be most useful to him in assessment work even if no formal estimates were
rquired and the result of his labour will probably be an estimate to which he
can point with some confidence as one among several guides to the determination
of a fair demand. He will generaily find that his estimates are more relaible
indications of the relatives assessable values of different circles and estates
than of the actual assessable value of any one of them and show pretty clearly
where there is most room for enhancement. But the uncertainly surrounding
produce estimates shows how needful it is to make the best possible use of the
data supplied by cash rents when any considerable portion of the area is let on
these terms.
CHAPTER XX
The Net Assets Estimates based on Fixed Cash and Grain Rents.
344. Importance of using cash rent data. - The evolution of economic money rents in the
Punjab has been a gradual process, and there are still many parts of the
country where cash rent other than the land revenue, with or without a small
additional payment as malikana or proprietary fee, are too uncommon to furnish
any guide to as assessing officer. Rents of this description have a historical
origin, but their persistence in any part of the country may be a sign that the
returen from tillage are there neighter very certain nor very large; in secure
submontane tracts it is observable that cash rents tend to be confined to inferior
lands. The only districts in which economic cash rents furnish data for
assessment, such as are often available in the United Provinces, are Gurgaon
and Rohtak. But in many tracts they now exist in
sufficient quantity to be used as an assessment guide, and where this is the
case they furnish evidence of the landlord's net assets and of the relative
assessable values of different classes of alnd more direct and certain than any
that can be drawn from fluctuating king rents.
345. Soil rents and lump rents on holdings. - A primary division of cash rents is into rents
paid on holdings containing only one soil or class of land and lump rents paid
on holdings including several soils or classes, In some tracts the soil rents2
mostly resolve themselves into a few simple kanal,
ghumao, or bigha rates, in other
the rates are so various as to defy classifiaction. The soil rents and the lump
rents should be analyzed separately whe. the former are numerous, and an
examination of them has hsown the proportion that exists between the rents for
the different classes of land, the lump rents can be resolved into soil rents.
Thus if the proportion established between the separate soil rents in barani
100, Sailab 125 and chahi 175, a lump rent of Rs. 48 paid on holding of 12 acres, consisting of equal parts of
barain, sailab and chahi land, can be resolved into the following soil rates :-
Barani ……………………………… :3
Sailab ……………………………… :3 3/4
Chahi …………………………………… :5¼
This
seems to be the best way of treating such rents when they are too common to be
neglected altogether, but it must not be forgotton that the deducted rates are
not actual, but assumed rents. General soil rents can be obtained by combining
the results of the separate analysis of soil and lump rents, regard being of
course paid to the area of each class. In the annexed example it is supposed
that there are 6000 acres held in separate soil rents amounting to Rs. 3½ and
Rs. 6½ in the case of barani and chahi
lands, respectively and that holdings containing mixed soils with a total
area of 4000 acres are left for Rs. 17000 :-
|
Class
|
Separate Soil rents
|
Lump rents
|
Total rents
|
|
|
Acres
|
Rate
|
Rent
|
Acres
|
Rate
|
Rent
|
Acres
|
Rate
|
Rent
|
|
|
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
Rs. A. P.
|
Rent
|
|
Barani
|
5,000
|
3
|
17,500
|
1,500
|
|
|
6,500
|
3 2
6
|
20,515
|
|
Chahi
|
1,000
|
6
|
6,500
|
2,500
|
|
|
3,500
|
5
3 9
|
20,485
|
|
Total
|
6,000
|
4
|
24,000
|
8,000
|
4
|
17,000
|
10,000
|
4
1 7
|
41,000
|
The
proportion between the chahi and barani rent rate is column 3 is 13 : 7
to obtain the barani date in the penultimate column convert the total chahi
area of 3,500 acres inter barani by multiplying by 13 and dividing by 7. The
product is 6,500. Adding this to the similar area of 6,500 recorded as barani
we get 13,000 as the divisor and the divident is the total rents or Rs. 41000.
This gives a barani rent rate of Rs. 3-2-6 and the rental of 6,500 acres of
theat rate is Rs. 20,525. The balance, Rs. 20,485, is the rental of 3,500 acres
of chahi land and the chahi rent rate is, therefore Rs. 5-13-9. If there are
three classes of land and the proportion between chahi, sailab and barani rent
rates in column 3 is 13, 9 and 7 the chahi and sailab areas cna first be
converted into barani and the barani rental deduced by the above process. The
balance of teh rent can be distributed between chahi and sailab and by
reapeating the same process.
346. Arithmetical avergae may be misleading. - So far we have dealth merely with such analysis
of records rents as any clerk in an office might make. But this by itself is of
little value and may be positively misleading. When employing cash rents as an
assessment guide, a Settlement Officer is seeking to determine the farirenting
value of a whoel estate or assessemnt circle from the rents shown in the jamabandi as paid by tenants-at will for
a part, and sometimes a comparatively small part of the cultivated area.
347. Tests which rents used much satisfy :- Before he can do so with any confidence he must
be prepared with answers to the followin questions:-
(a) Are the rents correctly recorded ?
(b) How far do they flucturate with the rise
and fall of prices ?
(c) Are they paid in full and with
regularity ?
(d) How far is allowance made for fallow
areas ?
(e) Is the land paying cahs rents a fair
average of its class ?
(f) Are the rents in fact, to use the
phrase, employed in the settlement instructions "full fair rnets" for
the land for which they are taken?
348. Careful scrutiny necessray. - No reply to these question and especially to the
last two, is possible without a careful scrutiny of rents as each village comes
under the Settelemnt Officer's inspection. This duty is carried out very
throughly in the United Provinces, where cash rents are much more common than
in the Punjab, and where well nigh the beginning and end of a Settlement
Officers' task is to make by the help of cash rent data such a valuation of
every estate as will enable him to determine its afair rental. To accomplish
this he must ascertain what the "prevailing" rent rates are for all
classes of land for which separate revenue rates will the proposed, and apply
the rates to the wholcultivated areas of these calsses. The "prvailing
rate" is defined as "the average rate actully paid on any class of
land deducting those fields wich pay an abnoramally high or low rate". Ther
are three steps in the process namely, the recognition in the record of
distinction of soil, or class which are usually accompained by marked
differences of renting value, the correct record of the rents actually paid and
the elimination of rents which are shown by inquiry on the spot to be clearly
abnormal.
349. Procedure in United Provinces. - The different soils in an estate usually lie in
blocks, and in the United Provinces the limit of each block is graphically show
on the village map. The rate of rent paid for each field let to tenants-at
weill is also sometimes entered in the map, and this plan greatly assists the
Settlement Officer's scrutiny of the rent data. When inspecting an estate he
must satisfy himself that the limits of the various blocks have been correctly
laid donw, must test the accuracy of te rent entries, especially where the rate
appears to be very high or very, must discover the reasons for apparently
termine the prevailing rate for each class of land in the village. By collating
the results for the different estates in a circle or paragna, he at last makes
up his mind as to the rats which may
be accepted as fair circle or pargand rent rates
for each class of land.
350. Firts three questions referred to above
>- Settlement Officers must be on theri guard
against false entries of rents. If the landowners suspect that cash rents are
being used as an assessment guide a combination to procure an untrue record of
them is possible. Attmepts of this sort will fail if the annual papers have
been carefully prepared int he interval between two settlements, when landlords
are under no temptation to state theri rents at less their actual amounts.
The
effect of fluctuations in prices on cash rents has not yet been investigated in
the Punjab, but it may be doubted whether it is at all rapid.
The
question whether the recorded rents are collected in full in bad seasons must
not be overlooked. This probably depends more on the demand that exists for
land on the part of tenants than on the security or insecurity of the outturn.
WHere the demand is keen, rents may be paid wonderful regularity in the worst
of seasons, or where this is impossible and the land is abandoned, it may be
customary before re-entry to pay up all arrears.
351. Questions whether leased land is fair
sample of its class. - The
question whether the leased land is a fair sample of its class must be a very
difficult one where, as has often happened in the Punjab all soil distinctions
other than those based on the presence or absence of irrigation or inundation
have been given up. As already noted in Chapter XIII, where it is intended in
assessment to lay much stres on cash rent date, a somewhat more minuted
classification will often be found expedient. But event if this is adopted, the
question is one to which a Settlement Officer must give spcial attention in his
village upections. If the landowners are themselves industrious husbandmwen, it
may be found that they only let the worst patches of land in the village.
Proprietors often prefer to take frind rents where the produce is secure, and
only accept cash where it is uncertain. But careless onwers may let their best
lands because, tey are unwilling themselves to under take then hard work
required for the cultivation of the most valuable crops. And the fact has to be
remembered that many landlords are mortgages, and the tendency is for
moneylends only to grant loans on the security of good land Land is sometimes
rented only for the harvest. The rents must in that case be ejected as an
assessment guide unless the usual system of tillage is to leave the land fallow
in the other harvest.
352. Elimination of abnormal rents.- The question of the elimination of abnormal rents
is a very delicate one. To exclude rents whose very form suggests that they are
not true economic rents is indeed easy. Rents consisting of the land revenue,
with or without a small additional payment as proprietary fee, are of this
class, and it is only in exceptional immstances, where for example, the revenue
is high and the lease land poor, that such rent may be a true economic rent.
Where such circumstances do not exist these rents may at once rejected. But it
needs a very nica discretion to go further, and, by sifiting out normal and
abnormal rents, to reach a “prevailing rate” for each soil in every estate and
finally in whole paragna or assessment circle, as a Settlement Officer is
required to do in the United Provinces. If it is to be done at all, the only
possible way is to carry out the operation village by village on the spot.
Where it is proposed to lay much stress on cash rents as an assessment guide,
and they cannot be resolved into a few common kanal or bigha rates this
is the only procedure likely to yield any soild results. At present where the
cash rents are at once numerous and various the data presented in an assessment
report may only serve to confuse the mind. It may be clear that, as they stand,
no reliance can be placed upon them as assessment instrument, but there are the
strongest objections to any attempt to improve them by eliminating rates
because on paper they look abnormally high or low. If cash rents are not paid
on a large area and it is only proposed to use them as throwing a side-light on
an assessment confessedlyu based on other data, a less detailed examination
than is required in the United provinces will suffice. If the Settlement
Officer thinks that the average recorded cash rents applied to the whole area
would give a false idea of the true renting value of the land, it will be
enough for him to explain the general repasons which have led him to that
conclusion. The plan followed in the United provinces implies that great
reliance is placed on teh judgement of the Settlement Officer. If the officer
under whole immediate control the Settlement Officer works vigilant, he will
find no great difficulty in satisfying himself by testing his subordinate’s
prceeding in a few estates on the spot whether this confidence is deserved. And
it behoves the assessing officer to explain his procedure exactly in his
assessment report, and comparing his corrected rent rates with those
representing the bare average of all the cash rents except those whose form by
itself auggests that they are not economic, to show what proportion of the
rents he has excluded form his calculations and for what reasons.
353. Examples of abnormal rents.- A certain proportion of the rents he will reject
as clearly privileged, being by rleations and dependents who are allowed to
till pataches of land for more or less nomial payments. He may also find that
some of the rents in his village list are paid for odds and ends of very
inferior land, and though fair in themselves, are useless for general
assessment puposes. But the questions of the exclusion of rents becasue they look
very high is more diffiuclt. A Settlement Officer in the Punjab is allowed a
considerable discreation to deviate from the estimated standard revenue in
actued assessment, and the cash rent estimate will rerely be his only guide in
calculating tbe net assets. It is, therefore, a safe reule to decide all
doubtful cases by reataining the rent. But rates so exorbitant as to be plainly
no index of the air rental of the land should be rejected. No definite rules
can be laid down. In an estate where the bulk of the hodings are too small to
support their owners, the latter will sometimes pay very extravagant rates for
a little extra land. And estates and holdigns may be found which are
notoriously rack-rented. Governenttn will not one-fourth of a rach-rental as
land revenue even form the rack renting landlord, still less can it use rack-rents as the
basis of an assessment to be paid by landowners, who still their own fields.
But in many estates it will probably be found that customary rent rates for
different classes of land are recognized and that most of the actual conform
pretty closely to these rates.
354. Comparison of produce and cash rent
estimate .- Further instructions
regarding the elaboration of the cash rent estimate will be found in paragraphs
4,5 and 6 of Appendix XX. Its results should be compared with the produce
estimate, and an attempt made to trace the causes of any large discrepancies
between them. If a Settlmenet Officer has made a careful study of the causes
which have determined the pitch of cash and kind retns, respectively, in the
tract under assessment, he may be able to furnish a clue to the reason of
variations which at first sigh appear very curious. It may be found sometimes
in historical ratehr than in economic causes. Finally he should endevour to
arrive at a definite estimate of the "true" not assets of the
assessment circle concerned on the lines indicated in paragraph 8 and 9 of Ap
pendix XX.
355. Fixed grain rents. - Chakota rents include lump grain rents and rents
consisting of a fixed amount of grain, almost invariably wheat, in the spring
and a fixed sum of money in the autumn harvest. This form of rent is otten met
with in some of the central districts and it is in favour with mortgages.
Chakota-rents are usually pretty fulents. They are useful as a check on the
produce estimates, especially in respect of assumed yield of wheat and, where
sufficiently numerous, may make the basis of a separate net assets estimate. It
will be well to inquire whether they are as a rule collected in full in bad
seasons.
CHAPTER XXI
Miscellaneous Sources of Income conneted with Land.
306. Sayer income. - So far we have only been considering the
agricultural rental of the soil, but the proprietors may, in addition, derive
an income from the spontaneous production the waste and cultivated lands from
the leasing of water power or the right to direct salpetre from the soil, &
c. All such items of profit over and above the agriucltural rental are known in
settlement language as sayter (from the Arabic work sa'ir meaning remainig over
or siwai. If they are of any importance, they must not be neglected in
calculating the net assets. In pastoral tracts it is only possible to make a
rough estimatee of arrangement receipts from the sale of live-stock, ghi,
hides, horns and wool. In a country where the seasons are very capricuous all
income of this sort is of necessity extremenly actuating. It may be part of the
rural economy to derive the cattle away during part of the years to tracts
where pasturage has to be paid for, Allowance must also be made for the labour
employed on rearing and tending the cattle and for the extent to which they are
fed agricultural produce. Where landowners let large blocks of pasture land,
the rents they will be found too high for the calculation rent rates for the
whole uncultivated area, orgazing let in this way is usually of a superior
class. The rents paid to private owners may be compared with the annual sums
for which Government waste in the smae neighbour is leased. In some pastroal
tracts residents who are not proprietors pay a poll tax (why or bhunga) at
fixed rates for different kinds of cattle. An application of these rates to the
whole of the village cattle is a rough, but useful, indication of the annual
value of the runining. The state usually walves its clam to share in the pretty
cesses referred to in paragraph 94, which landowners have sometimes a customary
right to levy from the other irhabitants of the villages. But in some tracts,
especially in the hills, the seigniorial dues thomey or labour taken from
tenants form a very large addition to their rents and many well be taken into
account when deciding the pitch of the assesement.
CHAPTER XXII
Reasons for deviating from the One-fourth Net Assets Estimate
in Assessment
357. Uncertainty of estimate net assets. - It has been shown that the difficulty of framing
a trustworthy net assest estimate in the Punjab is great. The produce estimate
involves a chair of assumption and a flaw in any one of the links will protanto
vitiate the calculation. The paucity of cash and chakota rents will often make
it hard to rely on them as assessment instruments, and the questions whether
the land on which they are paid is of avergae quality and whether any given
rent has passed the bounds of a full fair rent and become a rack-rent are very
nice ones for decision. On this ground alone some divergence from the
one-fourth net assets estimate in actual assessment may in any particular case
justifiable.
358. The standard in itself somtimes too high. - The standard of assessment has recently been
lowered by the Land Revenue (Amendment) Act of 1928 from one-half of the net
assets to one-quarter. No experience has yet been acquired of the working of
this standard, but the spirit of moderation and firmness in which the old
assessments were determined shall continue to be the guiding principle in
future as wel, and the following which was originally written about the half
net-assets standard, mutanis, mutandis, still holds true :-
"But
the best opinion in the Punjab has gone further and held that the standar of
half net assets deduced from the rents paid on a comparatively small area may
in itself be too high for assessing land mostly tilled by peasant proprietors. It is one thing to claim as revenue half
the well ascertained rental of a big land owner, and quite another to argue
that half the rent paid on say 20 per cent of the area of a large tract is a
fair criterion of what a host of small farmers cultivating their own ancestral
fields can pay. Where the population is dense, and there is keen competition
for land among owners who have not enough, to fully employ their ploughs and to
feed their families, and among tenants who are in a still worse strait, rents
may be forced up to a height which makes them dangerous assessment guides. It
is a strking fact that for two-fifths of the land paying rent by division of
crop in the Pujnab the landlord's share is recorded as half the produce. Small
farmers who let any little surplus land they have are hard landlords all the
world over, and the better husbandman a man is himself, the more likely to let
land are exacting landlords. It may be urged that the Sikhs often took half the
produce as revenue, and that half of rental consisting of the some proportion
of the crop ought not to be an excessive demand. But the Sikhs very commonly
twenty seers in the maund. It may be said that the Settlement
Officer can elimitimate. But this process becomes impossible when excessively
high cash rents are not the exception but the rule or where the pressure on the
tenant takes the from of a serve current rate of batai. It behaves an assessing
officer to make a very careful study of the historical and economic causes
which have determined the existing state of the rents in his district, to mark
how far custom has yielded to competition as the determining factor, and where
the latter has full play. whether it has forced the tenant to accept very
severe terms. It is the wish of Government to fix an assessement moderate
enough to ensure the prosperity and development of the country, but hot so
light as to encourage sloth and bad framing. It is also desirable that some
measure of equality in the pressure of the demand in different parts of the
country should be preserved. This would be impossible if the assessements wre
to be based solely on the rent data. The degree to which rents have ceased to
be customary varies greatly in different parts of the country. Where land is
abundant and tenants are few, a case can easily be imagined in wich the rent
statistics blindly followed would enforces a needless sacrifice of revenue. An
actual instance of the kind will be found described in Sir J.B. Lyall's remarks
on the assessment of the Kaithal tahsil in the Punjab of economis causes, may
differ much in severtiy. No single fraction of the gross assessing officer
should always have before his mind, and hsould notice prominently in his
assessment reports, not only the share of the net assets, but also the
proportion of the whole out-turn of each assessment circle which he is
proposing to absorb in the Government demand. This is sepcially necessary when
the assessement of similar tracts in which the rent rates differ are
compared."
359. Other matters besides rent data must be
take into account. - The
discussion of the use to be made by a Settlement Officer of his rent data is
now complete. It has shown how necessary it is in the Punjab to pursue also
that other line of inquiry which in considering how far an existing assessment
can be enhanced or must be reduced regards not this relation to a theoretical
standard, but its working and effects as shown in the past fiscal history and
present cirucmstances of the estate or circle, its suitbaility or unsuitability
when first imposed as evidenced by teh ease or difficulty with which it was
paid, the grounds for raising it furnished by the increase of resources which
has occurred since loast settlemnt its pitch as compared witht he demand paid
successfully in other similar tracts and estates, and the obstacel to largely
enhancing it whic the caste and ancestral customs of the land-owners, the
smallness of their holdings, and other practical considerations may oppose. The
next two chapters will deal with matters other than rent, which data should be
taken into account in framing an assessment.
chapter xxiii
General Considerations affecting the amount of the Assessment.
360. General considerations affecting assessment
:- The inquiry which is
concerned with what are vaguely termed "general considerations" does
not ask how far the existing demand must be enhanced or reduced to make it
confirm to the standard of the one-fourth net assets, but how far it can be
nehanced or must be reduced so as to secure to the State the iighest revenue
which is compatible with the prosperity and contentment of its subjects and the
continued extension and improvement of cultivation. The bearing of
"general considerations" on the determination of the land revenue to
the caid by an estate was recognized in the seventh of the Assessment
Instructions of 1893, revised in 1914, which provided that "the assessment
of an estate will be fixed according to circumstances, but must not exceed half
the value of the net assets." The lowering to the standard of assessment
due to the recent legislation has lessened the force of the considerations
ssuggesting moderation in assessment, but the general principles still apply.
361. Fiscal history to the studied :- When the problem of assessment is approached from
this side a survey of the fiscal history of the tract becomes indispensable.
Lessons are to be learned from all its past land revenue settlements, and also
it may be, from th fiscal arrangements of former rulers. But these have
probably for the most part been weighed and recorded, and naturally a
Settlement Officer's chief concern is with the character and working of the
assessment which he is revising, and the growth or decay of the resources of
each estate and circle since it was introduced. If the past settlement was
originally fair as between the State and the landowners and as between village
and village, the pratical force of the argument for enhancement grounded on an
increase of resource is clear. But not only the fairness or unfairness of the
result, but the method by which it was reached, is important. A Settlement
Officer has to build on another man's foundation, and must plan his house
accordingly. Even mistakes in the assessment of particular soils or estates may
have to be accepted as matter which cannot be wholly put right at a revised
settlement.
362. Character of assessment under revision :- In weighting the merits and defects of the past
settlement, it is necessary to trace the way in which the assessment was
determined, especially the use made of soil distinctions and of revenue rates,
he incidence of the demand when first imposed on the whole cultivated area and
on different classes of a land, its distribution over estates, and the ease or
difficulty of its collection, especially in the early years of its currency
before any great change in the resources of the land owners had occured.
363. Distribution over estates and holdings :- The
distribution of the assessment over estates and holdings is often more
important than its gross amount. Nothing gives more trouble than the
reassessment of a tract in which the land revenue demand has been from the
first, or has become by force of circumstances, grossly unequal. A high
assessment justily distributed over estates and holdings is less oppressive
than one which is moderate as regards its gross amount, but unfair as regards
its distribution.
364. Past fiscal management :- The history of past revenue collections, the
extent to which resort to the coercive powers confer by the Land Revenue Act
has been necessary, and the frequency or infrequency of remissions and
suspensions should be considered. An endeavour should be made to ascertain
whether, speaking generally, the fiscal management has been prudent and
considerate and whether relief has been afforded in seasons when it was
required.
365. Cesses :- The history of the cesses paid by landowners in
the Punjab has been given in Chapter VII. They paid levied at so much per cent
on the land revenue Recentmissions of taxation have reduced the burden very
considerably and cesses now usually amount to a surcharge on the land revenue
*of between 13 and 15 per cent. This is excluve of any amounts raised for
village police and common village expenses. The claim of the State to one
quarter of the net-assets as land revenue is not affected by the levy of
cesses, and no man has a right to have his assessment lowered because it and
the cesses together absorb 33 or 34 per cent of the rental. But, where holdings
are small, nd the margin left after providing a bare livelihood for the
landowners and his family is usually slender, the fact that a large sum is paid
on account of cesses, and that it increases parisses with the increase of the
land revenue, may undoubtedly limit the amount of cahancement which can
prudently be taken.
366. Survey of economic history and condition of
each estate and circle :- In
studying the history of an estate of any area for assessment purposes, a
Settlement Officer cannot confine his attention to the way in which its land
revenue and cesses have been assessed and collected. He must embrace, in his
inquiry all evidences of the growth or recline of the resources of the
landowners. Nothing in the past which has had a lasting effect good, bad on
their well being, and nothing in the present which shows their power to pay a
larger assessment, or their inability to bear existing burdens and prosper,
should to overlooked. In fact, a survey of past economic history and present
economic conditions as complete as time and opportunity permit should be made
in the case of each estate and circle. A prudent man will not forget that
"human begins and not merely acres of land" are being assessed and
will not refuse to consider any difficulties which the character and encestrat
habits and customs of the landowners may put in the way of very large
enhancements.
367. Increase of cultivated area and of means of
irrigation :- Obviosuly one of
the best reasons for raising the revenue is an increase of the cultivated area.
The extension of artifical means of irrigation is also a ground for enhancement
care being taken to ensure to the landowners a fair return for any capital sunk
in improvements. Difficulties in comparing the cultivated area of different
settlement arise from the fact that in the earlier Punjab settlements "cultivated"
and "new fallow", did not mean exactly what they do at present, a
good deal of land now shown as cultivated being then classed as jadid. Mafi
plots and the sir land of jagirdars were formerly excluded from the assessable
area. More necurate measurement will account for some additions to the recorded
cultivated area. If there has been a real increase of any importance, its
position can be pointed out on the map.
368. Means of checking survey figures :- Where cultivation if of a very fluctuating character,
as, for example where it depends on uncertain floods, the extent of the
cultivated area will vary greatly accordingly to the season in which the
measurements happen to be made. In such cases survey statistics by themselves
may lead to wrong conclusions, and they should be viewed in connection with the
indications furnished by the growth or decline of population and more
especially by the crop returns for past years. In fact, in such cases it is
often trudent to frame assessment rates not for the recorded cultivated area of
any particular year, but for the average area of matured crops in a series of
years. An increase in the recorded chahi area should be checked with the
figures, showing the number of wells at work at the two settlements.
369. Character of new cultivation :- The character of the new cultivation as compared
with the old should be noticed. It is well, as already hinted, to fix its
position by comparing he former and present maps, and also to see when the
village is inspected. Naturally the hands which are first brought under the
plough are the best, or at least the most favourably situated or the most
tractable. The effect of the spread of cultivation on the older lands is
sometimes injurious. In very dry tracts, where successful tillage largely
depends on drainage from the surronadings waste, the breaking up of the latter
increases the insecurity of the crops.
370. Exhaustion of soil :- Assertions that the soil has become exhausted
must be received with caution but in the case of some light sandy lands in the
Punjab it is undoubtedly true. Settlement Officers should now be able to turn
with some confidence to the annual crop statements for proof or disproof of
alleged detrioration of the older cultivation or inferiority of the new and on
the other hand, for evidence of improved farming. Unfortunately before 1885 we
have few trustworthy returns based on harvest inspections and as explained in
Chapter Vi the crop statistics of settlements made before 1880 were expected
from the measurement khasras and are not really accurate. Still an attempt to
compare the former and present crop statements should be made. Wide differences
between the will indicate actual changes of agricultural practice though
smaller variations may be explained by the improved system of record.
371. FLuctuating nature of income derived from
land :- But the great advantage
derived from the continuous record of the crops which ripened and of the area
sown which yielded no harvest is the light it has thrown on the extremely
fluctuating nature of to income derived from land in many parts of the country.
Though the jinswar returns are imperfect instruments for measuring the
insecurity of the harvests, they at least supply a Settlement Officer with
evidence of ascertained facts for a considerable number of years wherewith
evidence to supplement and correct the impressions made on his mind by his own
partial observation of the harvests of a few seasons. Whre the land-owners are
small farmers living from day to day, it is pratically impossible, other things
being equal, to impose a fixed land revenue of equal amount on two tracts of
equal average assets if the yearly variations from the average are in one case
small and in the other extreme. Elasticity of collection is only a partial
remedy for the caprices of the seasons, and it is one of uncertain operation.
While the demand can absorb a great share of the gross produce in a secure,
than in an insecure estate or circle, the revenue in the latter may often
approach more closely to the assets standard than in the former. High rents
rates and very small holdings are two great obstacles in the way of assessing
up to the standard, and these are more likely to be met with a secure, than in
an insecure, tract.
372. Comparison of cultivated and average crop
areas :- Tables showing in
percent ages on the cultivated area the average acreage under each of the
principal crops and the average acreage on which the crops sown fail to come to
maturity are very useful as a rough comparative test of the value of the
produce of different soil and classes of land and of different estates and
assessment circles. In assessment work it is well to pay more heed to acres of
crops than to acres of land, and a prudent Settlement Officer will think more of
the rate at which his proposed assessment in each case falls on the average
area of crops harvested than of its incidence on the recorded cultivated area.
This specially true in the case of tacts whose harvests are of an uncertain
character.
373. Rainfall :- In connection with the crop statistics the
returns which show the amount and distribution of the rainfall in different
parts of the district should be studied. The variations in the rainfall even
within the limits of a single district are sometimes very remarkable, and the
total amount received in any year is less important than the time at which it
came.
374. Rise of prices :- The subject of prices in its relation to the
calculation of a full net assets assessment has been discussed in Chapter XIX.
There remains for considerations the practical question of the effect of a
permanent rise of prices on the ability of the Land owners to pay an increased
reenue. If the demand fixed at last settlement was paid without difficulty at a
time when prices were much lower than they now are or will probably be in the
future there are substantial grounds for urging that it is capable of
considerable enhancement. One must decide in the first place what has been the
general rise of prices ? What are the two periods whose average prices should
be compared ? And how is the general rise to be determined seeing that the
value of each crop has risen in a different proportion ?
375. Prices to be compared :- The commutation prices used in the produce
estimate must be accepted as the average prices at which the new assessment
will have to work. The orders of the Government of India require that there
shall be compared with the prices assumed by the officer whose assessment is
under revision or, if he left no record of the prices on which he based his
assessment with the prices prevailing for a reasonable period before the
settlement. In using such a comparison as an aid it
is of course assumed that the last assessment would have proved a fair one if
the prices adopted by the Settlement Officer in his produce estimate had in the
event turned out to be the prices at which his assessment had to work. The
orders contained in Punjab Government letter No. 132 dated 25th June, 1895,
also directed that a comparison should be made between the commutation prices
and the lowest prices which prevailed during the currency of the expiring
settlement. But is was pointed out in the Lieutenant Governor's remarks on an
assessment report of the year 1898 that this particular method of dealing with
the rise prices is open to the criticism that it compres actuals with
estimates. It is always desirable to consider
carefully the lowest and highest prices which prevailed for any length of time
during the currency of the expiring settlement, and to mark how the settlement
worked when prices were most unfavorable. If the assessment stood the test of
low prices, while its incidence had not been lightened by large extensions of
cultivation or irrigation, it may fairly be held that the demand was from the
beginning a lenient one, and the argument based on the rise of prices can be
used with confidence.
376. Calculation of general rise of prices :- An easy way of calculating the general rise of
prices, which was employed by Mr. Francis, is shown in the following diagram.
It is assumed that 90 per cent of the crops consist of maize, jawar, wheat and
gram. It is unnecessary to take account of crops covering small areas unless
they are very valuable, as, for example, sugarcane :-
|
Crops
|
Percentage of total area of crop
|
Rise of price per cent
|
Multiple of column 3 by column
|
|
Maize
|
12
|
20
|
240
|
|
Jawar
|
30
|
12
|
360
|
|
Wheat
|
40
|
35
|
1,400
|
|
Gram
|
8
|
25
|
200
|
|
|
90
|
24 4/5
|
2,200
|
The
total of column 4 divided by 90 gives the general rise. If the cropping of
tahsil is simple enough to enable one to make a rough general estimate of the
yield per acre of each crope the statement can be amplified and improved.
|
Crops
|
Percentage of total area of crop
|
Yield per acre in manuds
|
Total yield in maunds
|
Rise of price per cent
|
Multiple of column 3 by column
|
|
Maize
|
12
|
16
|
192
|
20
|
3,840
|
|
Jawar
|
30
|
5
|
150
|
12
|
1,800
|
|
Wheat
|
40
|
12
|
480
|
35
|
16,800
|
|
Gram
|
8
|
7
|
56
|
25
|
1,400
|
|
Total
|
90
|
|
878
|
27 1/5
|
23,840
|
Here
the general rise is got by dividing the figure in the last column by that in
column 4.
The
general rise evidently varies from village to village and from circle to
circle. But the argument founded upon it can only be used in a broad and
general way, and its enough to calculate the rise for a tahsil as a whole
unless the variations in the crops grown in different parts of it are extreme.
Land-owners grow some crops mainly for their own consumption and others mainly
for sale and most regard should be paid to a change in the prices of the
latter.
The
general rise of prices should be calculated by the above process and noticed in
the assessment report both as regards the commutation prices assumed at the new
settlements compared as well as for the prices actually prevailing at those
times, respectively. For the latter purpose the averages of GAzette prices for
the quinquennium or decade preceding a settlement may be takne as the normal as
the normal prices at that settlement.
377. Effect of rise of prices in case of small
proprietors :- If and is in the
hands of a few proprietors and cultivated by tenants, it may be found that a
rise in the prices of agricultural produce, unless the cost of production
increases in a greater proportion, is followed pretty corresponding advance of
rents. Indeed, where rent is taken by division of crop the rise is automatic.
In such circumstances there is little difficulty in claiming or the State the
enhancement which the increased value of its share of the produce properly
demands. But, where the land is parcelled out among a host of peasant
proprietors who till their own fields, difficult question arise. So far as the
small farmer consumes his on crops or lives on advances of grain which he
repays in kind with heavy interest at harvest time any change of price is a
matter of indifference to him. It is only as regards the surplus available for
sale that a rise in value helps him. Where the agricultural population is
sufficient, but not redundant, where itis energetic and provident, and the
returns to its labour are fairly secure, it reaps the full fruits of the
opening of new markets and a rise in prices. In other tracts, owing to want to
thrift on overpopulation, the benefits derived from these changes are much
smaller and not nearly so widely ; in some they are only enjoyed by
exceptionally careful or fortunate farmers. Prudence should deter a Settlement
Officer from treating the rise of prices as a justification of an equal
enhancement of the revenue in these varying circumstances. But, on the other
hand, there is some danger that sympathy may lead him to sacrifice too much of
the just claims of the State, unmindful of the risk of fostering economic evils
by undue leniency.
378. Markets and means of communications :- Closely connected with the subject of prices is
that of improvements in communications and facilities for bringing grain to
market. The boon which these confer on the community as a whole is sometimes
associated with local drawbacks. Diversions of traffic due to the opening of
railways may deprive the land-owners of particular tracts of some of their
chief sources of profit. And the neighbor-hood of a thriving market towns puts
special temptations in the way of the population of the surroundings villages
so that what ought to be an advantage may become a snare.
379. Statistics of transfers :- In the fiscal history of an estate a prominent
place must be given to the extent and causes of alienations, the times when
they occured, the classes to which the new owners and mortgagees belong, the
prices realized in the case of sales and the sums lent in the case of mortgagees.
The bearing of the amount of transfers on the question of the character of the
existing assessment and the ability of the land-owners to pay a higher demand
in furniture will be dealt with later on; at present we are concerned with the
evidence which statistics of sales and mortgages may be made to furnish as to
the rise or fall of the value of land, and the inteerences to be drawn from
changes in the prices that can be obtained for it. Looked at merely from the
point of view of an assessing officer, the "yearly statement of
transfers" included in the revenue register of each estate and circle is
defective. He cannot certainly inter that all the transactions entered in it
against any particular year as having been the subject of of multation orders
actually occurred in that year. He may not find the classification of
transferees as "old" and "new agriculturists". Which was adopted in the statement until
the passing of the Punjab Land Alienation ACt XIII of 1900, of much pratical
use. Nor is the present classification of vendors as persons who are, and
persons who are not, members of agricultural tribes quite satisfactory for the
sepcial purpose with which we are now concerned, for there are many land-owners
whose hereditary occupation is undoubtedly agriculture, but who do not belong
to any of the tribes gazetted under the Punjab Land Alienation Act. It is
therefore, well to draw up the village lists of sales during the period of the
expiring settlement and existing mortgages referred to in paragraph 307. In these lists the actual date of each
transfer is shown, and the transferees are classed as :-
(a) agriculturists of the village ;
(b) agriculturists of other villages; and
(c) money-lenders.
From
them can be compiled statements of sales and mortgages showing the area
transferred in each period of five or ten years the average price or mortgage
money per acre, the multiple of the land revenue which the price or mortgate
money represents, and the proportionof the alienations made to each classes of
transferees. The increase or decrease of the mortgaged area in an estate in
each period of four years can also be gathered from the sixth statement in the
village revenue register. Collateral mortgagees are not entered in the mutation
registers or the statement scompiled from them because they involve no change
in the possession of land. But in the Punjab the great bulk of the mortgagees
effected transfer the usufruct to the creditor. Some Settlement Officers have
also compiled statement sof sales and mortgages from the records of the
registration offices. If any considerable area has been acquired by Government
for railways or canals, the proceedings connected with the assessment of
compensation should be examined. When Act 1of 1894 is put in force, the
compensation to be allowed is the market value increased by 15 per cent on
account of compulsory expropriation.
380.
380.
Rise in value of land :- The
price at which land sells and the sum which can be raised when it is pledged as
security for repayments are good indications of the lightness or severity of
the existing assessment. In using statistics of sale, however it must be borne
in mind that the price is constantly exaggerated in deeds in order to defeat
the claims of pre-emptors. The fact hardly affects the use of the figures in
comparing different estates, or soils, or tracts, but it may perhaps make the
rise in value as compared with the past seem somewhat greater than it really
is. The price too which is entered may represent simply the principal and
accumulated interest of a long-standing debt and the much above the real market
value of the land. Still where the statistics show a steady increase in price
during the period of the expiring settlement, and where land is worth forty,
fifty, or even a hundred years' purchase of the revenue, it may with perfect
fairness be argued that the latter cannot be heavy and that the profits of
agriculture have risen.
381.
381.
Causes which kept the value of land low in early days of English rule : There can be no question that, for thirfty and
hardworkiong communities which have not multiplied beyound the number that can
be economically employed on the land, profits have risen immensely with the
opening up of the country trade and the general improvement of the province
which fifty years of orderly government have produced. But it would be mistake
to assume that the striking rise in the value of land is all due to the growth
of framing profits. During the first 15 or 20 years after annexation the demand
for land was small. Confidence in the stability of a new Government is a plant
of slow growth, and no man ears to buy what he will not certainly be allowed to
keep. There were parts of the country in which a proprietary title was hardly
understood and not greatly valued by the people who could lay claim to it,
land-owners were sometimes eager to bestow and tenants coy, in accepting
occupancy rights.1 The
change from flutuating collections in kind to a fixed cash demand was
unpopular, and the dislike of the new system seemed to people to be justified
when the sudden fall of prices which followed annexation made the payment of
the land revenue in money difficult. The Punjab was not subject to the civil
law embodied in the Bengal regulations, and and transfer was restrained by
administrative orders and by entries made at settlement in the village
administration papers. In 1852 the Board of Administration directed that, if a
land-owner wished to sell his share, he must first offer it to the whole community
or to some individual coparcener at a reasonable price to be fixed by
agreement, failing which the revenue officer and three assessors were to
determine what the fair value was.2 Four years later the same rule
was extended to usufructuary mortages. Long after the orders of 1852 ceased to
have any real value a curious relic of them survived in Chapter E.-1-9 of the
Rules under the Land Revenue Act of 1871.
381-A. How to gauge the growth or decline in the value
of land :- The best way to gauge
the growth or decline in the value of land is to ascertain the multiple of the
land revenue which on the average it fetched at different periods during the
term of a settlement. Strictly speaking the amount of the cesses should also be
brought into the calculation, which usually amount to less than one-eighth of
the land revenue. A mere comparison of the prices per acre may be vitiated by
the fact that the figures for one period include a large proportion of
uncultivated land, of irrigated land or of land possessing great natural
advantages than those of the other. It is well to make the comparison both for
sale prices and mortgage values, especially if sales have not been very
numerous. The materials for the ocmparison will be found in the 5th of the
statements included in the village assessment circle and tahsil registers of
agricultural statistics. Sales of land in the immediate neighbourhood of great
cities like Amritsar and Lahore should be excluded.
381-B. Comparison between the value of land and the
pitch of the assessment :- The
standard of assessment has now been lowered to one-fourth of the net-assets.
The following, which was based on the half net assets standards, still applied
mutatis, mutandis, to the propertion of sale prices to net assets both expressed
in terms of land revenue :-
"The
average price of land sold in the Punjab in 1909-10 exceed 100 times the land
revenue. When investing money in agricultural land, people usually expect to
make a profit of at least 4 per cent. If an investor is prepared to pay 100
mines the land revenue, it follows that he considers that the demand does not
absorb more than one-fifth of the rental. In other words, he thinks that the
revenue does not exceed 40 per cent, of the standard half net assessment. If he
thought that land paying one rupee as revenue to Government would only yield a
rent of two rupees, he would not be prepard to buy at more than 25 times the
assessment. The following table may be of use :-2
|
Sale price multiple of land revenue
|
Percentage of half net assets absorved by land
revenue
|
Column 2 corrected to allow for cesses at 13½
per cent on land revenue
|
|
100
|
40
|
38
|
|
75
|
50
|
56
|
|
50
|
67
|
72
|
|
25
|
100
|
106
|
If
a settlement Officer finds that in one assessment circle land has in recent
years fetched on the average 50, and in another 90 times the land revenue, he
may fairly conclude that there is room for a larger enhancement in the latter
than in the former.
A
very rough check on the half net assets estimate may be made by comparing the
percentage which the existing land revenue bears to it with the similar data
derived from sale prices."
382. Capacity of expansion :- An assessing officer must not overlook the
capacity for expansion which each estate and assessment circle possesses, he
must notice the amount of culturable waste (banjar kadim) still left and weight
the chances of its being brought under the plough. He must consider the
improvements which might be effected and the likelihood of their being
undertaken at an early date. But the possibility of rapid development will not
justify him in imposing a demand on any circle in excess of one-fourth of the
existing net assets though it may embolden him to approach the theoretical
standard more closely and to take a larger immediate enhancement than he might otherwise
have thought prudent.
383. Extraneous sources of income :- The possession by the landowners of sources of
income, such as trade and service, unconnected with the land, stands on much
the same footing. The demand has often be pitched low in view of necessities of
struggling peasant farmers. As we assess villages as a whole, and not separate
holdings, it may often be impossible to avoid giving the benefit of this
concession to rich and poor alike where both classes hold land in a single
estate. But a rich merchant who has acquired the ownership of a whole village
has no claim to it; and where the original land-owners have fallen into poverty
and parted with the bulk of their possessions to people of substance, the fact
that they still remain some fragment of their ancestral holdings should not be
allowed to influences greatly the pitch of assessment. In the same way an estate which is
enriched by the flow into of pay and pensions earned in the services of
Government need not be treated as leninetly as an over crowded village where
the landowners depend solely on the tillave of the soil. In this case, however,
other considerations may come into play for it is wise to treat with liberality
men who put their swords at our service.
384. Political considerations :- In many parts of province near the north-west
frontier of India, which is also the chief recruiting ground of the Indian
army, much weight must obviously be given to political considerations in fixing
the land-revenue demand.
385. Instruments of production :- Turning next to the instruments of production
these can be classed as men, cattle and tools using the last term in a loose
sense so as to include not only agricultural implements, but also such
appliances as carts, sugar mills and even wells. The sufficientcy of these for
the work they have to do and any changes which have ovvurred in the cost of
labour, cattle and tools call for investigation. A continuous record of wells
in use is contained inthe first, and of population cattle and ploughs, and c,
in the month of the village circle and tahsil revenue registers. A statement of
rights in wells froms one of the documents included inthe standing settlement
record (see Chapter XIV). Additional columns may be added to the form given in
Appendix VII to show the number of yokes of oxen or buffaloes employed in
working the well, the area commanded by it and the average area of crops
watered.
386. Ploughs :- Statistics of ploughs and plough oxen do not
possess as much importance as they once did and the working out of plough jamas
is no longer necessary. The question whether the cultivated area in any village
can actually be regularly tilled is best answered now-a-days by an appeal to
the crop returns. But the relation of the number of ploughs to the cultivated
area should not be overlooked; and where a marked deficiency is discovered. It
is well to ascertain whether the cultivation is scamped, or whether its
maintenance depends on non-resident tenants. In either case account has to be
taken of a source of weakness.
387. Wells :- The depth from which well water has to be drawn, the character of the
water-bearing stratum, the sweetness of brackishness of the water, the cost of
constructing wells and providing and renewing well gear, the extent to which
irrigation is assisted by rain fall or river floods, the sufficiency of the
supply of well bullocks, the period during which wells can be or are worked
wihtout intermission, their irrigating capacity as shown by the average area of
crops which the water are all matters for enquiry. The water-leyel sometimes
changes with curious rapidity, and after 35 feet have been passed every fall of
a few feet involves either a large diminution in the irrigating capacity of the
wells, or a marked increase in the cost of working them. It is a good plan to
have two maps and to colour the villages in the one according to the average
depth of the water-elvel in the wells, and in the other according to their
average irrigating capcity, as shown by comparing the number of wells with
acrease of chahi crops. If in any estate the later is very low as compared with
other estates having th same water-level, the reason will have to be sought in
the fact that the wells are in bad orders, or insufficiently yoked, or perhaps
in the character of the landowners. Our information about the number of years
that wells in different parts of country are likely to remain fit for use is
very slight. Settlement Officers should in their assessment reports not only
state the total number of wells in use at the former and present settlements,
but also.
(a) the number of wells in use at the
beginning of the expiring settlement which have fallen out of use, and
(b) the number of wells sunk during the term
of the expiring settlement and still in use.
388. Plough and well cattle :- The equality and cost of the cattle employed for
ploughing or on the wells their liability to disease and the period during
which they continue fit for work are important matters. Where the rainfall is
at all scanty, the labour of men and cattle involved in well cultivation is
incessant, and the ncessity of replacing bullocks at short intervals is a great
burden on the landowners. The cost of oxen has undoubtedly risen greatly but so
has the price of farm produce. In considering whether the farmer is worse off
in this respect than he was formerly the question is whether the price of the
cattle be has to buy has risen in a greater degree than that of the crops which
he has to sell or in other words has a most important item in the cost of
production grown more rapidly than the money value of the produce.
389. Human instrument of production :- The human instruments of production, owners,
tenants and laborers next demand attention. The field of enquiry here is wide
embracing as it does everything that effects the economic value of the labour
of these three classes as applied to the land. The chief matters for
consideration are noticed in the following paragraphs.
390. Labourers and village menials :- The extent to which hired labour is empoyed its
cost and any forms of agricultural partnership which exist should be noticed.
The strength or weakness of the tie which binds together the landowners and the
village artisans and menials and the degree in which the former depend on the
latter for assistance in cultivating the soil, should not be overlooked. It has
been suggested that the gradual substitution of contract for status, and
completion for custom, in the relations of these tow classes has involved a
large increase in the cost of production to landlords.
391. Tenants :- There are parts of the province where the tenants
are masters of the struction, where they throw up cultivation with a light hear
in one village being sure of a welcome elsewhere ; there are other parts where
they will accept very hard terms rather than give up their holdings. These
differences may be very imperfectly reflected in the rent statistics, but they
cannot be neglected in actual assessment.
392. Indian rural society not homogenous :- One of the most striking features of Indian rural
society is its extreme want to uniformity. Differences of race and inherited
disposition as wide as those which sever the Celt from the Saxon are found in
neighbouring villages, or even in two sub-divisions of a single estate. These
are complicated by the influences brought to bear on character by rival forms
of religion the lines of division in which often cross those which separate
tribe form tribe. As a husbandman tilling hisown fields or as a landlord dealing
with tenants and dependents an average Jat is very unlike an average Rajput,
and differences less in degree, but still important often exist between Hindu
Jats and Muhammadam, Jats or Hindu Rajputs and Muhamandan Rajputs. These two
tribes are referred to because of their numerical importance, and not because
they always and everywhere represent the extremes of agricultural efficiency
and inefficiency.
393. Tribal composition of village population :-
The tribal composition of the
rural population as a whole can be gathered from the ninth, and that of the
part of it which consists of landowners from the sixth, of the village
assessment circle and tahsil revenue registers. If these matters are not set
out in sufficient detail for an assessing officer's purposes it easy during
settlement to have all needful particulars entered for one year in the case of
each estate. In the assessment report the extent of
the possessions of each of the principal tribes and the amount of revenue which
it pays can be conveniently shown in perdentages of the whole cultivated area
and of the total assessment.
394. Ancestral habits and character :- A settlement of the land revenue which claimed
for the State the full one-fourth net assets share everywhere would involve
differential rates for the assessment of villages belonging to good and bad
agricultural tribes. But apart from this prudence forbids any attempt at an
absolute equality of treatment. Habits and customs unfavourable to good
husbandry which have grown up in the course of generations will not be changed
in a day. It is wise to fix a demand in every case high enough to discourage
solvently farming and train the people gradually to the habits of steady
industry. Undue leniency, by fostering sloth and extravagances, may ruin a
community as surely as over assessment. It increases to a harmful degree the
sums which can be borrowed on the secuirty of the land, and large credit is
baneful in the case of thriftless people engaged in the very precarious trade
of farming. But on the other hand, an assessment which hardworking Arains can
pay without difficulty may drive Rajputs to crime or force them to sell or
mortage their lands. Existing inequalities should be reduced where practicable,
but their sudden removal is impossible. There may be here and there
incorrigible communities, or even in tribes, which sooner or later must lost
their ownership of the soil. But even in their case it is better for the State
that extinction of ancient rights should be a gradual process mainfestly the
outcome not of a harsh revenue administration, but of the ill-deserts of the
right holders.
395. Incidence of rural population on cultivated
area :- There have been seven
general enumerations of the people of the Punjab
in 1854,1868, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 and 1921. In calculating the incidence of
the population on the cultivated area, it is well to exclude the people living
in towns. Any clutivated lands belonging to the towns can also be deducted if
they are usually tilled by resident cultivators. It is worth while to notice
the incidence on the average-area of crops as well as on the cultivated area.
Until the rural population has reached the number that can be profitably
employed on the cultivation of the soil and on the trades subsidiary of agriculture
such as those of the village blacksmith or grain dealer, its steady growth is a
healthy sign. But when that limit has been attained and all the land worht
cultivating has been brought under the plough, any further increase is an evil
unless improved means or methods of production can be introduced. a Settlement
Officer may get a rough notion of the population that can be economically
occupied in farming in any particular tract by imagining an agircultural
partnership formed by say, four families consisting of twenty persons, young
and old and considering what amount of land fully employ the energies of the
working members of the association and support them and the other members
dependent upon them. The partnership should be representative of the chief
classes living of the land; and should consist in the average proportions of
persons too young or too old to work women and children taking only a minor
share in form labur, and adult males. The last who may be described as the
working partners, will fall into three classes some contributing only the
labour of their hands others bringing oxen as well into the common stock and
others supplying land and cattle in addition to their own labour. The share of
these classes in the produce will of course be very different. suppose the calculation shows that
members of an association of twenty persons can till 18 acres of land
distributed into irrigated and unirrigated in the proportions usual in the
tract and crops the raise are sufficient to support all the members of the
partnership and to pay land revenue and cesses, it may be concluded that a
population of 576 to the square mile of cultivation would not be excessive.
Some addition would have to be mde to this figure on account of persons in
trades which supply the every day wants of the agricultural population.
396. Size of holdings :- Further light is thrown on the pressure of the
population on the soil by the figures in the sixth of the statements contained
in the village and assessment circle revenue registers, which show the number
of hildings and owners, the total area and the cultivated area. It is however,
more important to know the normal amount of land owned by each household than
the size of a normal holdins or the number of acres usually possessed by
individual owners.2 It is, therefore worthwhile to inquire at
village inspections how far these three things agree. Some joint holdings will
be found the shareholders in which are heads of different families, and a
certain number of the proprietors will be children. But on the other hand an
old man with married sons continues till his death to be recorded as owner of
the joint family property. It will probably be found that there is no great
difference between the number of holdings and the number of owners. As time
goes on the tendency to divide joint holdings grows, and it is strongest in the
case of the most industrious tribes this is a point to be remembered in
comparing the average size of holdings at two settlements if the first was made
before the present plan of recording the number of owners as well as the number
of holdings was introduced.
397. Statistics must be examined village by
village :- No safe conclusions
can be reached by deducting general averages from the figures referred to above.
If a Settlement Officer wishes to obtain a clear understanding of the existence
or extent or overpopulation, he must be willing to study the question village
by village during his inspections I will soon become apparent that on order to
get true ideas on the subject some holdings must be altogether excluded and
other adjustments must be made. Thus the general average for an estate may be
greatly affected by the presence of a few very big holdings. Or the holdings
may be large, but the land included in them may be mostly in the hands of
occupancy tenants paying low cash rents which leave only a trifling margin of
profit to the landlords after the revenue and cesses have been paid. On the
other hand proprietors with small holdings may own land elsewhere, or have
occupancy rights in there fields or they may eke their resources by cultivating
as tenants-at-will. When the examined the subject village by village, a
Settlement Officer can say with some confidence what figures must be elimated
from the circle totals before they can be accpted as evidence that normal
holdings have or have not sunk below the level compatiable with the prosperity
of the great body of peasant owners.
398. Exclusion of certain classes of holdings :-
All holdings consisting of an
entire estate may be stuck out without heistation. How far it is wise to go in
excluding other very large holdings must depend on local circumstances.
Holdings which have been bought or are held in usufructuary mortgage by
money-lenders may properly be cut out and also small plots which the
land-owners have given to religious persons and village servants. Wells and
threshing floors which are the joint property of several shareholders, whose
cultivated lands are held in separate ownership, should not be treated as
independent holdings for the present purpose, though they appear as such in the
jamabandi. The area of the village common land must be included. After all
these adjustments have been made the area of the remaining holdings may be
reduced by the amount of land held by occupancy tenants paying low cash rents.
399. Tenant's holdings :- When calculating the size of the holdings of
occupancy tenants and tenants-at-will, itis good plan to show separately the
holdings of tenants undereach class who are also landowners. In this way it is
possible to get a better idea of the condition under which ordinary tenants
live and of the extent to which landowners, whose holdings are too small too
provide a comfortable livelihood for their families, can find additional means
of support.
400. Effect of overpopulation on assessment :- The fact that the people of any tract by
multiplying too fast have condemned themselves to a low standard of living and
the constant pressure of debt is no reason for reducing an assessment. Any
relieft given in this way would be small and would probably soon the swallowed
up by a further increase of numbers. Nor, where the existing assessment has
become much below the one-fourth assets standard. Can overpopulation fairly be
put forward as an argument against a moderate increase, which will not make
individual landowners much worse off than they were before and may check to
some extent theh tendencies from which the evil has sprung. But a practical man
will see that the cannot treat a congested tract exactly like one more happily
situated, and that he will have to forego in the one part of the increase which
he would take without misgiving in the other. He will also remember that the
same cause which depresses the condition of the land-owners has a tendency to
force up rents and make the one-fourth assets standard very sever.
401. Decline of population :- The decline of rural population in any part of
the country and its failure to maintain cultivation at its old level are
commonly traceable to causes which a settlement officer cannot remove or
control. All the can do is to adjust the amount of the assessment and adapt its
form to existing circumstances, to point out the causes of decay and suggest
any remedial measure which seem feasible. A bad climate is generallly the root
of the ischief in these cases, and the effect of climate on the health and
energy of the people is a point which no assessing officer can afford to
neglect.
402. Extensive transfers a sign of embarrassment
:- The sources from which
information as to the extent of sales and mortgages can be drawn have been
described, but the bearing of alienations on assessment has still to be
considered. Broadly speaking, a large amount of land transfer, especially when
the purchasers and mortgagees are money-lenders is a sign of embarrassment
among the landowing classes, and the rapid growth of alienations in any tracts
is an unhealthy symptom.
403. Subject to be examined village by village
:- But it beloves a settlement
officer to be on his guard against exaggeration. His daily work makes him
appreciate keenely the difficulties with which small farmers have to contend
his ears are besieged with interested statements on the subject and it is not
wounderful if sympathy should sometimes weigh down the scale unduly in the
direction of pessimism. Sound conclusion as to the real extent and causes of
embarrassment can only be reached by studying the figures not only in the mass,
but in detail, village by village with the list of sales and existing mortgage
before him, an officer inspecting an estate should find it comparatively easy
to trace the causes from which the transfers have sprung. Indeed an intelligent
Indian subordinate can do much of this work for him.
404. A considerable amount of transfer not a
sign of general embarrassment :- A
small proportion of the sales may be found to be fictitious. For example, a
gift to a favoured relation may be clothed in this garb to defeat the claims of
the legal hairs. A considerable amount of mortgage will always exist where land
is held on a moderate assessment by bodies of peasant proprietors with free
right to transfer. A community may be in a healthy state as
a whole, though it includes a number of foolish people to whom credit is a
share, and unfortunate people who have fallen into debt. Farming is a very
risky trade, and the most prudent peasant owner may have fallen into debt.
Farming is a very risky trade, and the most prudent peasant owner may have
sudden emergencies to meet and beunable to borrow without making a temporary
alienation. Some mortgeages have no connection with poverty. Men who take
service away from their homes often mortgage their holdings rather than leave
them in the hands of unscrupulous relations or tenants, and occasionally
transfers are made merely to raise money for investment in land elsewhere But
it would be idle to deny that the bulk of the mortgages effected spring from
the pressure of debt, and that in the case of very many of them redemption is
hopeless. A large number of sales to strangers is usually a worse symptom than
frequent mortgages. But it has been noticed that Rajput communities and other
proud tribes will cling to the name of owner long after the substance has
departed and the land is pledged for a sum that can never be rapid. It may be
found when the figures are analyzed that the general effect it heightened by an
excessive amount of transfer in particular estates or localities or in the
villages belonging to a particular tribe.
405. Collateral mortgages and unsecured debt :- It is not always safe to assume that the absence
of sales and unsufructuary mortgages means freedom from debt. Where the soil is
rich and the harvests secure, such an inference may be safely drawn. But there
are tracts where the money lender is slow to undertake the risks involved in a
usufructualy mortgage by which he would become responsible for the payment of
the land revenue. He looks to the debtor's cattle or crops for repayment, and
poverty stricken landowners are found whose fields are subject to no legal
burden, but who hand over regularly the bulk of their crops to the village
banker, and live on what he will advance to them until the next harvest.
Statistics of sales and usufructuary mortgages should therefore be supplemented
by the collection of information as to collateral mortgages and the amount of
unsecured debt. In heavily mortgaged tracts the extent of embarrassment is only
disclosed when the floating debt from which fresh transfers must arise has been
taken into account.
406. Effect of general indebtendness on
assessment :- When a settlement
officer has got a clear idea of the extent and causes of indebtedness, he has
to ask himself whether it indicates any general lacks of prosperity, or is
merely the outcome of individual folly or misfortune, If the community as a
whole is in a depressed condition, he must consider whether there is anything
in the pitch or form of the existing assessment or in the system under which it
has been collected which has produced or aggravated the evil. If he is
convinced that the assessment is in fault, he must lower its amount or change
its form. But where he finds that money is freely lent on the security of the
land, he will be slow to assume, that an estate is over assessed. If the method
of the collection has been bad, it is his dety to point out the errors that
have occurred, so that they may be avoided in future. Where debt is in no wise
dur to overassessment, it may still have to be considered as an obstacle in the
way of taking the full enhancement that might otherwise be claimed. The policy
dictated by prodence and humanity in such a case is substantially the same as
that explained in discussing the bearing on assessment of two evils from which
debt often springs, hereditary want to thrift and overpopulation.
407. Differential assessment of alienated lands
:- In the foregoing paragraphs
cases have been considered in which the character or the poverty of the
proprietors implels a setdement officer to fix the demand below the amount due
under the one-forth net assets rate. It is a drawback of our village system of
assessment that it makes it difficult to discriminate between thestruggling
peasant owner and the well-to-do landlord when they are found, as often
happens, in the same estate. The free right of transfer rich proprietors for
many years enjoyed, has greatly affected the constitution of many village
communities by inroducing into them as owners and mortgagees persons who are
aliens to the original brotherhood, and often non-resident money-lenders. It is
sometimes hard to decide whether the demand should be fixed mainly with
reference to the circumstances of the majority to the proprietors who represent
the old landowing stock, but have lost their hold on a considerable part of the
land, or with reference to those of a few well-to-do transferences. These
difficulties and the loss to the revenue which the present system entails have
led to suggestions from time to time for an assessment frankly differential in
its character. One form of differential assessment suggested was to fix for
each an assessmentsas near to half net assets as possible, and to distribute
this assessment over the holdings, granting freely to members of the original
proprietary body and to true agruculturists special remission of part of the
full revenue demand. The form of the assessment would thus become very similar
to that in force in some villages on the North-West frontier where deductions
are allowed to the landowners as "border remissions." It is urged
that, when it is deemed prudent to pitch the demand below the standard out of
regard for the difficulties of the old proprietary body, there is no reason why
further loss should we incurred by granting the same indulgence to transferees.
An object which bulked largely in the eyes of most advocates of differential
assessment was the check on alienation to money-lenders which it has been
supposed they would exercise. Accordingly the scheme usually put forward
confined the imposition of the full assessment to lands alienated by sale or
usufructuary mortgage to persons of this class. Some would limit the proposal
to future transfers, others would apply it at a revision of the expiring
settlement. The subject was a good deal discussed in the Punjab 35 years ago
and the arguments on both sides will be found in the papers noted below. The decision of the Lieutnant Governor of
the day sir Dennis Fit Patrick, was unfavourable to any plan of the sort. He
held that propsoal was no way unjst or unfair if it was limited to future
transfers, but he though it unfair if it was limited to future transfers, but
he thought it unwise to impose and enhanced assessment in the case of
transferees who were themselves agriculturists, as they would probably be for
the most part small farmers seeking, perhaps with borrowed money, to make some
small addition to their own petty holdings. If the scheme was adopted at all,
it should be confined to future transfers to money-lenders, but even so the
policy proposed was a very doubtful more. It might be confidently asserted that
it would not check alienation's to any degree worth mentioning, while it would
certainly lessen the amount which an embarrassed peasant could get for his
land. The medicine in sort would not mitigate the disease, while it might
produce unforeseen, and very possibly harmful, consequences. At the same time
the scheme when limited to future transfers to non-agriculturists, would vield
little additional revenue to the state. A few years later statutory
restrictions on alienation's to money-lenders were imposed, and one of the
arguments in favour of the plan of differential assessment fell to the ground.
408. How far discrimination in assessment is
just and expedient :- But
whatever may be thought of the merits of the particular proposals which Sir
Dennis Fitzpatrick rejected, few eill contend that well-to-do rent receiving
land owners, whether they be money lenders or not, are entitled to the
concessions which policy and humanity often demand in the case of struggling peasant
farmers. How far discrimination can wisely be carried may well be a subject of
dispute, but equality of assessment is under existing circumstances
impracticable. Where the holdings of the two classes are found in a single
estate. It may be necessary to treat them exactly alike, but that is a matter
of expediencey, and not of justice.
chapter xxiv
Assessment
Guides Other than the One-fourth Net Assets Estimates
409. Assessment guides other than the one-fourth
net assets estimate:- There is
only one standard of assessment, that one fourth net assets, and the question
of the determination of its money equivalent has already been discussed. But
the practical consideration of the problem of land revenue settlement has
suggested several assessment guides which may be employed to supplement and
correct the conclusion drawn from a bare examination of rents and other net
assets data. Even if the difficulties in the way of an exact calculation of the
standard assessment could be completely overcome, it is admittedly a maximum
which cannot be reached in all cases under all circumstances and at one and the
same time. One use of the assessment guides now to be considered is to aid a
settlement officer in deciding how nearly he can attain to it without too
largely or too suddenly increasing the burdens on the land.
410. One-sixth produce estimate :- In most districts of the Punjab an assessing
officer has to deal mainly with land cultivated by the owners themselves. Here
the existing value of the land on which the net assets is based cannot be
arrived at by any direct process. To meet this condition of things the sytem in
force in the Punjab is, as described in paragraph 309, to apply the two main
standards derived from cash and kind rents prevailing in areas where they are
levied to the lands held by self-cultivating proprietors. A third method, and
one which was much use for several years in the Punja is to certain the gross
produce of all lands in the tracts under assessment and to take a fixed
proportion of this produce to present the Government demand. This proportion
was fixed in 1871 at one sixth of the gross produce. The proportion was arrived
at more experience than by any theoretical process, and is admittedly only an
approximation not necessarily having any connection with the renting value of
land, or with the surplus profits of the Proprietor's. More over, in this
process there is the same difficulty of appraising the money value of the
proportion of the gross produce as in a calculation of the net assets based on
rents in kind. No one-sixth produce estimate is now necessary. But a settlement
officer should carefully note only what proportion of the net assets, but also
what share of the value total produce, his proposed assessment will absorb. By
fixing attention solely on the former, which may be based on the rents paid on
a small fraction of cultivated area, a good deal of real inequality in the
assessment of different tracts may arise.
411. Rates of past settlement applied of exisint
areas and results enhanced on account of rise in prices :- If after studying the fiscal history of the
tracts under assessment, the settlement officer is satisfied that the demand
under revision was not burdensome when first imposed, he can frame a rough
assessment guide by applying the rates of the existing settlement to the
present areas and increasing the result proportionately to the general rise in
the value of agriculture produce. The rates to be used in this calculation may
either be the rates employed by his predecessor in assessing different soil or
classes of land, or the average rates adopted by the landowners in distributing
the revenue over their holdings. In calculating what these wee only such
villages can be taken into account as adopted in a bachh differential soil
rates. The latter are valuable if there is reason to believe that the bachhh
was made with the intelligent co-operation of the proprietors, and does not
merely represent the method of distribution which the settlement official
thought the best or the least troublesome to themselves. The average rates used
is assessment ought of course for a circle as a whole to agree closely with the
sanctioned revenue rates, but in some of the older settlement there is a
considerable difference between them.
412. Cautions as to use of this guide :- There are two cautions to be given as to the use
of this guide. We conclude that an assessment was not too high of it worked
without strain in the early years of its currency. But if these were years of
specially favourable harvets and good prices or if the settlement was at once
followed by the rapid breaking up waste land, its easy working may not solely
due to its own merits. Again it is only right to take credit for the full
increase of the cultivated area if the new lands with an equal expenditure of
labour produce as much as the old, and for the whole of the rise in prices of
the cost of production has not grown quicker than the value of the produce (see
paragraph 369-388). When discreetly used, however, this guide is not without
value.
413. Assessment of similar land in neighbouring
tracts :- But besides looking
back to the rates used by his predecessor twenty or thirty years ago and trying
to adapt them to present circumstances. A settlement Officer will naturally
look around him and see what of similar lands in neighbouring tahsils or
districts. The nearer the settlement with which comprison is made in point of
time. the smaller will be the adjustments needed on the score of changed of
prices and like. It will not be difficult to learn how the settlement of an
adjoining tahsil or district is working, and with the help of the revenue
registers and assessment reports it is now easy to tabulate the leading
statistics of any town circles and to mark the chief points of resemblance and
difference. A scheme giving the heads of a pretty through comparison of the
kind required will be found in Appendix XIII. The form may be amplified in
accordance with local requirements. It may sometimes be possible to supplement
the study of the statistics by a brief visit to the tract to which they relate.
In comparing the chahi rates of two circles the average area per well to which
the rate in either case was applied should be noted, and it is well to take the
larger of these areas and see what the same acrease surrounding a well in other
circle pays at the wet and dry rates sanctioned for that circle. Thus, if the
average chahi area per well is in circle A 24 and in circle B 18 acres, and the
chahi rates are Rs. 3 and and Rs. 3-8-0. respectively, while in circle B the
dry rate is Rs. 1-8-0,24 acres surrounding a well in either circle pay Rs. 72.
414. Cautions as to use of this guide :- When comparing the statistics of two tracts, the
Settlement Officer must make sure that the chief factors, class of land,
rainfall, depth of water level, & c, are really similar and that technical
terms such as chahi "cultivated area" have in both cases been used in
exactly the same sense. It is well to remember that, while equity calls for a
rough equality of treatment between similar tracts, inequalities of long
standing, whether they spring from historical causes or from a mere differences
between the views of two Settlement Officers twenty or thirty years ago, can
only be redressed by degrees.
415. Comparison with revenue in Indian States :-
The incidence of the revenue in
any adjoining Indian State, the manner of its collection and the condition of
the land-holders should not be neglected. The wide difference between our
sysrtem of assessment and that commonly followed in the territories subject to
ruling chiefs makes it impossible to use their revenue arrangements as a guide
to be followed at all closely. What most Indian rulers take from their subjects
is still rent rather than revenue and the cultivators may be free from debt
because none will take their land as a ledge. Our sechme of settlement on the
other hand has been farmed with the express object of making land a valuable
property. But where an existing assessment is much below the standard of
one-fourth net assets, and it is found that villages beyound the border paying
far higher demand are quite as thriving as British villages, it is difficult to
urge that a substantial enhancement will produce distress in the latter.
416-419
- Omitted
420. Opinions of Indian officials and
respectable landowners :- A
Settlement Officer chouls freely discuss the assessment in all its bearings
with his most experienced Indian subordinates. Some tact may be required in
order to elicit their opinions. It is good plan to make the Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer and tahsildar record the assessment which they think each
village can suitably bear to compare their estimates with one's own. Some
importance was at one time attached to what were known as the "chaudhris
jamas" that is to the village assessments proposed by committees of
respectable landowners. To set men of this class to frame assessment for their
own villages and those of their neighbors is to put a stain on their honesty
and intelligence to which the former will possibly, and the latter certainly
prove unequal. But where they known the total increase which a settlement
Officer intends to take in a circle, their view of the proper way of
distributing it over the estates may be worthy of attention. It is hardly
needufl to point out the importance of the freest intercourse between the
Settlement Officer and all classes including assignees interested in the land
revenue. It is all right that jagirdars should feel that they have had a fair
hearing in a matter which affects them so closely. It is good plan for the
inspecting officer to enter up a rough estimate of the future revenue of the
estate immediately on his inspection.
chapter xxv
Inspection
of Estates for Assessment
421. Inspection of estates for assessment :- Settlement Officers are required to make a
special inspection of every estate before fixing its assessment. It is
necessary that this task should be practically completed in each tahsil before
its assessment report is submitted. Every officer will follow his own plan of
inspection, but the following instructions issued by the late Colonel Wace
contain some useful hints on the subject :-
"At
the beginning of his operations, the Settlement Officer should provide himself
with notebooks of a conveninet size, and assign a leaf to each estate,
arranging the villages by assessment circles topographically...... So far as is
possible, he should study the available statistics of each estate before
inspecting it, and should not ein the leaf for the estate the points in the
statistics which seem to distinguish the estate and call for test or
explanation on the spot."
"It
will also prove of much assistance if, in the inspection notebooks, or opposite
the leaf assigned to each estate, a small-scale map of the village is inserted.
Such maps can be copied from the revenue survey volumes which are usually on
the convenient scale of from 2 to 4 inches per mile; or a trace of the index
map referred to in paragraph 20 of Appendix VII can be used. A few rough notes
written across the map will impress the character of the land sof the estate
more clearly on the inspecting officer's memory than even the fullest written
description, and, as he will often have from 1,000 to 2,000 estates to inspect,
any real assistance to the memory becomes of the greatest value to him. Should
this claboration however not be practicable, it is at least advisable to keep a
small-scale map of the assessment circle, showing boundaries of estates, in the
pocket of the note-book."
422. Character of notes to be recorded :- "It is not desirable to record too
voluminous notes, but when an officer has 500 or more estates to deal with, his
memory needs at least this much aid, that the important facts relating to each
village should be carefully noted as they come under observation. An assessing
officer should also remember that accident or State necessities may at any
moment involve his removal, and that the power of his successor to fill his
place without delaying the conclusion of operations will depend very much upon
the notes made over to him.
423. Points to be noted on :- " The following heads are given in
illustration of the points which should ordinarily receive attention in these
notes, but it will be understood on the one head that it is often unnecessary
to remark on many of these points where estates are small and close together,
and on the other that there is no limit to the varying circumstances requiring
special attention in different tracts :-
"(1) Nature of crops and prevalence of the more
valuable crops and the average area under crop during the year compared with
the cultivated area of the village;
"(2) General lie of the land quality of soil
and situation of the village with regard to communications, liability to floods
and drainage;
"(3) Sources and permanency of irrigation
supply and extent of irrigated area;
"(4) Caste of the proprietary body, and how far
the cultivation is in the hands of the proprietors themselves, or of resident
or non-resident tenants with or without occupacy right;
"(5) Average size of proprietary holdings:
"(6) past fiscal history of the estate showing
the general result of previous assessments, with special reference to
reductions or suspensions hitherto found necessary;
"(7) Extent of indebtedness as shown by a rough
estimate of outstanding floating debt as well as by actual areas sold and
mortgaged ;
"(8) Increase in cultivation and extent of
culturable land still availabel for future increase;
"(9) Prevailing rests;
"(10) Lstely, it should be noted how far the
proprietors of a village depends for subsistence on their land alone' and
whether the estate yields any miscellaneous profits other than the ordinary
crops.
424. Method of inspection :- "Such notes as are above described can be made
on the occasion of any visit to an estate; and whenever an assessing officer
rides through a tract, which he should carry with him the notebook relating to
it. But besides occasional visits arising out of current duties, there should
be one inspection of each estate for assessment purposes which should be as
full and complete as possible. The assessing officer's ability both to frame
general rates for the circle and to make a fair assessment of each estates
depends largely on the manner in which he carries out this duty. At what time
this inspection work can be taken up depends partly on the progres of village
record work, but the earlier it can be begun the better, for it usually
occupies much time and is very laborious. The amount of attention and examination
each village requires depends on the character of its husbandry, tenures and
recent fiscal history. Sitting in a public place in the village or in his tents
adjacent thereto, thhe assessing officer should have the map of the estate and
patwari's registers laid out before him, and should discuss with the chief
owners freely and openly the quality of the land the character of the
assessment thereon and the facts and figures shown in these registers. He
should also, either before or after the discussion, ride over the estate,
taking some of the agriculturists with him."
425. Omitted.
426. Detailed inspection not to be begun to
early :- One of two further
remarks will not be out of place. It is a mistake to begin the inspection of
villages for assessment too early, especially where the Settlement Officer has
had little previous experience of assessment work. During the first year the
organization of his staff and the supervision of survey and record work are his
chief duties. While he is moving about his district for that purpose, he has an
excellent opportunity of acquiring that general knowledge of the people, the
agriculture and the strength or weakness of its different tahsil and circles,
which is a needful preliminary to a detailed examination of the villages.
427. Statistics to be studied before inspecting
an estate :- The statistics to
be studied before an estate is inspected will be mostly found in.
(a) The village revenue register or notebook
;
(b) The abstract village notebook;
(c) The list of rents (Appendix IX);
(d) The well statement (Appendix VIII-D);
(e) The lists of sales since settlement and
of existing mortgages (Appendix IX).
To
these may be added a few tables drawn up beforehand according to a prescribed
pattern with the object of bringing together in a striking way the principal
assessment data, including not only rents, but also the chief of the factors
referred to in the chapte on "General Considerations" (Chapter
XXIII). The sheet containing these tables with blank pages for the entry of the
settlement tahsildar's remarks on the estate is sometimes known as the misl
haisiyat or naqusha dehil.'
428. Remarks of Settlement Officer :- It was formerly the custom for the Settlement
Officer to write his assessment and notes in the revenue registers of the
villages, but it is more convenient to record them in the abstract village
notebooks, and that is now the prescribed procedure. It is well writing the notes on the
different estates to follow some definite plan and order of subjects, and to
omit details of no permanent value and having no direct bearing on the
assessment. District Officers cannot be expected to pay much attention to
diffuse notes consisting of jottings made at different times.
429. Remarks to be written up daily :- The tracin of the survey map or a copy of the
field map reduced by pentagraph should be placed in the abstract village
notebook rather than in the rough notebook aluded to in Colonel Wace's
instructions. Indeed if a Settlement Officer can write up his remarks daily in
the abstract notebook of each village which he has inspected, he will save
himself much time and trouble, and the notes actually taken on the spot need
only consist of the briefest entries in a pocket-book. A paragraph will of
course have to be added after the demand has been finally fixed showing the
grounds on which its amount was determined.
430. Use of rougl, preliminary rates :- The considerations which will-be present to a
Settlement Officer's mind in making the rough estimates of the future revenue
of each estate to which Colonel Wace referred will be many and various. But he
will find it expedient from the first to use rates of different kinds as
general guides. None of these can be salvishly followed in village assessment,
but they are needed if only to serve as a standard of comparison and ensure
some measure of equality in assessment. These rates may be rough one-fourth
assets rates, rates of the current settlement enchanced for rise of prices,
rates recently sanctioned for similar tracts elsewhere and tentative rates
which the Settlement Officer thinks likely to prove suitable to the
circumstances of the circle but which he may expect to modify as his enquires
proceed. Though the data for making net assests estimates based on batai and
cash rents may still be incomplete, it should as a rule be possible to frame
rough net assets rates. It will often be found that the net assests rates on
any particular class of land or soil, the share of the produce usually taken by
landlords being known, depends really on the valuation of two or three crops,
for example, wheat and chari. Where zabti rents are paid for one of more of
these crops, the matter becomes still simpler. It may also be easy to ascertain
roughly what is considered a fair cash rent for each class of land. It may
appear, for example, that certain rates per kanal and bigha are very generally
taken. As far as possible all the estates in a circle should be visited during
a single tour, and when the whole circle has been inspected, the Settlement
Officer should scrutize his preliminary village assessment and modify them
where necessary.
431. Great importance of village inspection :- The worth of a settlement depends mainly on the
care and judgement exercised at the is stage. Full knowledge may lead an
officer before he is ready to report his proposal for sanction to alter his
view of the amount of enhancement that should be taken or the extnet of the
relief that must be allowed. But it is hardly likely that he will change materially
his estimate of the relative revenue-paying capacities of the different
estates, and a high assessment which is properly distributed may be expected to
work better than a lower one in which the distribution over estates is
mechanical or ill-judged.
chapter xxvi
Assessment of Particular Classes of Land.
432. Some remarks on assessment of different
classes of land desirable :- In
the preceding chapters an attempt has been made to give a general description
of the means for making a just settlement of the land revenue. In the course of
the discussion some of the difficulties be setting the rating of lands watered
by wells and canals flooded by rivers and depedent solely on the rainfall have
naturally been mentioned. But it will not be out of place, even at the risk of
some repetition, to deal here in a more particular manner with the main
problems connected with the assessment of the principal classes of land.
433. Diversity of conditions under which well
irrigation is carried on:- A
stranger studying a table showing the wide range of chahi rates in the Punjab
from between five and six rupees an acre in parts of Jullundur and Hoshiarpur
and in some of the districts north of the Salt Range to a rupee or less in the
Bar tracts of the Western districts might well doubt whether any reason could
be given for such extraordinary variations. With growing knowledge he would
come to see that they could be broadly justified by the extreme diversity of
the conditions under which well irrigation is carried on in different parts of
the province. In the plains the rainfall varies roughly from 5 to 50 inches,
and wells are used for irrigation with a water-lift ranging from a few feet to
50, 60 even 70 feet. In some low-lying noisy tracts the wells
are an insurance against occasional drought, and in ordinary seasons are worked
for the maturing of a small area of specially valuable crops. Another marked
type of well cultivation is found at its best in the uplands of Jullundur and
Ludhina. Here the coarser foodgrains and the fodder crops of wheat and maize,
cotton and sugarcane. In years of average rainfall no attempt is made to spread
the water over a wide surface, from 10 to 20 acres being thought enought to
irrigate in the two harvests. Elsewhere, as in the great well tract known as
the Charkhri Mahal in Sialkot and Gujranwala, the climate conditions lead the
people to aninex to each well a far larger area in the hope that, with
favourable rains at the sowing season a great breadth of crops of moderate
value may be raised. Where the rainfall becomes really scanty, the wells have
to produce even the food for the cattle that work them. Finally, as in the
south-western districts, ells require to be supplemented by river water coming
naturally by overflow or brought through artificial channels, on to the land.
At the other end or the scale is the intensive cultivation practised on the
wells in some of the districts lying to the north of the Salt Range. There the
whole area served by a well is usually from 3 to 5 acres. This kind of
cultivation is found at its highest in some of the villages in Chach plain in
Attack. Even within the limits of a single district the conditions under which
well irrigation is carried on may vary immensely. In the hill circle of teh
Shahpur district a well has, on the average attached to it only 2 acres, but
produces annualy 4 acres of irrigated crops. In the, circle the average area
annexed to a well was, at the settlement of 1888, 54 acres, but though as many
as six yokes of oxen were employed on a fully-worked well, half the land lay
fallow every year.
434. Care requisite in assessing wells :- Such striking variations make the problem of
fairly rating well lands a difficult one, for it is impossible to lay down any
general proposition, as Mr. Princep was inclined to do, that any particular sum
per acre represents the proper difference between wet and dry rates over wide
areas, and the experience gained in one place may unless checked by a careful
study of local conditions, he positively misleading elsewhere. Nor does the
difficulty end when the character of the well irrigation in different tracts
and different circles has been clearly apprehended. Within each circle,
especially where the circles are large, the well assessments must be expected to
vary considerably. Changes of water level are sometimes very rapid; sweet and
salt wells are found not far apart; in one estate the wells may be mostly old
and weak or insufficiently supplied with oxen, in the next they may all be in
good order and fully yoked. Even inside a village the wells will be old and
new, good and bad, and the system of tillage on those near the home-stead and
those at a distance from it may be so distinct as call for separate rates. A
Settlement Offier cannot always leave the land-owners to distribute the total
well assessment over the wells in an estate; he must be ready to help them in
the task and have sufficient knowledge to detect any attempt on the part of
more powerful coparceners to put an unfair share of the burden on their weaker
brethren. He cannot hope to make a well assessment which will work smoothly
unless he will pay great attention to details. Mr Francis has told us that in
Zira" each well was seen during my inspection of the village and the area
shown in the annual paper as watered by it was verified. The depth, &c, and
any defects in the well or inferiority in the land were noted. The people were
informed what sums I proposed to put on each well." Such minutenes is
often impossible, and perhaps is not always desirable. But the remarks of the
settlement tahsildar in the well statement and a table showing the average area
of crops watered by each well should direct the attention of the Settlement
Officer to the wells which specially specially require to be looked at in his
village inspection.
435. Cost and risk of well irrigation :- The concession of an assessment at irrigated
rates for a period of years is intended to enable an owner out of the
extra profit to be derived from irrigation to compensate himself for his
capital expenditure with reasonable interest. The best proof that the treatment
accorded to wells as regard their assessment is not considered unfair by the
people is steady growth of irrigation in most suitable tracts. Assessing
officers who are dealing with parts of the country where well-sinking is
specially difficult and costly should not forget that the Commissioner has
power to extend teh ordinary period of exemption.2 But apart from
the question of the initial capital expenditure, there is always a fear that in
viewing the rich results of well irrigation we may overlook the cost at which
they are obtained and the risks involved. The lief of a peasant farmer with a
small irrigated holding is often a hard one. It has been noticed that while
wells will tide a village over ordinary seaons of scanty rainfall, a tract
dependdent on them recovers more slowly from prolonged drought than though
valuable crops like sugarcane are scarified to keep them alive. And on outbreak
of murrain may do quickly in an ordinary year effects more slowly.
436. Caution as to recorded area and rent of
chahi lands :- The need of
ascertaining the real irrigating capacity of wells by the helps of the harvest
inspection registers (paragraph 387) and the danger of accepting without
enquiry the apparent rent as the true rent of chahi land (paragraph 339) have
laready been noticed.
437. Tendency to overassess well lands :- There is little doubt that the tendency of the
early Punjab settlement was to make the assessment of well land relatively
severe. Thus, in reviewing the final settlement report of Jullundur, Sir JB.
Lyall remarked : (the lieutenant-Governor)" is disposed to hold, as he did
in the case of the Ludhiana settlement that in fixing the revenue rates finally
sanctioned, there was a tendency to put the rates on........well-irrigated land
too high as compared with the rates on unirrigated land. The difference, seems
much greater than is justified by the estimate in the assessment reports of the
relative values of the soils.....However, if this mistake was made, it may be
said to have been generally rectified by the people in distributing the demand,
as it will be seen from... the final report that they never put on chahi land
more than double what they put on unirrigated land, and often put considereably
less on it. In so doing they may have gone beyond the equities of the case, and
it is probably that the rates on unirrigated fields by their distribution are
often in excess of half then assets of such fields, but their tendency seems
preferable to our tendency to pile the revenue on to well-irrigated lands which
seems to be to some extent an unfair tax on industry and capital expended on
the land. His Honour considers that we have inherited this tendency from the
Sikhs, in whose cash assessments of villages it was painfully apparent, as the
knows from early experience in Gurdaspur and other districts. But the Sikhs,
only principal was to take as much as could be got without causing cultivation
to be abandoned. It is true, as Mr. Purser lays down in one of his assessment
reports, that teh revenue rates for a fixed demand must take into account not
only the average produce on a term of years, but also its regularity and it is
no doubt this consideration which made Mr. Purser's chahi rates which were
oftenest raised by Major Wace and Sir William Davies, though , in his Honor's
opinion Mr. Purser had himself pushed his principle quite far enough, if not
too far."
438. Elasticity in well assessments formerly
discouraged :- In a district
assessed for a long term cases of hardship may arise from the breaking down or
discuse of wells which were at work at settlement before its period has
expired. The argument against remitting the revenue on wells when they fall out
of use is that, if the State foregoes the assessment of abandoned wells and at
the same time exempts the land served by new wells from a wet assessment for
twenty years, its receipts will slowly contract till a new settlement is made,
the inducement to repair or replace a worn-out well will be weakened and the
principle, that the members of each village community are jointly responsible
for the whole sum assessed on the estate will be infringed. That principle is,
however, asserted by exercising the power of ordering a redistribution of the
revenue over holdings (Act XVII of 1887, section 56), but this remedy has been
rarely if ever, applied. For long the above argument prevailed. As late as 1895
a proposal to make such well remissions as are referred to above a common feature
of settlement policy was rejected by the Financial Commissioner, Sir Mackworth
Young, and the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Dennis Fitpatrick on the ground that to
do so "would be contrary to the principles of our system, would remove an
important incentive to thrift and industry, and, if accompanied, as it would
necessarily be, with an arrangement for at once bringing under irrigated rates
lands for which new wells were constructed during the currency of a settlement,
would... Be most distasteful to the people."
439. Mr Steedman's semi-fluctuating system of
well assessment :- But some
exceptions had already been allowed in practice. The case of upland wells in
the south-western districts was left to be peculiar. The difficulty of keeping
such wells continuously at work is great. In bad seasons there is no natural
grass, and the rainfall is always too scanty for the raising of fodder crops on
unirrigated land. The well ceases to be profitable in a season in which a very
large part of the crops has to be sacrificed simply to keep the bullocks alive.
Prolonged drought means desertion of tenants. It would be hard to make the
owners of the other wells pay the assessment of the disused well then they have
managed with difficulty to keep their own wells going. It would be especially
harsh to do so when, as so often happens in the south-western Punjab, the
well-owners are not united by any bond of common ancestry or common village
life, and joint responsibility is an incident violently engrafted on a tenure
with which it has no natural connection. To meet such cases a compromise was
adopted in Mr Steedman's settlement of the Jhang District. His plan has often
been described somewhat vaguely as "the semi- fluctuating system of well
assessment."
It
was not applied to riverain tracts. The demand on each well in an upland circle
was a fixed sum, but is was provided that it should only be collected when the
well was worked. New wells were assessed at lump sums fixed beforehand by the
Settlement Officer for each estate, and intended to be mor lenient that the
assessment he had imposed on existing wells.The demand was collected after the
well had been in use for three years.2 The plan proved well suited
to local conditions and it was afterwards extended to parts of the Shahpur,
Multan, Mainwali, Muzaffargrah and Gujaranwala Districts3 in the
latest developments of the system the tendency has been to lengthen the period
during which new wells are exempted from assessment. Rules of assessment
similar in character, though more limited in their scope were sanctioned for
parts of Lahore, Mountgomary Jhelum and Dera Ghazi Khan at the settlement of
these districts between 1888 and 1898. In the Karnal-Ambala Settlement (1888-89)
the remission in the case of any well falling permanently out of use of the
abiana or jump water advantage revenue which had been imposed on wells was
sanctioned.2
440. Imposition of a lump sum as a abiana how
far permissible :- Mr. Prinsep's
abiana system was disallowed by Government (Paragraph 64). Provided, however,
that the chahi assessment is determined in the same way and fixed for the same
term as that of unirrigated land, it may be found of advantage in connection
with the bachh, and more especially where any remissions of well revenue during
the term of settlement are contemplated; to treat the difference between the
assessment of the land served by a well at wet and dry rates as a separate item
represented by a lump sum.3 In parts of the country where rain crops
are almost unknown this abiana may be the whole assesment of the wells lands.
441. Existing rules regarding well remissions :-
The decision referred to at the
close of paragraph 438 reconsidered in 1904, and the following rules, which
apply to all tracts for which special local rules have not or may not hereafter
be sanctioned, were issued.4 They have been incorporated in the new
rules framed under section 60 of the Land Revenue Act and made applicable to
tube-wells also (see Appendix I-E):-
1. The
Deputy Commissioner shall remit so much of the assessment on the land irrigated
from a masonry well as is based on the profits or irrigation from such well.
(a) When the wells cease to be fit for use;
(b) When irrigation from the wells is
superseded by canal irrigation, and canal advantage revenue or owner's rate has
been imposed.
II. The
Deputy Commissioner may grant a similar remission if the well, though still fit
for use, has been out for four harvests, provided that no remission shall be
given if the discuse of the well.
(a) occurs in the ordinary course of
husbandry, the well being intended for use merely in seasons of drought;
(b) is due to the introduction of canal
irrigation, and canal advantage revenue or owner's rate has been imposed.
Note :-
The revenue based on the profits
of irrigation from the well shall ordinarily be assumed to be as follows :-
(i) where a lump sum has been imposed at
the distribution of assessment on the well in addition to a non-well rate- such
lump sum;
(ii) where a lump sum, inclusive of a
non-well rate, has been imposed at the distribution of assessment - such lump
sum after deducting the equivalent of the non-well rate;
(iii) where the distribution of the assessment
has been by soil rates- the difference between the actual assessment of the
area irrigated and the amount which would have been assessed on the area of it
had not bee irrigated.
III. Cases
may occur which will not be sufficiently met by the remission of only so much
of the assessment as is based upon the profits of irrigation from the well.
Such cases should be referred through the Commissioner for the orders of the
FInancial Commissioner.
IV. In
deciding whether to use the discertain given to him by rule II, the Deputy
Commissioner shall consider whether the discuse of the well is due to some
cause beyound the control of the land-owner, such as the spread of salts in the
soil, the loss of tenants or cattle and extreme difficulty in replacing them.
V. Except
with the sanction of the Financial Commissioner, no remissions shall be given
under these rules unless the distribution of the assessment of the estate has
been made in one or other of the ways described in the note to rule II.
VI. When
a remission is granted it shall take effect from such harvest as the Deputy
Commissioner may determine.
VII. If
a new well is made to irrigate the land attached to a well in respect of which
remission has been granted under these rules, or if such well is repaired, the
re-imposition of the assessment will ordnarily be effected in accordance with
the rules for the grant of certificates of exemption contained in paragraph 505
to 508 of this Manual.
VIII. Where
a well for which a remission has been given is again brought into use, and no
certificate of exemption is granted, as for instance, on the return of tenants
or by reason of replenishment of cattle, the Deputy Commissioner shall
re-impose the whole of that portion of the assessment which was remitted with
effect from such harvest as he may determine.
If
in any case the Deputy Commissioner thinks the whle should be re-imposed, he
should report the case for the order of the Commissioner.
IX. These
rules may be applied, so far as they are applicable, to the grant of remissions
in the case of other irrigation works constructed at private expense, such as
canals water-courses, dams, embankments, reservoirs and masonry jhalars. They
may also be applied to wells which, though only partially lined with stone or
brick, are expensive to make and may ordinarily be expected to last for some
years.
Change
in the fixed land revenue roll necessitated by the remissions or re-imposition
of well assessments either under these general rules or under analogous special
local rules, as approved, e.g., for parts of Montgomery, Dera Ghazi Khan and
Muzaffargarh, should be reported once a year on Ist September for orders in the
form of comparative demand statement prescribed by paragraph 9 of Standing
Order No. 31.
It
is obligatory to remit the wet assessment on the masonry well when it ceases to
be fit for use from any cause whatever, and also when irrigation from a well
becomes superseded by canal irrigation and a nahri assessment in one form
another has been imposed. In other cases of wells falling out of use discretion
is left to the Deputy Commissioner, but the intention is that the shall
ordinarily exercise that discretion and on cases falling under Rule II coming
to his notice grant the remission allowed by that rule. In riverain tracts,
however, caution must be exercised in applying rule II, for there a well may be
unused for years, though fit for use, because irrigation is, owing to the
character of the seasons, superfluous.
Where
a discretion has been left to the district officer, it is fair that that
ordinary action should be taken only on an application made by an owner of a
discused well, though there is no objection to the Deputy Commissioner's acting
on his own motion and initiating enquiry in special cases. But when a well has
obviously become quite unfit for use, the reduction of the assessment is on a
part with the remission of land revenue for calamity of season or in
consequence or river action. Such cases should be reported to the Deputy
Commissioner by the subordinate revenue staff as part of their ordinary duties.
Before any remission is granted under rule I, the well should be inspected and
reported on by the field kanungo and either the naib-tahsildar or the
tahsildar. The Deputy Commissioner and the Revenue Assistant should make a
point when no tour of verifying these reports as far as possible.
It
will be noticed that no remission can be granted under these rules, except with
the Financial Commissioner's sanction, if the distribution of the assessment
has been made by an all-round rate on the cultivated area without regard to
soil distinctions. If the majority of the land-owners in an estate feel
aggrieved by the refusal to grant a remission in such a case, it is open to
them to ask the Deputy Commissioner to exercise the power of revising the
distribution of revenue over holdings given by section 56 (2) of the Land
Revenue Act.
442. Chahi-Sailab rates :- Where the mixing of watering from wells with
flooding is common, the spring crops are usually sown on lands soaked with
flood water and matured by well water, while the autumn harvest depends mainly
on the river but may require a final watering from the wells after the floods
subside. It may be necessary to have higher rates for lands which possess a
double source of moisture than for those depends solely on wells. But sometimes
the inferiority of the lands at a distance from the river as records
water-supply may be compensated by better soil and greater facilities for
manuring.
443. Classification of canals :- The methods of land revenue assessment of
canal-in-rigated land adopted at different times have been noticed in the
historical part of this Manual (paragraph 51, 59 to 62, 72, 85 and 86-B). A
brief summary of the systems at present in force may be usefully given here.
The primary classification of the canals of the province is into the perennial
and inundation canals. The former have in the Punjab in the case of all the
larger works been made at the expense of the State. Inundation canals are fed
by the rise of the rivers during the summer rains and cease to flow when the
rivers shrink to their cold-weather level. Some of them have been constructed
or acquired by Government others are still owned and managed by private
persons. In a third class, which includes most of the inundation canals of the
province, the irrigators and Government are jointly interested, though it would
be impossible to state in any definite way the degee of interest possessed by
each of the two parties in any group of these canals, or even in any particular
work. Sir James Lyall has given a good account of the origin of the numberous canals
of this class which were in existence at annexation.
"Irrigation
works of the nature of canals or water-courses from rivers or streams were
almost always constructed by the joint action of the ruler or his
representative or assignee and or the zamindars.... Most of the work was done
by the unpaid labour of the zamindars and their dependents but the ruler
supplied direction and driving powers and often supplied some paid labour, or
fed the gangs of unpaid labourers while at work. Irrigation works constructed
in this way may.... be said to have been the joint property of the State and
the irrigators, and their maintenance continued to be in much the same
proportion as their consrtruction the joint concern of the State and the
irrigators, the actual labour being ordinarily supplied by the irrigators, the
State only assisting by direction and enforcement of united action, and
occasionally expending money on critical occasions. In some cases, however, the
State regularly shared the cost of maintenance with the irrigators. The State
left the irrigators to manage the maintenance of works and distribution of
water as much as possible for themselves, but it interfered as often and as
much as it thought necessary, and in some cases had to take almost the entire management
into its own hands. This interference and management were genereally exercised
through the kardars and village revenue officials as part of the ordinary
revenue administration of the country, but in many cases special canal
officials of petty gradas were appointed and paid by a special cess imposed on
the irrigators" (selections from the Reords of the
Financial Commissioner's Office, New Series. No.8 page 510).
The
following is a rought, but convenient, classification of Punjab canals from the
point of view of an assessing officer :-
A. Perennial State canals.
B. Other canals, mostly inundation, but
including some small canals of perennial flow is submontane tracts.
(1) State
(2) Shared
(3) Private including canals owned by local
bodies, such as the District Board.
444. Water-rates or occupier's rates :- The State as a canal owner is clearly entitled to
recover the price of the water it supplies from the person who uses it. The
relations of the two parties do not differ essentially from those of any other
buyer and seller. But in fixing the price it will charge, the Government will
naturally consider may things with which the managers of a water company
seeking to sell the commodity in which they dealt to the best advantage would
have no concern. The private owner of a canal has also a right to take from the
irrigators a price for the water. The price of canal water is usually levied by
an acreage rate known generally as "water-rate" or "occupier's
rate". The latter is the term employed to describe the charge in The
Northern India Canal and Drainage Act (VIII of 1873). On State canals as a rule
differential crop rates are imposed, one factor of determining the pitch of the
rate being the amount of water ordinarily required to ripen the particular
crop; another is the additional value of the outturn of the crop per acre dur
to irrigation which accrues to a farmer cultivating his own lands after
deducting the increased cost of production. This can best be ascertained by
comparing the rents per acre paid by tenants-at-will in the same neighbourhood
for nahri and barani lands and deducting from the sum by which the rent of the
latter exceeds that of the former the difference between the land revenue at
nahri and barani rates. In the case of the class of canals described as
"shared" the State is not entitled to levy an occupier's rate
equivalent to the full price of the water supplied. But it has a right to
recover in some form or another interest on any capital expenditure it may have
incurred on improvements and also the cost of management and of annual
clearances so far as these are not effected by the irrigators themselves.
445. Canal-advantage rate, owner's rate and
nahri parta :- The State, as
supreme landlord, as a right to a share of any increase of rent due to the
introduction of canal irrigation by its own agency or by that of private
individuals. As a canal-owner it might have pitched the occupier's rate so high
as to prevent any such rise of rent but is has not been the policy of Government
to exclude land-owners from participation in the profits arising from
improvements effects at its expense. It is reasonable that in the case of
canals owned by private individuals the State should have power to limit the
amount that may be levied as water-rate, otherwise no margin of profit might be
left on which to base a claim to assess the land in its irrigated aspect. The enhanced assessment claimable on
account of the introduction of canal irrigation may be determined in two ways.
The land may simply be rated as irrigated, no attempt being made to
discriminate the portion of the assessment which is due to irrigation. This is
the method by which the canals watered by perennial canals were assessed in our
earlier settlements (paragraph 51), and the assessment sof lands dependent on
some of the inundation canals are still of this description. Mr. Prinsep
initiated the plan of divinding the assessment into two parts, the first
repreenting the revenue claimable from the land in its unirrigated aspect, and
the second that arising from the land owner's increased profits due to
irrigation. The latter is described as "water-advantage revenue." or
canal advantage revenue (vernacular khush haisiyati). This revenue Mr Prinsep
took by means of a waster-advantage rate levied on the area irrigated at each
harvest (paragraph 59 to 62). The owner's rate defined in paragraph 37-39. Act
VIII of 1873 (The Northen India Canal and Drainage Act) was the water-advantage
rate another name (paragraph 72). The owner's rate is now no longer imposed in
the Punjab, its place having been taken on the Agra and Western Jamna Canals by
a fixed canal-advantage revenue assessed on the Agra and Western Jamna Canals
by a fixed canal-advantage revenue assessed on the area classed as nahri, i.e.,
the area commanded. The latter system was introduced on the Upper Bari Doab
Canal in the districts of Gurdaspur. Amritsar and Lahore when between 1887 and
1892 they came under settlement after the great extension of canal irrigation
which had occurred in the previous 20 years.
446. Assessment of lands watered by perennial
State canals :- There are thus
now only two systems of assessment of land revenue on lands watered by
perennial canals. The first is the fixed canal-advantage rate on area commanded
which has been imposed on the older canals-the Western Jumna, Agra, Sirhind and
Upper Bari Doab-and which is based on the cash rent paid on such land. The
difference between that rate and the corresponding rate for unirrigated land is
called the nahri parta, and is used for calculating during the settlements now
current (1) the new revenue payable on land made irrigable by canal extensions
since settlement, and (2) the revenue to be remitted on land from which canal
irrigation has been withdrawn, by remodeling operations or otherwise, since
settlement. The second is the purely fluctuating assessment levied on the area
sown on the newer canals, viz. The Lower Chenab and Lower Jehlum Canals and the
canals of the Triple Project. For those the fluctuating system is more suitable
for two reasons : (1) the assessable value of the land without irrigation is
little or nothing, and (ii) it is necessary on new canals that the engineers
should have a free hand in varying the distribution of water with extensions and
improvements and the simplest method of allowing for variations in distribution
is to have an entirely fluctuating assessment. It is hoped that in time, when
conditions of irrigation have become established, the fixed assessment system
in force on the older canals will be extended to the newer one also.
447. Provisions to secure elasticity in case of
nahri parta :- As observed
above, it may be necessary to remit the nahri parta if irrigation is
permanently cut off by the action for the Canal Department, and on the other
hand., some provisions have been made for the assessment of lands irrigated for
the first time during the currency of a settlement. These differ in different
districts and need not be further noticed here. They may be held to be infractions
of the principle of leaving to the landowners the benefit of all improvement
and extensions of cultivation made during the term of settlement, but the
improvements and extensions are in this case far more due to the expenditure of
money by the State than to the efforts of the proprietors.
448. Assessment of lands irrigated from Stated
inundation canals :- Inundation
canals owned by the State stand on exactly the same footing as the perennial
canals. Thus, in the case of the Government canals of the Shahpur District,
occupier's or water rates are levied as the price of water and a fluctuating
owner's water advantage rate as land revenue. The same system prevails on the
Sutlej canals in Montgomery and Lahor, which looking to their past history, may
be classed as State canals.
449. Assessment of lands irrigated from
inundation canals not owned by the State :- No occuiper's rate is chargeable by the State for crops watered from
private canals, but in some instances, as for example, in Shahpur and in the case
of Michni Dilzaak Canal in Peshwar owned by the District Board a royalty has
been imposed on canal owners by Government as "lord of the waters of the
great rivers". This is quite distinct form the canal land revenue
assessment which in Shahpur is taken in the form of a fluctuating water
advantage rate. The landowner who pays the revenue may or may not be the same
person as the canal owner who pays the royalty. For the silt clearances of the canals of
Kangra, Hazzara, Sialkot, Peshwar, Kohat, Bannu and
Ferozepur the irrigators are primarily responsible and the same sytem was
formerly in force in Multan
and Muzzafargarh. The workms is carried out under the cheer2 or
tinga system, the essence of which is that every irrigator is bound to furnish
his share of labour, or in default to pay a fine known in some districts as
nagha. In the Bannu District a moderate wage is paid to the persons who attend
to perform customary labour. In Ferozpore the irrigators are paying a
consolidated rate per ghumanon fixed by the Jalsa Bachh from time to time. In
some cases a small cess is also levied to pay for a controlling and clerical
establishment in the Bannu District contribution equal in amount to the
irrigation cess is made by the Government. Where the canals are manged by
Government, the fine or zari-I-nagha, fund is mainly spend on the provision of
hired labour for silt clearance. The amount of interference exercised by the
State varies immensely. The extremes are represented on the hand in the canals
of the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan District, where thework being light the help
the authorities is rarely invoked, and the canals are practically private
irrigation works and on the other by those of Multan and Muzzafargrah, which
are managed by officrs of the Irrigation DEpartment should chher labour at any
time be abolished, it will become necessary to impose a working expenses rate,
which in practice will not be distinguishable from a light occupler's rate. Such a rate was introduce at the
settlements of Multan
and Muzaffargarh in 1900 and 1901. In some of the above mentioned districts the
canal and revenue demand has taken the from of a Fixed nahri assessment. This
is suitable whenever the supply of water, a fluctuating water advantage rate
was imposed. Canal lands in Multan
with a few exceptions, now pay a purely fluctuating assessment. In Muzzafargarh
the demand is in come tracts fixed and in some fluctuating. In Dera Gahzi Khan
the chher system has ever been in force under British rule. In the current
settlement an occupier's rate oepn to revision after five years has been lived
and the land revenue demand has taken the shape of a light fixed assessment
plus a fluctuating acreage rate on the area irrigated in each year.
450. Rights of assignees of owner's rate and
nahri parta :- When the water
advantage rate was first introduced in Mr. Principle's settlement of the
district's watered by the Upper Bari Doab Canal (paragraphs 61 and 62), a
question arose as to the right of jagirdars to enjoy the income derived from it
in respect of the land whose revenue had been assigned to them. A few years
later the mater was further discussed in connection with Mr. Principle's canal
assessment in Montgomery and the newly
introduced owner's rate on the Western
Jumna Canal.
Finally, in 1882 the rules contained in Appendix XXIII were published with the
approval of the Government of India. The principles underlying these rules are
:-
(a) that new assignments of lands revenue
shall convey no title to own'ers rate or water advantage rate; and
(b) that in the case of old grants the rate
shall only go to the assignee if the land, in respect of which itis levied, was
irrigated when the assignment was made or at the first regular settlement, and
the assignee has hitherto enjoyed from it an irrigated revenue either in the
form of owner's rate or a fixed nahri or chahi assessment.
The
claims of jagirdars of nahri parta have been treated in the same way In 1905 difficulties arose in regard to
the apportionment of the share of assignees in the case of arrears which have
been brought under cultivation by means of State canals, and which, owing to
the absence of rain and the depth of the sub-oil water, could hardly hve been
cultivated by any other means. The Government of India rules2 that,
where there is an owner's rate or nahri parta or canal advantage rate,
Government should appropriate the equivalent of the rate, leaving the rest of
the revenue (or share of the revenue) to the assignee. Whether there is no such
standard, the local Government must determine how to secure from the assignees
such payments on account of the extension of canal irrigation to their estates
as would fairly represent an owner's rate if such existed. Whether this can
best the done by assuming a dry rate for all lands, irrigated or not was left
to the Local Government to decide.
On
the Upper Chenab Canal,
where the assessment on nahri is fluctuating and on their soils either fixed or
fluctuating, the decision of the local Government3 allowed the
Jagirdar.
(1) all fixed assessments which he enjoys at
present, and in addition;
(2) that total amount of all fluctuating
assessments on chahi and barani crops in Jagir estates; and
(3)
(3)
the amount obtained by applying to the area of nahri crops in each such jagir
estates under fluctuating assessment the barani crop rate sanctioned for the
estates the difference between the amount and the total fluctuating assessment
of the nahri crop at the nahri rate sanctioned for the estates being treated
and credited to Government.
450-A. Assessment of revenue redeemed lands :- It has been decided by Government that lands of
which the land revenue has been redeemed, or which have been acquired from the
State free of the payment of lands revenue, are not exempt from the payments of
canal advantage rate and they should be deal with on the analogy of lands, the
revenue of which has been assigned.
451. Assessmnet of chahi-nahri land :- Where some of the land reached by the water of an
inundation canal is also served by wells, the existence of this double source
of irrigation may justify an assessment higher than that of land dependent
solely on canal on well water.2 There is some difficulty in dealing
with such cases where the nahri assessment takes the form of fluctuating water
advantage rate. In Lahore
one-third of the chahi-nahri land was treated as chahi and remainder as nahri
in the assessment calculation.3
452. Mixture of water inundation canals and
river floods :- The mixture of
irrigation from wells and inundation canals is voluntary and beneficial, while
the mixture of canal water and river spill is often involuntary and harmful,
the control of the waters in inundation canals is often very imperfect, and the
bursting of a weak bank may send it where it is not wanted. In Ferozepur land
which is ordinarily affected by river floods has been shown in the village map
as a separat salib chak. No water advantage rate can be charged on account of
canal water within the limit of such a chak.4
453. Varied and variable quality of Sailabe land
:- The value of the silt carried
in suspension by the rivers of the province, small and great, varies immensely,
and the nature of the deposits left when their floods subside differs in
different parts of the course of a stream and also in the same part in
different seasons. Changes in the channels of many rivers take place year by
year, cultivated and are swept away or slowly sucked into the river bed, while
elsewhere fresh land is begin exposed. Hence sailab land is in quality, both
varied and variable, good and bad soils are often found cose together, and land
which is fruitful in one year may be a sandy waste the next.
454. Diversity of sailab rates :- The treatement of salab land in assessment in
different parts of the province must, therefore, be very diverse. Along the
upper reaches of the Jumana, where the rainfall is copious and the river
deposit sandy, flooded land has been rated much below land dependent only on
the rainfaill; while, on the other hand, the combination of rich silt and a
scanty rainfall has led on one part of the course of the Juelum to the sailab
rate being being pitched higher tan the chahi rate. Inside riverain assessment
circles much discrimination is requite in making the village assessments.
455. Alluvion and diluvion rules :- But, however, carefully a Settlement Officer may
fix his demand on an estate, a single season may upset the conditions on which
it was founded. A fixed assessment for a long term of years is, therefore,
unsuited to the circumstances of villages subject to river action, but it is
often possible to give the landowners the benefit of a fixed revenue, for the
greater part of their lands, confining the yearly readjustment of the demand to
those portions of the estate which have gained or lost in the past season.
After the example of the North-Western Provinces this mode of dealing with
riverain villages was adopted in the early Punjab
settlements, and it is still in force in most districts. In the Land Revenue
Acts provision was made for the annual revision of the demand in the case of
lands affected by river action (section 41 of Act XXXIII of 1871, section 59 of
Act XVII of 1887). This operation is sometimes known as an alluvion and
diluxion assessment, but the change due to streams are by no means confined to
mere gain and loss of land. Rules on the subject issued under section 41 of the
first land Revenue Act will be found in Financial Commissioner's Standing Order
No. 26. The scope of these rules has been greatly narrowed in two ways. Since they
were first published, a purely fluctuating system of assessment for riverain
tracts has been adopted in some districts in the west and south-west of the
provine, where the action of the great rivers is specially violent and
far-reaching. But besides this defects in the rules themselves have led to
their suppression in many districts by special rules drawn up by the Settlement
Officers and sanctioned as part of the settlement arrangements. The chief blot
in the rules issued under the Land Revenue Act of 1871 is that they left too
much to the discretion of the assessing officer. It was easy for a tahsildar or
Extra Assistant Commissioner to find out what revenue should be remitted on
account of diluvion, but, when it came to assessing new land or lands which the
floods had benefited or damaged, he was often very much at sea. The intention
was that the land should be assessed according to its quality, subject to the
provision that the "full settlement" rate should in no case be
exceeded. But there was a tendency to put excessive rates on uncultivated land
thrown up by the river on ground that it ought to be cultivated, and there was
no guarantee that the assessment would be either equal or equitable. The
"settlement rate" was often taken to mean the rate at which the
revenue had been distributed in the bachh. and this might vary far more widely
from estate to estate than any difference, past or present, in the character of
the sailab and justified. For example, one village might have found it
convenient at settlement to distribute the whole revenue by an all-round rate
on cultivated land, while the next village might have adopted soil rates. One
express provision forbade the revision of the assessment of land recorded at
settlement as culturable waste, thought its cultivation was evidently due to
changes caused by river action. A piece of poor grazing ground might be covered
with good silt and yield fine crops. But under the rules it continued to be
revenue free or assessment at a nominal rate till the next settlement. These
defect have been corrected in the special rules drawn up at the most recent
settlements, the main feature of which is the division of land into two or
three classes, for which separate rates are fixed, the class to which any
particular field belongs being mainly determined by the crop or crops grown in
it. A light rate is also generally imposed on uncultivated land which is fit
for grazing. At the same time the procedure connected with the measurement and
record of changes due to river action has been greatly improved. A collection
of these new rules has been issued (Selections from the Records of the
Financial Commissioner's of Officer, New Series, No. 19).
456. Tendency to overseas riverassess riverain
tracts :- There was a tendency
in some of the older settlement to overassess riverain tracts. Cultivation was
then backward in the more arid uplands, and the refreshing green of the river
valleys was sometimes taken as a sign of abounding fertility. As a matter of
fact, riverain tracts are as a rule weak tracts. The caprices of the river
import into agriculture so large an element of chance that good framing is
discouraged. At seed time the soil may be so wet that it cannot be worked up to
proper tilth weeds are very troublesome and ripened crops may be rotted, or
garnered crops swept away, by an untimely flood. The climate is often bad, and
for one reason or another the landowners are frequently spiritless and
thriftless. Even the men of hard working tribes, who thrive elsewhere, are sometimes
in a chronic state of debt and difficulty when their lot is cast near a river
bank.
457. Assessment of barani soils :- In assessing barani lands in many parts of the Punjab it has been necessary to adopt very low rates on
account of the scantiness and capriciousness of the rainfall. In such ceases
special attention has to be paid to the rate at which the demand falls on the
average area of harvested crops (see paragraph 372). In a few of our earlier
settlements there was a tendency to overatue stiff clay soils. Where the
rainfall is very small, the light sandy soils are the best. They bear good crop
with wonderfully little rain; while, on the other hand, result of very abundant
noisture in reducing their yeild is sometimes very striking.
458. Assessment of grazing land :- The imposition of a rate on new fallow was at one
time common. The area now so recorded is usually very small, and is not
assessed by the Settlement Officer, though it is likely enough that the
proprietors in distributing the revenue over holdings will wish to put a
portion of the demand upon it. Culturable waste should only be assessed when it
is a source of separate profit to the landowners. If they have only enough
grazing land for their plough and well oxen and for the cows and goats needed
to supply milk for household consumption, it should be exempted. In order to
ensure that waste shall not be assessed under such circumstances, as amount of
pasture land bearing a fixed portion to the cultivated area has sometimes been
excluded from assessment and a rate applied to the reminder. In this way the
grazing land in a village escapes assessment altogether when it does not exceed
the amount assumed to be requisite for agricultural and domestic purposes.
459. Date trees : Mills :- In some districts and profits obtained by the
sale of dates are assessed by levying a small rate, usually one Anna or less,
on each female date tree. Flour mills turned by water power are
assessed in Peshwar. Kohat and a few other districts.2
460. Metals and minerals, quarries and
spontaneous produce :- The law
regarding metals and minerals, qurries and the spontaneous produce of the land
has been explained in paragraph 191. Metals, coal, earth-oil or gold washings
and generally speaking minerals not included in the definition of
"minorminerals" are all the property of Government and conseuently
any gains acquiring to the land owners by extracting these from the soil or
river sand cannot appropriately be subjected to an assessment in the ordinary
way. The orders of Government should, however, be taken whether the proprietary
title of the State is to be asserted by the imposition of a royality.1
Quarries and "minor-minerals" generally as defined in the Punjab
Minor Minerals Rules, with spontaneous produce of the land, may or may not be
the property of the State under the provision 42 of the Land Revenue Act. Were
they are, all that is necessary is to certain that the provisions of the Punjab
Minot Minerals Rules are in force. Where they are property of the land-owners
the grains from the should be included in the assets of the estate.
461. Assessment of land in civil stations and
cantonments :- Instructions
regarding the assessment of land in civil stations and cantonments will be
found in Appendix XV, in which have also been embodied instrcutions issued by
the Government of India regarding the assessment of land in municipalities.
462. Failure of discriminate between strong and
weak tracts and villages :- Experience
has shown that there has been in some cases a tendency not to discriminate
sufficiently between weak and strong tracts, and good and bad estates. A rich
circle is fet off too lightly and a poor one overburdened, and in distributing
the assessment resulting from the sanctioned circle rates over villages, enough
boldness is not always shown in going freely above and below them in order to
meet the varying circumstances of the different estates. This is matter
requiring special attention in the Punjab,
where the prevailing custom of dividing the crop between the landlord and the
tenant instead of taking a cash rent, obscures the differences in the renting
value of he land in different villages. The more carefully a Settlement Officer
make his village inspections, the less likely is he to fall into a blunder of
this sort.
chapter xxvii
Fluctuating Assessments.
463. Policy of assessment fixed for a term of
years :- It was an essential
feature of the land revenue settlement of North-Western India as expounded by
Mr. Thomason that the demand should be fixed for a considerable number of
years, and "that the proprietors should be allowed all the benefit from
improved or extended cultivation which he may be able to obtain during the
currency of the lease". This policy was far-sighted, and it has
done much to promote the development of the land and the contentment of the
people, it is no reporach to its authors that time has brought to light some
practical inconveniences and drawbacks which they did not clearly foresee, and
that it does not suit the agricultural conditions prevailing in some parts of
the country with which they had no acquaintance.
464. Fluctuating assessments the chief
innovation of Thomason's policy :- The greatest innovation in it made in the Punjab
has been the adoption of fluctuating revenue demand in many tracts in which the
area of crops is liable to extreme variations. Under this system each harvest
is separately assessed according to rates determined beforehand. The rates
remain constant, but the acreage to which they are applied varies immensely
with the character of the seasons. It was likely that a change of this sort
would at first be resisted and this as we have seen (paragraph 51), is what
actually happened.
465. Fluctuating assessment of canal irrigation
:- The earliest instance of a
partially fluctuating assessment in any regularly settled district is to be
found in Mr. Principe's water-advantage rate scheme in district traversed by
the Bari Doab Canal.
It was requeisite there to find some plain by which the land revenue would
share in the profits derived from the large expansion of irrigation which was
likely to occur in the near future. A great extension of fluctuating assessment
followed in the third period of Punjab Settlement 1871-78. The system of canal
owner's rate, which is in subtance the same as Mr. Princep's water advantage
rate plan was prescribed in Northern India Canal Act (VIII of 1873), and put
into operation in the case of districts served by the Western Jumana Canal.
Both Mr. Princep and Sir James Lyall recognized the merits of a fluctuating
assessment of the uncertain irrigation from the inundation canals in Montgomery, and the same
policy has since been followed as regards irrigation of the same description in
several other districts. The whole of the assessment of lands watered by the Sidhnai Canal
in Mulatan and of the lands included in the new estates formed in the Crown
waste Commanded by the Lowr Chenab and Jehlum Canals
is fluctuating, the rates being levied on the acreage sown.
466. Fluctuating assessments of riverain tracts
:- A further step taken under
Sir James Lyall's advice was the adoption of fluctuating assessments for Sailab
lands on the Indus. Chenab, Ravi and Sultej,
in four districts in the west and south-west of the province. The new system
has since spread down the Indus into Dera Ghazi Khan, up the Ravi and Sultej
into Montgomery, and in the case of latter river into part of Ferozpore, so
that fluctuating assessments of sailab lands not prevail on both banks of the
Indus from Bannu downwards, on the Ravi and Sultej from the points where they
leave the Lahore District to their junctions with the Cheab and on the last
river in Multan and Muzaffargarh, and to considerable extent also in Jhang and
Gujranwala.
467. Other fluctuating assessments :- A larger dependent on the very precarious floods
of the hill torrents in Dera IsmailKhan, some villages on the Ghaggar in
Hissar, the Sarusti in Karnal, and the Sahibi stream in Rohtak, and certain
lands on the borders of chambhs of jhils in Gurdaspur, Gurgaon and Delhi have
also in fluctuating assessment. The only barani tracts at first treated in the
same way were a small group of estates in the Karnal Nardak and the Gandapur
villages in Dera Ismail Khan. In the latter grain collection were practically
in force. Proposals for a fluctuating assessments of the very insecure rain
lands in the Pindigheb tahsil of the Attock District, were the fixed assessment
had worked badly for some years after settlement, where rejected in 1892 in
view of the practical difficulties involved and the opposition of the
land-owners. At the resettlement of the tract 1901 this decision was
reaffirmed. But barani fluctuating assessments were introduced in Jhang and Gujranwala and in the
Lowr Chenab and Jehlum Colonies in 1904-05 when a similar assessment was put on
canal irrigated land.
468. So called fluctuating well assessments :- Well assessments subject to the special
conditions described in paragraph 439 are sometimes called fluctuating
assessements. The arrangements referred to do indeed represent a wide departure
from a fixed village assessment of the normal type. The assessment unit is the
well and the lands attached to it, not the village, and joint responsibility
for the revenue is virtually abolished. The well holding no longer pays the
revenue when its assets disappear by the well ceasing to be worked, and new
wells do not enjoy the long exemption from assessment. Which they obtain under
an ordinary settlement. But the demand so long as it exist, are fixed and does
not vary with the character of the season and the acrease under crop, or the
ordinary rates may be applied to the crops, and in addition a small fixed
water-advantage revenue or abaiana be imposed on each well, or the areas
attached to wells may be marked off and put under a fixed assessment at
irrigated rates, or the abiana may be fixed and lands not watered from the well
in any year pay the barani, sailab or nahri fluctuating rate, as teh case may
be. Purely fluctuating well assessments are
sometimes found, e.g., impart of Gujranwala.
469. Sources of information :- It is needless to describe here the details of
the fluctuating systems in force in different parts of the country. The chief
sources of information on the subject are Selecting from the Records of the
Financial Commissioner. Old Series, No. 25, and Selections from the Records of
the Punjab Government, New Series,No XVII, Punjab Government Revenue
Proceedings No.3, of June, 1882, Nos. 13-14 of October, 1884, Nos. 23-33 of
January, 1892 and Nos. 3-4 October, 1892 and recent settlement reports of the
districts in the South-West of the province.
470. Average income from fluctuating may be
higher than fixed assessment :- One
reason a fixed demands has to be pitched very low in precarious rain land
tracts is the doubt whether suspensions will be promptly given when required.
But a varying assessment based on the average area of crops harvested meets the
difficulty of suting the demand to the outturn to a considerable extent. Hence
it is quit fair that in the case of fluctuating assessment rates should be
adopted which will probably yield a higher average income than the fixed land
revenue that might have been imposed.2
471. Option of fluctuating assessment during
currency of settlement:- In a
few cases where the cultivation is extremely precarious, but for one reason or
another it has been considered unwise to impose a fluctuating assessment at
settlement, a safety valve has been provided by making it part of the
conditions of the settlement that the proprietors of an estate may at any time
during its currency throw up their fixed assessment accepting instead a
fluctuating one at rates determined by the Settlement Officer, and further that
a fluctuating assessment may be compulsory introduced with the sanction of the
Financial Commissioner in the case of any village falling into arrears which is
unable to liquidate within a reasonable time. The second condition is hardly necessary
in view of the provisions of section 73 of the Land Revenue Act (XVII of 1887).
472. Suggestion for extension of fluctuating
system to barani tracts :- There
is room for much differnce of opinion as to the wisdom or a far wider
application of the system of fluctuating cash assessment in the Punjab than it
has hitherto received, and especially as to the question whether it should or
should not be adopted in those broad tracts where the scantiness and
capriciousness of the rainfall render the unirrigated cultivation, on which
they depend exceedingly precarious. It may, therefore, be useful to not the
general arguments for and against fluctuating assessment, the reasons which led
of the abandonment of the received assessment policy on riverain land in the
west and southwest of the province, and the considerations bearing on the
question of the extension of the system of precarious barani tracts.
473. Arguments for fixed assessments :- The merits claimed for the policy of fixed
assessment for a long term of years combined with joint responsibility and
rights of property capable of being inherited and transferred were the stimulus
that would be given to the extension of cultivation and to improvements,
freedom from the harassment to the people caused by official interference, this
growth of habits of thrift, and the encouragement held out to the energetic and
industrious to better their condition. Some weaklings might succumb, but their
places would be taken by, prudent and hardworking members of the same village
brotherhood. Some communities of lazy cultivators might here and there have to
give way to men of better castes. Land would become a callable property and
capital would be attracted to it. These expectations have in a very
considerable measure beenfullfilled where the agricultural conditions were at
all facourable, and even in some cases where they might have seemed far from
being so.2 One important exception must be made. Captial was
attracted to the land, but the new purchasers and mortgagees were in many
instances mere rent-receiving, not-improving landlords, and in some tracts
transfers from the old agricultural classes to money-lenders grew to the
proportion of a grave social evil. The legislation undertaken to check this
evil has been described in the second chapter of teh Land
Administration Manual. It cannot be said that independness and the tranfers
resulting from it are as a rule most rift in tracts where the agricultural
conditions are most unstable, or that any close connection can usually be
traced between them and fixit of demand or even a rigid method of collection,
Thomason admitted that, whee the tenure of land was such as we commonly find it
in the Punjab, it might sometimes be necessary to suspend or remit revenue on
the occurence of disastrous seasons. It is urged by the opponents of fluctuating
assessments that an intelligent use of the suspension and remission rules and
in the case of flooded lands of the alluvion and diluvion rules, willdo all
that is required for insecure tracts without disintegrating the village
communities by getting rid of joint responsibility. The landlowners, they
assert. view with well-founded disklike any system of assessment based on
harvest measurements, the revenue subordinates will become corrupt for
effective supervision by hard worked district officer will be extremely
difficult. The value of land will be lowered and the standard of framing will
fall, for each man will be content to exert himself just enough to win a bare
substance from the soil.
474. Arguments on the other side :- It is argued on the other side that, wherever the
outturn varies very widely with the character of the seasons, a fixed demand is
unsuitable. It has to be pitched so low that Government receives much less than
it would get from a moderate fluctuating assessment. But however low it is put,
the people have to borrow in order to pay it in bad seasons. It was supposed
that with a fixed assessment the surplus of goods would be kept to meet the
deficit of lean years. But the habits and necessities of the people forbid
this, save in exceptional cases and the fruit of a rigid revenue system is debt
and difficulty. Suspension and remissions are intended to meet occasionally
calamities of season, and not cases in which extreme variations of area dn
yield are a normal feature of agriculture. The choice, on the hypothesis that
suspensions are freely given when the harvest are short an dthe balances
recovered in good years, lies between a demand fixed in name but actually
fluctuating in an unregulated and uncertain way and one which is frankly fluctuating
and subject to definite rules. Under the existing system the waste has been
broken up more rapidly than would have been the case with fluctuating revenue.
But this not an unmixed advantage, and given and orderly government and a
growing population, cultivation will spread under any system of assessment
which leaves a fair profit to the farmer. A fixed assessment no doubt
encourages the individual landowner to improve his holding. But the improvement
possible in tracts where the harvest are extremely fluctuating are not as a
rule such as individual landowners can effect. In high and dry upland tracts
the sinking of wells is unprofitable, and works of improvements to control the
floods of the great rivers must be the joint work of the proprietors of all the
villages concerned, encourged and directed by Government officials. There is
far more likelihood that they be efficiently carried out and maintained when
Government has a direct and immediate interest in there success. It is
perfectly ture that the people are often averse to the introduction of
fluctuating assessments. But dislike will disappear when the advantages of the
new system are realised in practice. Their fathers were equally opposed to the
substation of a fixed cash assessment for fluctuating grain collection. The
argument that half-yearly assessment are unpopular and demoralizing has lost
much of its force now that proper harvest inspection have become a normal
feature of revenue administration everywhere.
475. Fluctuating assessments should only be
adopted where the fixed system had failed :- Fixing of demand when associated with a reasonable method of collection
has been so widely successful, and fluctuating assessments are so troublesome
to the administration, and often, it is to be feared, to the landowners, that
the new system can only be accepted as an unpleasant necessity under certain
circumstances, and should be confined to the tracts where the failure of the
older plan is manifest. The feeling with which any novel method of assessment
is at first regarded by the people is a most imperfect test of its real merits,
but it is striking fact that, speaking only of unirrigated cultivation,
fluctuating assessments were accepted more readily, and have since been looked
upon with greater favour by the landowners in the riverrain lands in the west
and south-west of the province than elsewhere.
476. View of fluctuating assessment taken in
resolution of 16th January, 1902 :- The view unfavourable to fluctaing assessment is strongly expressed in
the 36th paragraph of the resolution of the Government of India on land revenue
policy, dated 16th January, 1902.
"The
Government of India freely admit that a fluctuating assessment in the sense of
an assessment without a definite maximum limit in cash, and annually varying
with the outturn of the crops is exceedingly difficulty to work with fairness,
throws an undersirable amount of power into the hands of subordinate officials,
and lacks the influence for thrift, which it has been desire of Government to
secure in its land revenue policy. It would be a retrograde step, and would
imply a reversion to the methods of native rule."
477. Sir James Lyall's views :- The reasons led Sir James Lyall to advocate a
fluctuating assessment in river rain tracts in the South-Western Punjab may be
gathered from the following extract from his review of the final Settlement
Report of Dera Isamil Khan :-
"In
the Upper Punjab authorized system carried out
with a moderate discertion works well enough. The culturable waste is not
nearly so extensive in comparison to the cultivated area as in the Lower Punjab, and is much less liable to change in
character and extent, for the action of the river is not so capricious and
violent. Moreover, the wasted does not depend on the floods for cultivation,
the moisture of the soil and the rainfall are sufficient, and therefore a
Settlement Officer can reasonably take the culturable waste into account in
assessing in the Upper Punjab.
"But
in the Lower Punjab culturable waste lands in river side estates are ordinarily
very extensive as compared to the cultivated area, and no dependence can be
placed on their remaining culturable for any time. Radical changes in the
quality of large areas of soil occur frequently, and land culturable one year
may become practically unculturable the next-without change of qualiy of
soil-from a change in the nature or direction of the floods. Practically
therefore a Settlement Officer cannot take into account culturable waste when
assessing river villages in the Lower Punjab by assessing river side villages
on lands broken up from culturable waste, while the upland villages are exempt
from such assessment. In such a country, where little or no barani cultivation
is possible it is only the river side villages which can break up waste of
considerable extent without expenditure of captial, the unland villages must
make new wells or canals cuts before they can break up their waste, so that in
practice it is not unequal treatment to treat the culturbale waste as in one
case included in the assessment and not in the other. Another point in which
the Lower differs from the Upper Punjab is the
suitableness of a new redistribution of the revenue as an alternative to a
reduction of the demands. In the Upper Punjab the villages are much smaller,
and are nearly always owned by one or perhaps tow families, which have divided
the lands so that each man has a quarter of the estate, and ordinary river
action affects each man has a quarter of the estate, and ordinary river action
affects each man's holding much alike. These families also have common lands
and common funds to fall back upon-a circumstance which much facilitiates a new
bachh. But in the Lower Punjab the village areas are generally distributed into
independent holdings formed of single blocks known as wells or pattis, there
are generally no common lands and no common income, or if there are common
lands, they are often not available to all thus where there are in the same
estates superior and inferior proprietors, each of the latter often only holds
his cultivated plot, and has no power to break up waste without permission. In
the Lower Punjab, therefore, the river action
makes changes in individual holdings too great to be properly adjusted by a new
bachh, and moreover a new bachh is from the tenure of the village a very
difficult operation. Again the power of remitting revenue on
land cut away or covered with sand is sufficient in the Upper Punjab, but in
the Lower Punjab power is wanted to remit also
on land thrown out of cultivation by failure of floods as above noted.
"Owing
to the partial unsuitability of the authorized system other systems grew in
some districts in an unauthorized sort of way; e.g. the plan of annual revision
of assessment of whole villages or river chaks of villages by remitting or
increasing at fixed rates on actual cultivation, which...... prevailed before
settlement in Mianwali; a similar plan..... prevailed in Mandot of Ferozepore
and also in the Fazika tahsils of the Sirsa Distrct......... These
considerations led Mr. Lyall to questionwhether some such system as that in
force in Mianwali ought not to be adopted in the districts of the Multan and
Derajat divisions of rain villages or parts of villages really subject to river
action, as the authorized system was not sufficiently elastic and was also very
unequal in its effects on different villages. ..... A certain number of
villages on the Sultan and Ravi had been either completely ruined or seriously
impoverished by it; their old sailab lands had fallen out of cultivation owing
to changes in the direction or in the character of floods, and they had failed
to obtain remissions of revenue as the cause of their distress was not a cause
recognized by the rules as giving a claim to reduction. Sometimes the floods
had gone right away from the villages, which in some cases had lost all sailab
cultivation till the river might take another turn; sometimes the floods had
only changed their direction a little and the villages had been able to cultivate
new sailable land in place of the old but this land happened to have been
formed after settlement former jama and this proceeding, though clearly unfair,
is not wrong by the letter of the rules. On the Chenab andIndus cases of
villages actually ruined by failure of floods did not come under Mr. Lyall's
notice; the floods fromthese river are more certain and the rates of assessment
had been lighter; but in all the Multan and Derajat Districts it appeared to
Mr; Lyall that the authorized system had a tendency to produce very unequal
effects, for, as above explained, a Settlement Officer cannot practically
assess the culturable waste which happens to be in the village at time of
settlement; so that village which happens to have much culturable waste at settlement
time may have for the whole term of settlement a great advantage over another
which happened in that year to have little or none.
"The
reasons which, had before caused Mr. Vans Agnew, Colonel Hamilton and other
officer connected with the Multan division to press for a recognition of the
necessity of a special system of assessment for these lands, led Mr. Lyall,
after consulting the Settlement Officer working under him, to propose a
fluctuating system of assessment on river lands in the Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan,
Multan and Muzaffargarh Districts."
478. Suitability of fluctuating assessments for
insecure barani tracts:- But
from first to last Sir James Lyall doubted the policy of extending a
fluctuating system of assessment to precarious barani tracts. In 1880 when the
question was discussed he held that the cases of flooded lands and barani lands
were quite distinct. If the floods came, there was always some sort of a crop,
but in rainlands a great breadth crops might be sonw of which a large portion
failed utterly. Barani cultivation in precarious tracts was of necessity of a
gambling character. Under a fixed assessment, if rain fell at the proper season
the farmer sowed every acre he could and took his chance of enough rain falling
to ripen his crops. Under a fluctuating system he would confine his sowing to a
much smaller area, choosing those lands which from their position were most
likely to receive and retain moisture. It was mot desirable that the necessity
of obtaining yearly of half-yearly returns of cultivation "by more or less
troublesome and annoying field to field inspections" should, if possible,
be avoided. A better plan for barani lands would be the cycle system.2
The objections raised in 1880 have lost a good deal of their point in
consequence of the improved system of harvest inspection introduced some years
later. Field-to-field crop of their assessment, and an attempt, more or less
successful is made to distinguish between crops which ripen and crops which
wholly or partially fail. But Sir James Lyall retained to the end his opinion
that fluctating assessments were unsuited to barani tracts because their crops
do not fall into one of two categories but "very with the rainfall through
all gradations from nil thorugh poor and fair to good or very good."3
479. Sir Chalres Rivaz's views :- The same line of argument was taken by Sir
Charles Rivaz, as Financial Commissioner, in discussing the proposed
introduction of a fluctuating assessment in Pindigheb -
"Here
we have a poor, dry and stony country, with its cultivation depending almost
entirely, upon a scanty, exceeding capricious rainfall and it often happens
that in the same season some parts of the tahsil obtain good and opportune rain
while other parts get very little. In riverain and other flooded tracts either
there is a total failure of crops over large areas or, as a rule, a successful
harvest, but what happens in a country like Pindigheb is that there is
generally a crop of some sort on the ground, but it is quality varies immensely
through all gradation not only from village to village but often in different
parts of the same village. It is evident that if a fluctuating assessment is
introduced in a country like this, it must be imposed not on crops sown, but on
crops successfully harvested, and reductions from the full rates must be
allowed on fields. Where the outturn is below the average. The work both of
assessing the revenue and supervising the patwari's assessment would be
attended with peculiar difficulties. The patwaris, even with the best will to
do the work honestly would experience great difficulty in making a proper
record of the quality of the crops for assessment purposes, that is in
calculating the partial remissions due on crops of interior outturn (see instructions
appended to khasra girdawari form) and they would be largely exposed to the
temptation of making dishonest crop records in the interest of the cultivators,
as any detailed supervision of their work by the kanungos and superior revenue
officers would be hardly practicable under the circumstances."
480. Matter will not be decided without a
practical trial :- There were
special reasons why a fluctuating assessment in Pindigheb would have been
difficult to work, but the general arguments against the employment of such a
system do not seem to be absolutely convincing. It is very hard to say whether
the fluctuating system will succeed or fail when applied to a barani tract till
it has been tried on a sufficiently large scale. As already noted, a considerable
addition was made in 1904-05 to the barani area under fluctuating assessment.
chapter xxviii
Term of Settlement Temporary and Permanent Settlement :
Redemption of the Land Revenue.
481. Schools of opinion as to proper term for
settlements :- In the historical
chapters of this Manual some reference has been made to past practice regarding
the term of land revenue settlement in Northern-India. But before quoting the
existing orders on the subject it may be well to notice the main schools of
opinon, with reference to this important subject, the causes which have
produced them and the argument by which each has been in its turn defended. In
the past fifty years the plan of very short settlements, by which may be
understood those made for periods of less than fifteen years, has met with
little support. Opinion has been divided between.
(a) permanent settlements,
(b) long term settlement for periods of
twenty or thirty years according to circumstances, and
(c) settlements for shorter terms.
The
second policy, which may be conveniently described as that of Thomason, is that
which has so far prevailed.
482. Original intention to give a permanent
settlement to the old N.W. Province :- It was the intention of Government, when a large part of the territories
now included, in the United Provinces were added to the Empire at the beginning
of the last century, to give them after a short interval a permanent settlement
like that made in Bengal in 1793 (paragraph 16). The prudence of carrying out
this policy at an early date soon came to be questioned, especially by the
Court of Directors. Doubts were expressed whether a permanent settlement could
be safely carried out until the resources of the country had been better
ascertained and the rights of individuals more certainly established than had
been done in the rough settlements for short terms made before the passing of
Regulation VII of 1822. The resolution, dated Ist August, 18222
Which contained the instructions of the Government of India as to the action to
be taken under that regulations, shows that the idea of making a permanent
settlement had been indefinitely postponed.
483. Policy of temporary settlements for long
terms adopted :- In the school of Thomason the plan of a permanent
settlement was entirely supplanted by the policy of a moderate assessment to be
revised generally after thirty, or under special circumstances after twenty
years. The advantages claimed for long terms were the avoidance of the disquiet
and harassment arising from frequent and the stimulus to the development of the
resources of the country which fixity of demand for thirty years would supply.
From this development the State would, it was pointed out, reap in course of
time much additional land revenue. But the growth of prosperity would by no
means be confined to the owners of the land. The whole community could share in
it, and in this way the sources of indirect taxation would be largely
increased. Mr. thornton's article in the Calcutta Review of December, 1849,
from which some quotations have already been made (paragraph 16), shows that
Mr. Thomason was quite opposed to permanent settlements. He points out that the
revenue-paying capacity of estates may be greatly altered within the term of a
settlement from many causes, not to speak of the revolution effected by the
opening of a railway or the excavation of a canal, and draws the practical
conclusion that "the most carefully adjusted arrangements will.........
require reconsideration when the conditions on which they are founded are thus
liable to change."
484. Movement in favour of permanent settlement
:- The Mutiny and the famine of
1860-61 for a time shook men's faith in the soundness of this policy...and a
permanent settlement again came into vaour. The country was soon to enter upon
era of rapid advance, but at the time the outlook was discouraging. No one
expected any large increases of revenue, andthe contentment of the people
seemed the one thing worth striving for. It was a small sacrifice to accept
some prospective loss of revenue if by doing so we could bind the landowners
out side by the strong chain of self-interest. Men whose revenue was fixed in
perpetuity would, it was supposed detest a change of Government as much as
fund-holders in a European country. The curious history of the rapid growth
of opinion in favour of apartment settlement, the acceptance of the principle
of the proposal by the Secretary of State, Sir Charles Wood, in 1862, the
gradual discovery of practical difficulties, the various attempts, all more or
less abortive, to define the circumstances under which can estate should or
should not be admitted to permanent settlement, the revulsion of feeling under
the influence prospoerity and rising prices, may be read in Sir Auckland
Colvin's Memorandum on the Revision of Land Revenue Settlements in the
North-Western Provinces.
485. Views of Sir William Muir in 1861 :- In 1861 the benefits which Sir William Muir
expected from a permanent settlement were :-
(a) saving of the expenditure incurred in
periodical settlements;
(b) deliverance of the people form the
vexations prevalent at every resettlement;
(c) freedom from the tendency to
depreciation of property towards the close of each temporary settlement;
(d) prosperity arising from increased
incentives to improvement and expenditure of capital;
(e) increased value of land ;
(f) content among the people;
Some
land revenue which might have been claimed after thrity or forty years might,
he admitted, be lost. But a far greater enhancement of the revenue was to be
looked for from the indirect return due to the vast improvement in the
resources of the country which would spring from the fixing of the demand in
perpetuity.
486. Revulusion of feeling in favour of
established system :- The case
for a permanent settlement must rest largely on the fourth of these arguments.
It was alleged that periodical settlements unjustly claimed for the State a
share in the benefit of improvements made by the landowners, and it was
supposed that, if this were forgone, small ground for future enhancements would
remain. But the rapid development of the country and the advance of prices
after 1865 soon made it clear that a claim for an increased revenue might arise
to an extent far greater than had been imagined from causes quite independent
of the landlords exertions. Apart from this Sir William Muir constrained to
admit in 1874 that it was question-able whether "in the present condition
of the agricultural population" there was any force in the fourth of the
arguments by which he had sought to prove the superiority of a permanent to a
long-term settlement. In a vigorous minute, dated 4th October, 1873, the
Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab exposed the weakness of the case for a
permanent settlement. But Sir Henry Davies was at most locking a closed door,
for by that time all chance of Thomason's policy being disturbed had passed
away.
487. Orders, passed by the Secretary of State in
1883 :- The discussion, however,
was only closed in 1883, when the Secretary of State distinctly rejected the
policy of a permanent settlement (Despatch Revenue No. 24, dated 22nd March,
1883). His reasons breifly were :-
(a) the great practical difficulties of the
measure ;
(b) the experience of twenty years since
1862 had proved that, if the policy of that day had been carried out, much
additional land revenue since obtained would have been lost;
(c) the field of indirect taxation had been
narrowed, and not widened, since 1862;
(d) the experience on Bengal showed that
there is no rason to suppose that a permanent settlement is beneficial to -
(1) the tenants, or
(2) the landlords, to whom the supposed boon
is originally granted. The tendency to the transfer of land to the commercial
classes would probably be intensified;
(e) it is not generally admitted that the
agricultural population is more prosperous in the permanently settled, than in
the temporarily settled, districts of the northwestern Provinces.
The
history of prices and the fall in the value of silver since 1883 have greatly
strengthened the case against permanent settlements.
488. Term of settlements in the Punjab :- The active discussion of the policy of permanent
settlement in the North-Western provinces fell in the second period of the
history of the Punjab settlement, and Mr. Princep's views on assessment
problems were a good deal coloured by his belief that the demand in
well-developed estates was about to be fixed in perpetuity. But, when the final
decision as to the term of his settlements was made, the Policy of Thomason was
again in the ascendant, as it has continued to be to the present day, though
the usual term for settlements in the Western Punjab was for some time twenty,
and not as in the usual term for settlements in the Western Punjab was for some
time twenty, and not as in the United Provinces thirty, years. During te second
and third period (1863-1879)of Punjab settlements the assessments of the
districts lying in that part of the province which was annexed before the
second Sikh War and consequently had time to develop were sanctioned for thirty
years, while the rest of the province was
settled for twenty years only, except Bannue and Hazara, which were settle for
thirty years. A similar policy was followed during the remainder of the 19th century,
but most of the districts settled since its close have reached such a stage of
development that it has been possible to allow them a 30 years term. It is only
where extensions of canal irrigation are still in progress, or have been
carried out so rapidly that it has been impossible to make the land revenue
demand keep pace with them, or where other exceptional reasons exist, that a
shorter period of 20 years or less has been decided on. Full details of the
terms of past and present settlements will be founded in Appendix III.
489. Policy of shorter settlements discussed :- The rapid development of the country and the
great rise of prices during the past sixty years have made if difficult to take
for the State-that is to say, for the community as a whole-the full share of
the landowner's profits to which it is entitled. The difficulties inherent in
the revision of long-term settlements when the period of their currency was one
of the rapid change were heightened in the Punjab by the fact that the new assessment
was rarely introduced promptly on the expiration of the term of the old one. In
settlements made since 1885 the enhancement were often very large, larger in
fact than would at one time have been considered prudent, but yet the demand
fixed was generally much below the calculated half-net assets. one of the chief
reasons for this divergence was the impossibility of taking per saltum the very
large increases which were claimable under the half-net assets rule. The
greater prominence given to the half-net assets as an assessment factor made
divergences which would formerly have passed without much notice matters of
serious criticism. Under the circumstances it is soil wonderful that the
cutailment of the ordinary terms of settlement from twenty and thirty, to say
fifteen and twenty, years was discussed. Those who have supported the policy of
shorter settlements argued as follows :-
"The
surrender of the State's full claim should not be continued for a longer period
that is really necessary-otherwise present difficulties may recur in a more
acute form in the future. Of the two great objections to frequent revisions of
assessment, the harassment of the people and the discouragement of agricultural
improvement which they involve, the former has been greatly reduced by the
improved system of land records which has been introduced. As to the second,
experience has shown that rent-receiving landlords rarely expend money on
improving their estates, while the improvements of small self-cultivating
proprietors, so far as they consist of irrigation works, land is made under the
spur of necessity and would only be slightly retarded by a reduction of the
term of settlecessity and would only be slightly retarded by a reduction of the
term of settlement. Long-term settlements were a doubtful benefit to the
people. They led to an unhealthy inflation of a landowners credit and an
increase of indebtedness." It has been urged on the other side that past
practice has given the landowners of the Punjab a reasonable expectation of
terms of thirty, or at least twenty years, and that any change would be viewed
with dislike and suspicion - a matter of special concern in a povince in which
the landowners form so large and important a section of the population, and
further that, however we may improve our system, the resettlement of a district
must always cause an appreciable amount of trouble to the people.
490. Orders of the Secretary of the State :- In a Despatch No. 117, dated 24th October, 1895,
the Secretary of State disapproved "of the policy of reducing the term of
settlement in tracts that have heretofore enjoyed a twenty years' or thirty
years' settlement merely on the ground that the revenue authorities find it
inexpedient to impose the full amount of enhancement which might be justified
by the investigation and arithmetical deductions made at the settlement."
In
communicating these orders the Government of India remarked -
"Where
a reasonable expectation of any term, whether thirty or twenty years, has been
created in the minds of the people by past practice, that term should be
adhered to as the normal term of settlement. In backward tracts and under
exceptional circumstances shorter terms may be fixed, and such circumstances
and conditions may also justify an abbreviation in the case of an individual
district or portion of a district of the normal term. But it will not be
sufficient, for the purposes of such justification, merely to show that it is
inexpedient to impose at present the full amount of enhancement which a
consideration of existing assets would warrant; it will be necessary to go
further and show also that the present condition of the tract is such, and the
development that may reasonably be anticipated so rapid, that, at the end of
the normal term, if not abbreviated, it will probably be found impossible to
secure to Government a rennonably full share of the assets as they may then be
found to stand" (Government of India, Revenue and Agricultural Department,
circular No. 27-383-2, dated 16th December, 1895, paragraph 2.
491. The Government of India Resolution of 1902
:- At the beginning of the
present century the question of permanent and temporary settlements was again
considered. In a resolution issued by the Supreme Government on 16th January,
1902, the advantages claimed for the permanent of Bengal were shown to have
little or no foundation in fact.
"5.
The permanetly-settled districts, and is well-known, cover the greater part of
Bengal, parts of the North-Western Provinces and Madras, and few other isolated
tracts. At an earlier period the school of thought that is represented by the
present cities of the Government of India advocated the extension of the
permanent Settlement throughout India; and, although this panacea is no longer
proposed, the Government of India are invited by Mr, Dutt to believe that, had
such a policy been carried into effect 40 years age, ' India would have been
spared those more dreadful land desolating faminess which we have witnessed in
recent years.' It is also stated by the latter in his letter upon Land
Settlements in Bengal, that, in consequence of the Permanent Settlement in that
province, the cultivators are more prosperous, more resourceful, and better
able to help themselves in years of bad harvest than cultivators in any other
part of India, that agricultural enterprise ha been fostered, cultivation
extended, and private capital acculuated, which is devoted to useful
industries, and to public works and institutions. The hypothetical forecast
above recorded is not rendered more plausible to the Government of India by
their complete liabiliy to endorse the accompanying allegations of fact.
Bengal, and particularly Eastern Bengal, possesses exceptional advantages in
its fertility, in its comparative immunity from the vicissitudes of climate to
which other parts of the country are liable, in its excellent means of
communication, in its enjoyment of a practical monopoly of the production of
jute, and in the general trade and enterprise which radiate from its capital
city. But neither these advantages nor the Permanent Settlement have availed to
save Bengal from serious drought when the monsoon failure from which it is
ordinarily free, has spread to the part of India. Omitting to notice the
frequent earlier famine, that known as the Behar famine, of 1873-74 (so called
from the part of the Bengal Province most seriously affected), cost the State
$6,000,000; while it can be shown that in the famine of 1897 there were at the
height of the distress considerably more than 3/4 million persons on relief in
the permanently settled districts of Bengal, and that the total cost of that
famine to the Bengal administration was Rs. 1,08,04,000 or $ 720,266 (as
compared with a fime expenditure of Rs. 98,28,000 or 720,266 in Madras and Rs.
1,26,37,000 or $ 842,466 in Bombay), and this although the daily cost of relief
for each person was less (Rs.. 081 in Bengal as compared with Rs . . 104 in
Madras and Rs.. 106 in Bombay). If the figures of persons in receipt of relief
in the permanently settled districts of Western Bengal were compared with those
of the adjoining temporarily settled districts of the North-Western Provinces,
where the conditions were closely similar, it would also be found that the
percentage was more than half as high again in Behar as in the North-Western
Provinces. The Government of India indeed know of no ground whatever for the
contention that Bengal has been saved from famine by the Permanent Settlement,
a contention which appears to them to be disapproved by history; and they are
not therefore disposed to attach much value to predictions as the benefits that
might have ensued has a similar settlement been extended elsewhere.
"6
As regard the condition of cultivators in Bengal, who are teh tenants of the
landowners instituated as a class in the last century by the British
Government, there is still less ground for the contention that their position,
owing to the Permanent Settlement, has been converted into one of exceptional
comfort and prosperity. It is precisely because this was not the case, and
because, so far from being generously treated by Zamindars, the Bengal
cultivator was rack rented, impoverished, and oppressed, that Government of
India left compelled to intervene on his behalf and by the series of
legislative measures that commenced with the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1859 and
culminated in the Act of 1885, to place him in the position of greater security
which he now enjoys. To confound this legislation with the Permanent
Settlement, and to ascribe even in part to the latter the benefits which it had
conspicuously failed to confer, and which would never have accrued for the
former, is strangely to misread history. As for the allegation that the
Permanent Settlement has been the means of developing in Bengal an exceptional
flow of public-spirited and charitable investment, while the government of
India are proud of the fact that there are many worthy an liberal-minded
landlords in Bengal-as there also are another parts of India-they know that the
evils of absenteeism, of management of estates by unsympathetic agents of
unhappy relation between landlord and tenant, and of the multiplication of
tenure-holders, or middleman, between the zamindars and the cultivator in many
and various degrees-are at least as marked and as much on the increase there as
elsewhere ; and they can conscientiously, endorse the proposition that, in he
interests of the cultivators, that system of agrarian tenure should be held up
as a public model which is not supported by the experience of any civilized
country, which is not justified by the single great experiment that has been
made in India, and which was found in the latter case to place the tenant so
unreservedly at the mercy of the landlord that the State has been compelled to
employ for his protection a more stringent measure of legislation than has been
found necessary in temporarily settled areas. It is not, in fine, in the
Permanent Settlement of Bengal that the riot has found his salvation; it has
been in the laws which have been passed by Supreme Government to check its
license and to moderate its abuses."
492. Considerations determining the period of
settlement :- In the 18th
paragraph of the same resolution there is an important passage on the
considerations which should determine the period for which settlements should
run in the Punjab.
"Where
the lands is fully cultivated, rents, fair and agricultural production not
liable to violent oscillations, it is sufficient if the demands of Government
are read-justed once in thirty years, i.e., once in the lifetime of each
generation. Where the opposite conditions prevail, where there are much
wasteland, low rents and a fluctuating cultivation, or again where there is a
rapid development of resources owing to the construction of roads, railways or
canal to an increase of population, or to a rise in prices, the postponements
of resettlemetn for so long a period is both injurious to the people, who are
equal to the strain of a sharp enhancement, and unjust to the general
tax-payer, who is temporarily deprived of the additional revenue to which he
has a legitimate claim. Whether these considerations, justifying a shorter term
of settlement than thirty years. Apply with sufficient force to the Punjab and
the Central Provinces at the present time; and if, they do apply at the present
time, whether the force of their application will diminish with the passage of
time, are weighty questions to which careful attention will be given by the
Government of India upon a suitable occasion."
493. Term fixed when orders are passed on final
settlement report :- Under the
assessment instruction of 1893 no reassessment was to be fixed for more than
twenty years, except with the permission of the Government of India. The
Government of India under the revised instructions printed in Appendix I gave
discretion to the Punjab Government to fix the period for which the assessment
of each district was to be in force provided it did not exceed thirty years,
with due regard to the instructions issued by the Secretary of State in 1895,
quoted in paragraph 490 supra, and to the principle stated in the extract from
the resolution of 1902 which is given in paragraph, 492 of this Manual. Fixing
the duration of settlements is one of the innovations made by the Amended Land
Revenue Act. Section 53-A provides that the local Government shall pass orders
about it when confirming an assessment. The period is required to be fixed at
forty years, except for areas where canal irrigation has been newly introduced.
In such areas the minimum term of the first settlement after the introduction
of canal irrigation shall be 10 years and of the second settlement 20 years.
The maximum term in either case shall be 40 years. Urban areas are excepted
from the operation of this law.
494. Redemption of land revenue and sale of
waste land free of revenue :- A
settlement Officer may across traces of two other schemes which sprang from the
same causes as produced the movement in favour of a permanent settlement namely
the descreption of the land revenue and the sale of Government waste land free
of revenue in perpetuity. These measures had been suggested, partly with the
view of encouraging the settlement of Europeans in India, as matters for
consideration in Lord Stanley's despatch No.2 (Revenue) of teh 31st December,
1858, and in 1861, shortly before leaving India, Lord Canning ordered their
adoption. With reference to the redemption scheme he remarked.
"Increased
security of fixed property and comparative freedom from the interference of the
fiscal officers of the Government will tend to create a class which although
composed of various races and creeds, will be peculiarly bound to be British
rule, whilst under proper regulations the measure will conduce materially to
the improvement of the general revenue of the Empire."
Rules
regarding the redemption of the demand were issued with Punjab Government
notification No. 556, dated 15th July, 1862, but were soon after cancelled. For
in the same despatch2 in which he accepted the principle of a
permanent settlement Sir Charles Wood limited the power of redemption at the
discretion of the local Government to the case of land required for
dwelling-houses, factories, gardens, plantations, and ohter similar purposes.
The rules on the subject are contained in Punjab Government notification No.
317, dated Ist Marsh, 1869. Little action was taken on these rules,
and the power sanctioning redemption of the land revenue in the cases mentioned
above has been withdrawn.2
The
purchase of Government waste land free of revenue was permitted by the sale
rules of 1863 and 1865.3 But in 1872 the Government of India ordered
that, pending a revision of the rules for the disposal of waste lands, no more
land should be sold revenue free in perpetuity, excepting only such small
plots, not exceeding ten acres in extent, as may be required for building or
gardens.4 The local Governments power to sell land free of revenue
even to his limited extent no longer exists.5
Land
of which the revenue has been redeemed or which has been acquired from the
State free of revenue is not exempt from the payment of canal advantage rate,
cesses, chaukidara, or village expenses (malba).
chapter xxix
Progressive
Assessment and Protective Leases
495. Object of progressive assessments :- To soften the effect of a large enhancement and
mitigate the loss to the State which a long-term settlement may involve, resort
has sometimes been had to progressive assessments. By this plan the full amount
of the new demand is announced to the landowners, but the actual collection of
part of the increase is deferred for a few years. If a breathing space is
given, it should not be too short. The initial demand should hardly be raised
till it has been in force for five years, and, if the full revenue is to be reached
by two steps, the second may be taken after lapse of another five years.
496. Progressive assessments of a speculative
character dangerous :- Progressive
assessments of a speculative character, which seek to secure to the State the
benefit of probably extension of cultivation within the term of settlement, and
to promote improvement rather by the fear of loss than the hope of grain, have
long been condemned. They are wholly opposed to the principle of the land
revenue settlement quoted in paragraph 463, and they are dangerous in practice
because they assessment assets which may never come into being. If it is likely
that a great increase in the cultivated area will soon take place, the term of
settlement may properly be made shorter. The case of lands commanded by a
Government canal is, as has been noticed in paragraph 447. In some respects,
exceptional.
497. Progressive assessments in a depressed
tract condemned :- A progressive
assessment has sometimes been proposed because a tract is for the present in a
depressed state, but it is hoped that it will recover in a few years. If its
general circumstances justify the taking of an enhancement, but it is for the
time being suffering from some calamity such as murain or drought, the better
plan is to defer the introduction of new assessment for a short time, say a
year, and meanwhile to remit such portion of the old demand as may seem
needful. But if past overassessment or bad revenue management, or the
implacable ill-will of river or swamp, has produced marked deterioration and
the demand must be lowered, it is unsafe to assume that recovery will be rapid
and a progressive assessment can not be justified. It is better in such a case,
if the tract affected is large, to provide that its assessment may be revised
after a comparatively short time, say ten years, although the settlement as a
whole is being made for a much longer term. It is convenient, but not
essential, that every part of a district should be settled for the same period.
498. Progressive assessment which are
permissible :- Progressive or
deferred assessments which merely put off for a time the enforcement of part of
a demand based on present assets stand on a different footing from those which
seek to assess future profits, and their adoption in certain cases has been
approved of in a despatch of Her majestry's Secretary of State (No. 117, dated
24th October, 1895, paragraph 7): "It is not intended that any enhancement
should be imposed, progressive or otherwise, in consideration of additional income
expected to accrue to land-holders during the period of the settlement. A
moderate, though sufficient, assessment will be fixed, in accordance with
standing rules, on the assets ascertained by the Settlement Officer. In
ordinary cases that assess will be payable from the beginning of the settlement
period. But in some cases it may be held inexpedient to collect from an estate
or tract the full enhanced revenue at once, and the increase beyound a certain
percentage will be spread over the first ten years of the settlement period in
such a manner as may be though fit. I agree that there is no objection to
progressive enhancements of this kind."
499. The same :- In communicating these order the Government of
India required that "subject to the conditions and limitation...laid
down" by the Secretary of State "the method of progressive
assessments may be used more systematically than has hitherto been the case,
wherever it seems inexpedient to impose at once the full enhancement which
would result from even a moderate assessment based upon existing assets; and
more especially when the term of settlement is thrity years or the
revenue-payers are men of substance; the object being not merely to recover a
portion of the revenue which it is thought inexpedient to demand at once, but
still more to reduce the difficulty of enhancement which may recur at the next
revision or settlement ... When the term of statement is thirty years, this
course (of spreading that enhancements over fifteen years) may still be adopted"
(Government of India, Revenue and Agricultural Department, Circular No. 27-383,
dated 126th December, 1895).
500. Latest orders of the Government of India :-
The latest orders of the
Government of India on the subject are contained in the 33rd and 34th Paragraph
of their resolution on land revenue policy dated 16th January, 1902.
"There
can be no question of the hardship which a family must experience in finding
its income suddenly reduced by a third or even more, as may happen, for
instance, when at the end of a term of settlement it is enjoying 75 per cent of
the assets, and resettlement is made at 50 per cent. The question in the aspect
now under consideration is not really affected (as is somtimes assumed) by the
grounds on which the enhancement is made; a heavy addition to the assessment is
as disturbing if justified by a large increase of cultivation as if resulting
from a rise in valuation rates. It may be argued that a family in such a case
had profited largely by the enjoyment of income which it would have lost under
a shorter term settlement; that is should have saved from its surplus to meet
the eventual curtailment of its means; and the State will find long-term
settlement excurtailment of its means; and that the State will find long-term
settlemetn exceedingly disadvantageous if it is not only to lose all increment
during their currency but is also to forgo part of its dues at their close. But
the question must be considered from a practical point of view, and with
reference to the condition of human nature. The State can not without
hesitation call upon people suddenly to effect a great reduction in their
domestic expenditure however well justified in theory its demands may be. A man
will look more to the actual increase of his obligations than he will to the
arithmetical stndars by which it is justified or determined. If for thirty
years he has been paying a land revenue of Rs. 1,000, and is called upon to pay
Rs. 2,000 upon resettlement, it is small consolation to him to be told that,
while the former sum represented 50 per cent of his former assets, the latter
only amounts to 47 per cent of his assets as they now stand. A reduction in the
percentages is far from compensating him for an enhancement of burdens.
"To
meet such cases, the Government of India desire to lay much stress upon the
principle of gradual and progressive enforcement of sudden increases of other
than moderate dimensions. The mitigation of a large enhancement by spreading
its imposition over a term of years has been a recognized feature in the
settlement procedure of Upper India for a long time past, but has not till
recently been brought systematically into practice. In 1895 the Government of
India, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, drew general attention
to the advisability of making larger use of progressive enhancements. In the
Punjab the use of progressive assessments has been discouraged, the ground
that, though an appropriate means of easing an enhancement to a large
land-holder, they are not suitable to the circumstances of the petty
proprietors, who hold a very large proportion of the land in that province.
Large increases in the demand have been commonly avoided by under assessment.
But it seems open to question whether an expedient which has proved serviceable
in other parts of India might not be usefully adopted in the Punjab, and the
point will be considered, though the effect of progressive assessments in this
province would be to raise, not to lower, the government revenue."
501. Protective leases on account of improvement
:- There is another kind of
progressive or deferred assessment as to the grant of which a Settlement
Officer has no choice, namely that prescribed for the protection of certain
classes of improvements carried out at the cost of the landowner. For the
ruling power to preclude itself from claiming
a larger revenue from the land because its
produce has been increased by the expenditure of the capital and labour of the
occupies, is impracticable and opposed to immemorial usage. The State may be
likened to an influential sleeping partner who has to the other partners the
right of managing and developing the property, but has not cut himself off from
sharing to some extent in the growth of the receipts due directly to their
enterprise, but indirectly also to his moderation and power of securing to his
associates the peaceable enjoyment of the fruits of their industry. Justice and
policy certainly demand that they should be guaranteed a fair profit on their
expenditure, but no village dreams of complaining that his fields are not
assessed a their priarie value, or that well lands are rated higher than
unirrigated soils.
502. Orders issued by Court of Directors in 1851
:- The postion is clearly
defined in the 489th paragraph of the despatch (No. 9, dated 13th August,
1851.), in which the Court of Directors reviewed the first settlements of the
districts of the North-Western Provinces under Regulation IX of 1833.
"Another
question of importance is whether an agriculturist on the renewal of a
settlement should be allowed the full benefit of his improvement, or whether
the Government should be held entitled to a share of the additional value,
which his capital and industry aided by other circumstances have added to the
land. We are of opinion that the only satisfactory principle on which all
future renewals of settlement can be made will be that reference must be has to
the value of the land at the time, a liberal consideration being given for the
improvements attribute only to the efforts of the tenant himself, and especially with regard to such as
are of a comparatively recent date and with regard to which he has reaped the
advantage only for a short period under the old settlement."
503. Orders issued by Board of Administration :-
Before this despatch was issued
a practical step had been taken by the Board of Administration of the Punjab to
encourage the construction and repair of wells and the digging of "cuts
from rivers and jhils," the kinds of improvements most likely to be undertaken
by small farmers. In circular 41 of 1850 loans for the execution of such works
were offered and Commissioners were given authority to grant leases protecting
the improvements for certain periods from increased assessment.
504. Provisions of land Improvement Loans Act :-
In section 11 of the Land
Improvement Loans Act, XIX of 1883 (as amended by Act VIII of 1906), it is
provided that "when land is improved with the aid of a loan granted under
this Act, the increase in value derived from the improvement, shall not be
taken into account in revising the assessment of the land-revenue on the land.
"Provided
-
"
Where the improvement consists of the reclamation of waste land, or of the
irrigation of land assessed at unirrigated rates, the increase may be so taken
into account after the expiration of such period as may be fixed by rules to be
framed by the Local Government."
504-A. Principles governing the protection of
improvements from assessment to land revenue :- The principle underlying the temporary protection
of certain classes of agricultural improvements from any charge on account of
land revenue is that the additional net assets derived from land in consequence
of such improvements shall not be reduced by any enhancement of land revenue in
respect of such assets, or in other words by the assessment of such assets to
land revenue, until the capital cost of the improvedments, with current
interest thereon, has been recouped to the improver out of those additional net
assets. The theoretical period of protection depends therefore on -
(1) the amount of capital expenditure;
(2) the rate of interest assumed ; and
(3) the average annual value of the
additional net assets due to the improvement.
The
Punjab Government has accordingly directed that the period
of protection for a new irigation wellshould be fixed with reference to the
above considerations, but subject to a minimum of 30, and a maximum of 40
years, and that it shall depend not on the amount of land revenue to be
annually remitted, but on the amount of the additional net assets due to such
well. It has further been decided that the total sum inclusive of interest to
be recouped from the extra net assets shall be reckoned in all cases at twice
the capital cost of the well. This general standard preception will save a good
deal in intricate and uncertain calculation. It may be observed that recoupment
of twice the capital in a period of 30 years is equivalent to recoupment of the
capital itself in that period together with interest at 51/4 per annum on the
balance together with in year to year. If the period were 40 years, the
corresponding rate of interest would be very nearly 4 per cent.
505. Rules for the exemption of land benefited
by improvements from enhancement of assessment :- (1) Inasmuch as the average cost of construction
of a new well and the average annual additional net assets due to well
irrigation over and above that derived from unirrigated cultivation usually
varies from tract to tract, it follows that the period of protection calculated
on the principles explained in the last paragraph must similarly vary. It will
therefore be the duty of the Settlement Officer, as soon as he is in a position
to do so, to frame for each assessment circle, in accordance with the above principles,
an appropriate period of exemption for the protection from irrigated assessment
of new wells to be constructed in the future. The periods proposed should in no
case be less than 30 years, or more than 40 years, and each period should be a
multiple of five years. The periods framed by the Settlement Officer should be
reported with his reasons for the sanction of the Financial Commissioner
together with any other matters relative to the protection of future new wells
which may require orders.
(ii) The
following rules have been framed under section 60 of the Land Revenue Act for
carrying out in practice the protection of improvements from assessment :-
(1) When amasonry well is constructed at
private expense or with the aid of a loan Government, for purposes of
irrigation, after the coming into force of these rules, the lands which
benefits from the well shall be exempted from liability to any such enhanced or
additional assessment of land revenue as may be due to the existence of the
well, until the expiry of such period is insufficient to repay the land-owner
twice the cost of the well out of the additional net assets due to the well, it
may be extended to such longer periof not exceeding 40 years as may be
considered sufficient for that purpose. In cases where the Revenue Officer
refuses to grant an exemption up to a period of 40 years, the aggrieved party
shall have a right of appeal to the Commissioner.
(2) When a well whether in use or out of use
through disrepair, is repaired for the purpose of irrigation, an exemption from
liability similar to that in sub-rule (1) may be given for such period (if any)
not exceeding half the period specified in that sub-rule as the officer
granting the exemption may consider equitable, with, reference to the amount of
expenditure incurred on repairing the well and to the principle explained in
sub-rule (1).
(3) When a tube-well is constructed at
private expense, or with the aid of a loan from Government, for purposes of
irrigation, the land which benefits from the well shall be exempted from
liablity to any such enhanced or additional assessment of land revenue as may
be due to the existence of land revenue as may be due to the existence of the
well until the expiry of such period as may be considered by the Financial
Commissioner to be sufficient to repay the landowner twice the cost of the well
out of the additional net assets due to the existence of the well. The minimum
periof of exemption for the purpose of this rule shall be 30 years and the
maximum 40 years.
(4) During the period of exemption specified
in sub-rules (1) to (3) the land revenue assessment of the land irrigated by
the well or tube-well shall not exceed the amount which would have been
assessed had no new well been constructed or no old well rapired, and in
particular no fixed lump assessment shall be imposed on the well during the
periof of exemption.
(5) For irrigationworks other than wells or
tube-wells, such as dams, reservoirs, water cuts, minor canals or canal
distributaries, constructed or repaird at private expense or with the aid of a
loan from Government, exemptions similar to thoe allowed for wells under
sub-rules (1) and (2) shall be granted. The period of such exemption shall be
determined in each case by the Settlement Officer, but no exemption for a
periof exceeding 10 years shall be granted without the sanction of the
Commissioner, or exceeding 20 years without that of the Financial Commissioner.
(6) Exemption of reclaimed waste land. -
When a landowner desires to secure an exemption from assessment on reclaimed
waste land inorder to compensate him for incurring substantial expenditure on
its reclamation, he shall apply, before he commences the work to the Financial
Commissioner for such exemption, giving a description of the land to be
reclaimed, the difficulties attending its reclamation, and the sum proposed to
be expended on reclamation operations. The Financial Commissioner shall, after
making such inquires as he deems necessary, decide as to whether any exemption
shall be given.
If
the Financial Commissioner sanctions an exemption, he shall fix the maximum
period of exemption to be granted. At the close of reclamation operations, the
Financial Commissioner, after verifcation of the actual amount expended on
reclamation and the area reclaimed from assessment of land revenue for a period
sufficient to reimburse the land-owner to the extent of twice the sum expended
on the reclamation operations, subject to the maximum limit previously fixed.
(7) When land is reclaimed fom waste with
the aid of a loan granted by Government, and is thereby brought under
cultivation, the increase in value of produce derived from the improvement
shall not be taken into account in revising the assessment of land revenue on
the land until the expiration of a period of three years, reckoned from the
beginning of the harvest first reaped after such reclamation was effected.
(8) The periods of exemption specified in
the above rules may for sufficient be extended in particular cases with the
sanction of the Financial Commissioner.
506. The scope of exemption :- In tracts where, as in some of the western and
south-western districts, there is practically no assessment on land in its
unirrigated aspect, the whole fixed assessment on well lands lying beyound the
reach of river floods or canal water, i.e., chahi-khalis lands should be
remitted during the period of exemption. In the case of chahi-sailab and
chahi-nehri lands the rates of assessment imposed for the period of exemption
shall be as follows :-
(a) Where the land irrigated by the wells is
situated within reach of river floods, the sailab rate or rates, fixed or
fluctuating, as the case may be, as sanctioned for the time being ;
(b) Where it is within reach of canal water,
the nahri-khalis rate or rates, fixed or fluctuating, as the case may be, as
sanctioned for the time being.
Where
in the tracts mentioned above there is no fixed assessment on well-irrigated
lands, no rates other than sailab or nahri-khalis rates as above shall be
charged.
507. Grant of exmemption certificates at
different :- When making a
revision of assessment, the Settlement Officer should institute an inquiry as
to what wells and other irrigation works are entitled to exemption under these
rules, whether the owners apply for the exemption or not. This is one of those
miscellaneous matters which may conveniently be disposed of early in the
settlement. In the course of any visit which he pays to a village the
settlement tahsildar can ascertain which are the works in respect of which any
claim can be set up and make the simple inquiry which such a claim involves.
All the cases in an estate should be included in a single file in the form of
which will not expire before the new assessment is introduced should be
included in the same statement, which should them be submitted to the
Settlement Officer for orders. It will prove embarrassing, if final orders as
to all such exemptions have not been passed before the distribtuion of the
revenue over holdings is undertakne. The period of protection should end with
the agricultural year, the full demand being imposed fromthe kharif harvest. In
every case in which the Settlement Officer grants exemption he should give the
landowner a certificate specifying the well as other work on account of which
it is granted, the date of its construction or repair, the term for which the
exemptionwill last, the land which would otherwise have been assessed at
irrigated rates, and the additional demand to be imposed at the end of the
period of exemption; or, if the land is under fluctuating assessment, the
certificate should state what the effect of the exemption will be under the
system as sanctioned for the tract.
508. Grant of certificates at othe lines :- When a well, tubewell, or other work is constructed
or repaird during the currency of a settlement in such circumstances as to
entitle the owner to an exemption from assessment at irrigated rates, the
Collector should make a special inquiry and grant a certificate of exemption in
accordance with the rules given in paragraph 505. If the exemption is to take
effect immediately, for example when the work is a new well made to irrigate
land formerly watered from a well which it has become impossible to repair, or
is an existing well repaired the certificate should state as nearly as may be
all the parrticulars mentione din paragraph 507, and in additin should show
distinctly the amount of existing land revenue to be remitted, fixed, wherever
possible, in even rupees. But, if the exemption is not to take effect till the
next revision of assessment, as, for instance, where a new well is constructed
to irrigate land under fixed assessment not assessed as well irrigated, there
is no need to take action unles the owner of the well applied for a
certificate. In such a case no entry should be made as to the area subject to
the concession or the amount of the exemption. These particulars will be filled
in by the Settlement Officer at the next reassessment.
509. Latest statement of policy :- The latest statement of the policy of the
Government of India regarding the assessment of land improvements is contained
in a resolution of the Department of Revenue Agriculture No. 6-193-2 dated
24th, May 1906. In the 8th paragraph the opinion is expressed that the Punjab
rules "are sufficiently favourable."
510. Orders of 1852 as to assessment of orchards
and plantations :- It will be
convenient to notice here the orders relating to the lenient assessment of
orchards and plantations. The lack of timber and fruit-trees in the Punjab
early attracted attention, and among the remedial measures proposed by the
Board of Administration and sanctioned by the Government of India was the
provision" that at each revision of the settlement the land under copse or
planted with young trees shall not be subjected to assessment for the term of
that settlement, if at the time of settlement it was not yielding, a return,
and when at any future settlement it shall be found to be productive, it shall
still only the assessed according to the intrinsic qualities of the soil"
(Board Circular No. 15 of 1852.).
511. Rules of 1870 and 1875 :- Still more liberal rules were issued in 1870 -
"Gardens
and groves at the time of settlement will be excluded from assessment on
condition that, if the trees are cut down, or if they decay and are not
immediately replaced by fresh plantations, the land shall at any future period
be assessed to the payment of revenue at the village rate of similar
land............."
"Gardens
and groves in the vicinity of large towns, sadar stations and cantonments, and
which consequently enjoy the advantage of a good market for the sale of garden
produce, or very extensive and profitable gorves elsewhere ...........are not
to exempted entirely, but are to be assessed at half village rates".
(Financial Commissioner's Book Circular I of 1870).
Further
orders on the subject were passed in 1875.
They do not apply to the assessment of compounds and gardens in civil
stations; which is governed by the rules quoted in Appendix XV-
"During
the assessment or reassessment of an estate plantations of timber trees and
gardens of fruit-trees of slow growth in which ordinary crops are not
cultivated may be excluded from the assessable area or exempted from assessment
for a portion of the term of settlement, or assessed at half the rate of
assessmetn for land with similar advantages no under trees, according to
circumstances, subject to to the condition that, if the land is subsequently,
brought under ordinary cultivation or cleared of trees, it shall be assessed at
full rates. In the case of fruittrees, the term of exemption should be fixed
with reference to the time which must elapse before the garden becomes
profitable. The land for which such favourable terms are given shoould be fixed
with reference to the time which must elapse before the garden becomes
profitable. The land for which such favourable terms are given should not
exceed 10 per cent of the cultivated area of the estate, or, where the shares
are held separatly, of the share of the estate of whch it forms part.
Favourable terms need not be given for gardens of fruittrees which come to
maturity speedily and yield an early return. But in case should the rate of
assessment for land under timber of fruit-trees exceed the village rate for land
with similar advantages not under trees." (Financial Commissioner's Book
Circular X of 1875). The last provision has been modified to meet the case of
gardens from which the owners erive large profits. The existing rule, which was
sanctioned in Punjab Government letter No. 201, dated 22nd December 1898, is a
follows :-
"The
rate of assessment for land under timber or fruit-trees should not ordinarily
exceed the village rate for land with similar advantages not under trees; but,
when the profits from fruit gardens which have been fully taken into account in
the produce estimate greatly exceed the profits from land with similar
advantages under zabti or other crops, the Settlement Officer should not
hesitate to take such gardens out of the general bachh and assess them
separately."
The
condition the ordinary crops are not cultivated need not be taken too
literally. When a mango grove is young, a sparse crop of wheat is often grown
under it, and the owner of a garden should not be excluded from the benefit of
the rules because he sows some fodder in it for the well bullocks.
512. Rules of 1882 as to timber plantations :- Later regulations allow the total exemption from
assessment at any time of land under timber plantations -
I. The exemption may be for the whole
term of settlement, or for 12 years if the settlement expires before 12 years
from the date of exemption.
II. The trees must be planted, not
self-sown.
III. The plnationmust be sufficienlty thick to
render the land which it covers unfit for cultivation.
It
this condition is at any time not fulfilled, the assessment will be reimposed
at the rate fixed at settlement for the land.
IV. With the consent of the Collector, land
which has been freed from assessment under these rules may be cleared of trees
and replanted without becoming liable to assessment under the previous rule,
provided it is once replanted.
V. In the case of land assessed to
Government revenue which shall hereafter be planted sith timber trees no
exemption shall be allowed, unless the sanction of the Collector shall have
been obtained to the formation of the timber planation.
VI. Collectors and Settlement Officers are
responsible that not more than 10 per cent of the cultivated area of any
estate, or (when the shares are held separately) of the share of the estate, of
which the planations forms part, is exempted from assessment under the
operation of these rules.
VII. At the expiration of the period of
exemption fixed by the Settlement Officer or Collector, or when the exemption
becomes resumeable owing to non-fulfillment of the conditions on which it was
allowed, the Collector will impose the assessment remitted at settlement or
after settlement, reporting that he has done so in the manner prescribed for
reporting lapses to revenue-free assignements.
VIII. A
mauzawar register of such exemption shoule be kept up in each district office.
If
a Settlement Officer exempts land from assessment under these rules, he treats
the land like a revenue free plot and records in the Settlement record the
assessment remitted and the amount and conditions of remission. If a Deputy
Commissioner proposes to free land from assessment under the rules, he submits
an application in a prescribed form.
513. Remissions on account of injury done by roadside
trees :- The extent to which the
neighborhood of trees planted along roads injuries the crops sown in the
adjoining fields is often very noticeable. Remissions of revenue were first
made on this account in the case of Captain Wace's Settlement of Jehlum.
The present rules on the subject are -
1. Where the land adjoining a public road
or canal is appreciably injured by the presence of trees on the side of the
road or canal, the Settlement Officer may, at his discretion, classify the land
so injured separately, and in making the distribution of assessment over
holdings treat it as not liable to assessment or charge it at a lower rate than
land otherwise of similar quality.
2. The maximum allowance to be made on
this account is that up to limit of 55 feet from the trunks of the trees the
whole revenue of all unirrigated land or half the revenue of all irrigated land
may be remitted; but it will be for the Settlement Officer to judge in each
case whether so much allowance as this should be made.
3. Should be area injured by sufficiently
large to affect appreciably the gross assessment of the estate, the damage
caused can be allowed for in fixing the total demand.
4. In the case of land under fluctuating
assessment the allowance made for failed crops iwll usually be sufficient to
meet the case.
chapter xxx
Assessment
Reports
514 Assessment report :- The Commissioners should arrange with the
Settlement Officer shorty after his settlement is begun, the approximate dates
on which he is to have his assessment reports ready and the dates thus arranged
should be intimated to the office of the Financial Commissioner.
A
settlement Officer must obtain the sanction of Government through the Financial
Commissioners to his method of assessment [ section 50(2) of Act XVII of 1887].
He embodies his proposals in an assessment report which he sends to the Press
for printing. Detailed instructions regarding the printing and distribution of
assessment reports are contained in appendex XXII.
Advance
copies of the report when printed are sent by the Financial Commissioner's
office to the Deputy Commissioner of the District and the Commissioner of the
division. Any remarks which the Deputy Commissioner has to make should be
communicated to the Commissioner within one month of the receipt by him of the
report. It is also important that the Commissioner should forward his own
remarks on the report to the Financial Commissioner without delay. In no case
should a Commissioner keep the report pending for more than one month after the
expiry of the period allowed in paragraph 514-A for the submission of
representations or objections to be assessment proposals as published by the
Settlement Officer. Unless the Commissioner has himself conducted a settlement
he is not expected to scrutinize the net assets estimates derived from cash and
kind rents but may confine his attention to general considerations bearing on
the pitch of the proposed assessment such as are dealh within Chapter XXIII.
514-A. Abstract of assessment proposals to be
published :- After the
Settlement Officer's report has been prepared and before it is forwarded to the
Commissioner a brief abstract will be prepared and translated into vernacular
embodying (1) a short explanation of the division of the tahsil or other tract
under assessment into assessment circles; (2) the main data on which the true
net assets estimate is usually based viz., actual and assumed commutation
prices, rates of yield rates of rent in cash or kind average total areas
cultivated and matured deductions allowed for expenses of cultivation menials
dues etc. the value of land as disclosed by sales and mortgages the one-forth
net assets rates proposed and the theoretical result they would being out; (3)
the general considerations on which the pitch and amount of the total actual
assessment proposed to be taken are based i.e........ the increase in resources
through irrigation, extnsion of cultivation, rise in prices miscellanous income
etc, (4 the assessment actually proposed and the actual average revenue rates
proposed for adoption in framing village assessments with such brief
explanations as may be necessary including the clear proviso that there is no
guarantee that any particular estate will be ultimately assessed at the exact
rates; proposed.
Copies
of this abstract will be supplied by post to all Zaildars Sufedposhes, headmen,
and of ganizations of land-owners of the area concerned to non-official members
of the Districts Board and elected members of the Punjab Legislative Council
representing the said area. A period of thirty days from the date of posting
will be allowed within which any revenue ppayen or group of revenue-payers or
occupancy tenants may make a representation or objection to the proposed
assessment to the Settlement Officer who will consider any such representations
or objections and will then forward them with his views thereon together with
the report, to the Commissioner.
515. Each report should deal with assessment of
a tahsil :- The assessment
proposals for a whole tahsil should usually be included in a single report. If
a smaller area such as one assessment circle is dealt with the Settlement
Officer loses the advantage of comparing cricle with circle and inequality of
treatment may ensure. The multiplication of reports is in itself great evil,
considering the number of hands through which each has to pass before final
orders are obtained. It is as a rule unwise on the other hand to attempt to
deal with more than one tahsil at a times.
516. Report should be brief :- It needs some art of make an assessment report
full without being lengthy. But the first requisite is not art, but a firm
grasp of the assessment problem and of the facts which in the particular case
under discussion supply the key to unlock it. A man can only expound plainly
and breifly matters of which he has a clear understanding. A settlement Officer
will be able to keep his report within a moderate compass if he fixed his eyes
on those points which have a definite and important bearing on the assessment
and refuses to turn aside to minor issues or the discussion of general
questions of policy. The broader and simpler the arguments advanced in support
of the porposed rates the more likely are they to produce conviction. The main
lines of the new assessment throughout the district will often be settled by
the orders passed on the first tahsil report and later reports need only refer
briefly to some subjects which had to be fully dealt within the first.
517. Contents of assessment reports :- It is not desirable that any model should be
rigidly followed. But at the same it is an advantage that these reports should
be framed on the same general lines and treat the topics with which they deal
in the same order. A rough scheme for an assessment report is therefore given
in Appendix XVI. The statistical statements should as far as possible be
confined to those prescribed for the revenue registers with the addition of a
rainfall statement a net assests estimate based on batai and zabti rents, and,
where each rents are sufficiently common, a statement of normal rents. In
compi;ing assessment returns from the registers the information which the
latter contain may be condensed to any extents that appears convenient. It is
for, example, unnecessary to give details for every year of the expiring
settlement separately,. Quinquennial or decennial average are sufficient. The
crop statement need only give figures for years whose harvests are made the
basis of the produce estimate. But it is useful to supplement this with a statement
giving for each year since settlement the sown, failed and harvested areas
without any detail of crops., It will often be found convenient in the body of
the report to throw information on some matters into tabular form and to
summarize in this way the leading results of some of the statistics set forth
in the genteral returns. But all such tables should be very short. At least one
small scale map showing the chief physical features of the tahsil and the
former and present assessment circles shoud accompany the report. Some other
matters as, for example the distrubution of agricultural tribes or the water
level in different parts of the tahsil may, with advantage be graphically shown
in maps. A glossary of varnacular terma used in the report must be supplied.
CHAPTER XXXI
Distribution
of Revenue over Estates and Announcement
of new Jamas.
518. Determination of village jamas :- A settlements officer need not await orers in his
assesment report before distributing demand over estates. He can make his
village assessments on the assumption that his proposed circle rates will be
sanctioned and can complete his remarks in each village notebook by entering
the sum at which he has fixed the revenue, and stating at the same time the
calculation employed in working it out and the reason bu which it is justified.
But he must await the orders of Government of his assesment proposals before
making any announcement of the new jamas. As soon as they are received the
settlemts officer can make any additions or alterations which have become
necessary in the notebooks and can draw up the " order determining of
assessment proper for each estate" required by section 51 (1) of the land
revenue Act of 1887 and land revenue rule 28 in part E of Appendix 1.
519. Announcement of village jamas :- When the village jamas have been finally settled
they should be imposed within a margin of three percent either way of the
sanctioned ammount for each assessment
circle ( see land revenue rule 20 in part E of
appendix 1). When everything is ready the headmen and other persons interested
should be summoned time the lambardars of each estate should be given a
memorandum showing what their village will have to pay in future with any
further particulars deemed necessary.2 Till the land revenue Act
1887 was passed the headmen signified their acceptance of the assessment by
signing or affixing their seals to a tender of engagement (darkhwast
malguzari). The old procedure had the merit of marking the fact that the land
revenue is not a tax. The harvest from which the new demands will take effect
should be stated to the land- owners and noted in the memoranda handed to their
headmen. No definite announcement as to the term of the new settlemts must be
made (paragraph 493).
520. Petitions and appeals against assessment :-
Within thirty days after the
date on which the new jamas are given our any landowner and in the case of
assigned land revenue the asignee also may present a petition to the settlemts
officer praying him to reconsider "the amount form or conditions" of
the particular village assesments in which he is interested and in passing
orders the settlement officer must record his reason for granting or fefusing
the request ( section 52 Act XVII of 1887). Any person affecxted by the new
asessment whether as land-owner or assignee may appeal to the Commissioner
against the order determining its amount or against a subsequent order
rejecting a petition for reconsideration (section 13) The period of limitation
in either case is sixty days (section 14)
521. Refusal of land-owners to become liable :- Within ninety days of the announcement of the
assessment of his village any landowner or landowners who would be individually
or collectively responsoblw for more than half the jama may give notice to the
soeelement Officer of his or thir refusal to accepts libility for its
payment(section 55). Fortunately such action on the part of proprietors is now
rare. If the settlemt officer has rejected a petition for reconsideration, he
can only worn the land jowners of the consequences of their recusancy and if
the persist in it, ask the collector to take possesion of the estate ( section
55). It may then be managed direct or make over to a farmer on such conditions
as the financial commissioner may sanction; the term in either case must not
exceed firteen years and at the end of it the estate may be reassessed (section
73). While exceed forteen years and at the end of it the estate may be
reassessed (section 73). While it is under direct management or farmed the
rights of the land-owners are in abeyance but they are entitled to an allowance
of form 5 to 10 percent as the financial commissioner may determine of the net
income which government derives from it (section 55).
522. Detailed village assessment statement :- As soon as ; possible after giving out the jamas
the settlemt officer should submit the detailed village assessment statement
(see Apendix XVII) for the approval of the commissioner. In every case in which
the existing demand is lowered or in which the assessment of an estate differs
by more than 20 per cent from that brought out by the application of the
sanctionedrates, the reason should be explained in the last column. As regards
other estates no remarks are required. It is recognizes that a settlements
officer will usually find it necessary to go freely above and below circle
rates in his village assessments. He should howerver submit with the statement
a note showing. The principles on which he has preceeded in distributing the
total assessment of the circle over the different estates, the extent to which
he has found it necessary to depart from the circle rates in assessing
indivdual villages and the manner in which he has treated different parts of
the circle. The commissioner may withhold his senction to the detailed village
assessment statement to the settlemt officer in a latter in which the amount of
the new demand is stated. He at the same time calls for the statements
mentioned in Appendix XVII. These statements are forwarded by the settlemts
officer to the commissioner who, after checking them in his officer with the
detailed village assessment statement forwards them to the financial
commissioner for record in his office.
523. Special report regarding progressive assessment :- Any action which it is proposed to take in the
way of deferringf part of the enhancement to a future date should have been
fully explained in the assessment report. Progressive assessment which are
distinctly covered by orders passed on it by Vovernment need not be separately
reported for savction. In such cases it is enough to note in the detailed
village assessment statement both the initial and the final demand and to show
in the remarks xolumn the steps by which the full demand will be reached. Any
progressive assessments which do not fall clearly within the scope of the
orders received must be specially reported to the financial commiisioner and
their announcement must be deferred till sanction is received. The form to be
used is that prescribed for the detailed village assessment statement and a
full explanation of the necessity of the measure must be given in the covering
letter.
CHAPTER
XXXII
Distribution of
the Revenue over Holdings.
524. Estate assessed and not holding or field :- According to the land revenue policy
north-western India
the estate and not theholding or the field is the units of assessment ans all
its land-owners are ultimatel responsible for the payment of the revenue
imposed upon it. But each individual proprietor is primarily liable for the
quota of the revenue properly chargeable on his own holding ( section 61 of the
land revenue Act of 1887) and the sum at which each holding is rated is shown
in the jamabandi. In practice the joint responsibility of all the land-owners
in an estate or in one of its subdivisions or pattis has very rarely to be
enforced.
525. Importance of distribution over holding :- A good distribution of the demand over holding (
bachh or tarfrik) is of greater importance to the individual land-owners then
the amount of the gross assessment of the estate. According to the theory in
favour when our early settlements were made the former was matter to be left
entirely to the proprietors. It is a significant fact that neither ; Thomas's
Directions" nor the Land Revenue Act of 1871 and the rules under it
contain a word as to the manner in which the bachh should be made. It would be
a mistake to inger from this that settlement officers paid no attention to the
subject but it is a fact that the matter was left much more in the hands of
subordinates than is now thought desirable.
526. Close supervision now required :- The changes of the past fifty years have to a
considerable extent. disintegrated villages communities. Freedom of transfer
introduced many alien elements, aneestral or customary shares agree far less
than formerly with the facts or possession the distribution of the revenue
according to shares once so common has fallen into distepute. It is impossible
in these days to get land-owners to agree to changes of possession which would
be necesary in order to make each man,s actual holding agree even roughly with
his shape. The utmost they are likely to accept is a provision that it the
common lands are divided. the origianal share which each man held in the estate
shall be adopted as the mesure of his right in these lands. At the same time
the old rough and ready rule where share were not followed of speading the
revenue over the cultivated area by means of a single rate without regard to
distinctions of soils or classes of land ( sarsari parta) has ceased to be
popular except in tracts where the conditions for agriculture are exceedingly
simple. It was justified on the assumption that each land-owner had a fair
share irrigated and unirrigated land and of each land and of each king of soil.
It may be found that it be found that it never really was so, but that the more
powerful men, who had secured the best lands for themselves had sufficient
influence to obtain the adoption of a method of distribution favourable to
their own interests. Even if the original distribution was fair, unjust
partitions of the common land or transfer of the better lands to alien
purchasers or mortagagees may have made an all- round rate on cultivation
grossly unfair. an increased feeling of independence or disunion, whichever we
are pleased to call it, may also lead the
people to insist on a more detailed system of distribution than was once
accepted without demur there result of these influences has been an increased
demand for differential rates on soil or classes of land and the necessity of
much closer supervision and greater interference bu the settlemts officer then
was formerly deemed requisite.
527. Provisions of Land Revenue Act and of the rules under it :- Section 56 (1) of the present land Revenue Act
(XVII of 1887) requires the Settlement officer before the forst instalment of
the new assement bexomes due to issue "an order destributing it over the
several holdings comprised in the estate and make and publish a record of its
distribution." This order forms part of the standing record. Rule 23 of
the land revenue Rules farmed under section 60 (b) which bears on this point
will be found in Appendix 1 Patt E. It provides that in deciding the method of
the new distribution regard shall be had to the former usage and to the wishes
of the land-owners so far as may be practicable and equitable and prescbibe the
contents and mothod of publication of the record referred to in section 56 (1).
The rule wosely enters into few details. Each officer will adopt the procedure
and form of record which he finds most convenient, subject of course in the
case of the latter to his giving in it all the invormation which the rule
requires. The following paragraphs are merely intende to give some hints in
connection with this branch of work.
528. How far work connected with bachh can be undertaken before jamas
are given out :- The proper time
for setting finally the method of the new distribution is after the giving out
of the revised jama but a great deal of preparatory work may be done before the
announcement of the revenue. The naib tahsildar has already during record work
discussed with the land-owners the mathod of distribution and at final
attestation has prepared the tarika bachh file( paragraph 293). Final orders
will not be passed on this file till the new assessment is announced and the
zamindars have had an opportunity of reconsidering their former decision when
they know what demand has to be paid but the settlement of joint holdings and
mortagagees and cognate subjects. He shouls therefore preceed to utilize the
time which must elapse between the completior of record work and the
announcement of the new jamas by preparing the detailed holding to holding
bachh statement. Opposite each revenue payer's name should shown (paragraph
544) the area or share according as the proposed bachh is on possession or by
shares for the assessment on which the land-owner will be responsible and it
will usually be best to record the areas with the detail of soil classification
shown in the jamabandi whether or not the distribution is to be bu soils. No
form is presctibed for this statement but columns shouid be provided for the
information required bu rule 23 (2) (a) in part B of Appendix 1. The columns showing
the demand resulting from the new bachh and the casses will be left bland and
will be filled in ager the demand had been announceed. for this final potion of
the work also a good deal of preparation can be done. The calculation of the
demand on each holding will be much simplified if calenders are got ready
beforehand showing how according to the proposed method of destribution Rs.100
or any other selected sum will fall per bigha or biswa ghumao or kanal of each
class of soil. If the existing demand is a multi;le of Rs. 100 or Rs. 50 the
settlement officer may go even further. and if he feels reasonably sure that
the method of distribution proposed at final attestation will not be altered
when the new demand is announced he may find it a food plan to work out the
effect of it in the existing demand, showing in pencil in the misl bachh the
effect it would give for each holding. When the new demand is announced. the
revenue of each holding can then be altered proportionately and inked in. the
settlement officer must be prepared to find that in some cases much of this
preliminary work will have to be discarded if the zamindars on hearing the new
demand abandon or alter the method of distribution devised at final
attestation. If the settlement officer has laid out his work will have to be
descrded if the zamindars on hearing the new demand abandon or alter the method
of distrubution devised at final attestation. Ig the settlement officer has
laid out his work properly all question regarding protective lease should have
been settled, and all orders on revenue-free holding either passed by himself
of where higher sanction was necessary received form the financial commissioner
before the bachh work is taken in hand.
529. Discussion of bachh at time of announcement of new jamas :- The settlement officer when he gives out the new
revenue of the village should inform the land-owners of the former system of
destribution and of the system proposed by them at time of final attestation of
the record and should duscuss with them briefly the propriely of adhering to
either of these methods with or without modification of adopting an entirely
new method. He will usually find that little alteration is proposed at final
attention if the matter was then carefully enquired into but if the land owners
have any hesitation at to the method to be adopted they should be allowed some
time to talk over the matter among themselves. If the Settlement Officer adopts
this plan he must be prepared to spend a fortnight ingiving out the jamas of a
tahsil instead of a single day. At the preliminary discussion thedivision of
therevenue between sub-divisions or pattis if such exist in that estate should
be specially considered. If, for example each patti has hitherto been paying a
definite fraction of the revenu an inspection of the bachh record wil show
pretty clearly whether the distribution by fixed shares can with advantage be
maintained. Changes may have occurred through the unequal development of the
resources of the different pattis through river action or through transfers,
which make the traditional division of the liability no longer suitable. But it
is quite possible that the landowners may in some cases elect to use somewhat
different rates in distributing the revenue of different pattis rather than
break up an arrangement of old standing. There may be reasons which they are
the best judges which make a division by shares fairer than it appears on the
surface. Deficiency of area may be made up for by the possession of better
land. Settlement official are apt to look too much to quantity and too little
to quality. In all proceedings connected with the bachh symmetry should without
hesitation be sacrificed to convenience or even of prejudice except where the
method of distribution proposed is practically unjust to some of the persons
interested.
530. Final determination as to method of distribution :- Cases in which the method of distribution cannot
be finally determined when the demand is announced or when the Settlement
Officer first discusses the matter with land-owners will sometimes arise. In
these cases the settlement tahsildar shold be directed to visit the estate or
its nbeighbourhood after allowing a few days to elapse in order to discuss the
bachh with the land-owners and report to the Settlement Officer their wishes
and his own proposals. When agreement has been reached or in case of dispute
when the settlement tahsildar has made up his own mind as to the proper course
to follow it will be well to fill in pencil against each holding the columns of
the record which are intended to show the rate or method of distribution and
the new revenue and to announce the latter holding by holding to the people.
Neither they nor the Settlement Officer can really judge of the propriety of
what is proposed unless the old and new demand for each holding can be
compared. The owner may with good reason reject entirely a method distribution
which they at first declared suitable when they see how it works out in
practice. If there are dispute which the settlement tahsildar has been unable
to compose he should inform the contending parties of a date on which they may
attend before the Settlement Officer and should note the fact that he has done
so on the file. The good working of the assessment may very largely depend on
the patience with which the Settlement Officer investigates such disputes and
examines the details of the bachh record. When his orders have been passed any
necessary changes in the record can be made and the entries can be completed in
ink. A paper should then be given to each shareholder showing the old and new
revenue and cesses of his holding. It may be expected that aftr this has been
done some fresh disputes will arise, and these in the last resort must decided
by the Settlement Officer.
531. Subsidiary instructions :- In bachh rates fractions of pies should never be used. Where rates can
conveniently be stated in even annas; this should be done where this is not
feasible fractions of an anna less than 1/4 should be avoided as far as possible.
Except when land is of great value one-quarter of a kanal or bigha as the case
may be is th lowest area of which account need be taken where the ghumaos or
the zamindari bigha equal to 5/24ths of an acre is the measure of area entered
inthe land revenue records. Three or four marlas or biswas may be reckoned as
kanal and bigha respectively, and 2 marls or biswas may be disregarded. Where
the shahjahani bigha equal to 5/8ths of an acre is used it may sometimes be
requisite to take account of single biswas. It is not necessary that the rates
applied to the areas should bring out the new revenue of the estate exactly. A
difference of rupee or two either way will not matter. It may be arranged that
the excess shall be credited to or the deficiency taken from the malba or the
deficiency may be thrown upon some common holding. The total demand from each
holding both revenue and cesses should be stated in rupees, annas, and pice. No
coin lower than I pice need we recognized.
532. * * *
* *
533. Cesses :- Cesses
should be distributed in the following way. The whole sum due having been
reckoned, it should be ascertained how many pies per rupees of revenue must be
levied in order to yield this sum and the cesses chargeable to each holding
should then be entered without any detail. It is enough to distribute cesses
under different heads in the village total.
534. Order under section 56 (1) of the Land Revenue Act and bachh
file :- The order required by
section 56 (1) of the Land REvenue Act should describe briefly the former
method of distribution that which has now been adopted and the reasons which
make it suitable. Any objections made and the decisions passed with refeence to
them be shortly noticed. The original order should be placed with the standing
record, and a copy of it should be the last paper in the bachh file. The file
should be preserved in the village in the district kanungos office.
535. Petitions for reconsideration of bachh and appeals :- Any person affected by the reocrd of the distribution
of the revenue over holdings may within thirty days of its publication, request
the Settlement Officer to reconsider it and in passing orders the latter must
give his reasons for granting or rejecting the petition (section 57 of the Land
Revenue Act) As a matter of fact a Settlement Officer should be ready to look
into any complaint with reference to the bachh which is not on the face of it
unreasonable at any time before settlement operations are closed. An appeal
from an order made under section 57 lies to Commissioner and a further from his
finding to the financial Commissioner (section 58).
536. Plots excluded from bachh :- Some further remarks may be added on questions which arise in making a
distribution of revenue over holdings. There may be some plots such a petty
land revenue assignments which have been resumed so far as Government is
concerned or fields cultivated by village menials which the proprietors may
wish to exclude altogether from the bachh. The revenue which these would pay spread
over the remaining hildings will not add appreciably to the burden which any
land-owner has to bear and if the feeling in the community in favour of
exempting them from assessment is practically unanimous the opposition of a few
objects may be overused.
537. Care required in rating of well lands :- The most difficult questions for decisions in the
bachh proceedings usually the rating of wells. There is not matter wherein the
views of officials and the wishes of the people are more liekly to disagree and
as to which greater deference should be paid to the latter. It is a common
experience that the landowners refused to draw in the bachh any such wide
distinction between well lands and unirrigated lands as has been made in the
sanctioned assessment rates. Daily experience has shon men who till their own
fields exactly know where the shoe pinches and they do not look so much so
officials are apt to do to the rich results of well irrigation without
considering sufficiently the expense and risks involved. The great difference
inthe capacity of wells calls for much care in distribution work. Their value
varies with their age and condition the depth from which water is drawn the
character of the water-bearing stratum the sweetness on brackishness of the
water the nearness or distance of the well from the village site the number of
the oxen employed upon it and the quality of the land it irrigates. Such of
these causes as affect the extent of land which is watered can be roughly
gauged by excerpting from the harvest inspection returns a statement of the
average are irrigated by each well in the past three or four years and such a
statement is of great assistance in making the bachh. But the nature of the
crops raised also be considered. In one part of the estate it may be usual to
concentrate irrigation on a small acreage of rich crops in another it may be
spread over a large area of ordinary crops. Too much importance should not be
attached to the existence of two Persian wheels or two buckets. If the
shareholders are numerous this may be more an arrangement for the convenient
use of the well than a means of increasing its irrigating capacity. The people
should be freely consulted andthey may invited to classify their wells with or
without the aid of arbitrators. In Gujranwala it was found that in large
estates with sixty or seventy wells as many as eight or ten classes were wanted
while an instance is quoted of a village with eighty-one wells grouped in
twelve-class with rates ranging from Re 1-1-0 to Re. 9-9-0 per acre. A separate assessment of each well may
sometimes be preferable to an attempt to divide them into classes.
538. Chief methods of rating well lands :- There are three principal ways of rating wells in
the bachh.
(a) By applying irrigated rates to the chahi
fields. These rates will not necessarily be uniform over the whole village
area.
(b) By rating the land separately and
imposing a lump sum in addition as abianaor water-advantage revenue.
(c) By putting a lump sum on the well area.
Under the second plan it
is natural to divide the abianamong the owners according to their shares inthe
well. The fact that this cannot be done where the first plan is adopted is a
serious diadvantage. It is in fact only suitable where the land attached to a
well and the well water are owned in approximately equal shares. The second
plan is generally the most convenient in itself but if its adoption would be an
innvoation it is well to consider whether it will seriosuly distrub the former
distribution of the revenue between holding and holding. This may be tested by
trying its effect in one or two estates. To change the former system of
distribution without the consent of the majority of the people is a course
which should not be adopted except on the ground that it is the only way of
making an equitable distribution. The Settlement Officer should communicate to
the settlement tahsildar the amount at which thecalculates the abiana o the
whole estate and tell him to distribute this sum over the wells in accordance with
the average area of crops watered from each as shown in the statement referred
to in paragraph 385. The figures thus worked out are only intended to help the
land-owners to make a proper distribution and to enable the settlement
officials to defeat any attempt to put an unfair share of the abiana on
particular wells, those for example which are revenue free or owned by
occupancy tenants paying at revenue rates with the addition of a malikhana. The
tahsildar should be warned that the people may change the total amount of the
abina or its distribution over the wells. They may have good reasons for doing
the latter. They may for example be able to show that a well has been purposely
thrown out of gear during settlement or that another was in a bad state or not
fully yoked in some of the years on which the average has been struck but is
now efficient or on the other hand that a well has recently broken down either
wholly or partially. It will rarely be wise to put anyting like a full abianaon
disused wells even though they are capable of being worked. But each case must
be judged on its merits. The lands included in well area may in themselves be
of better quality than the purely barani lands. When this is the case it is
quite right if the people wish it to put a heavier dry rate on the former than
on the latter. The third plan does not differ in practice very much from the
second. In many parts of the west and south-west of the Punjab a well with the
lands attached to it is virtually a separate estate and there is little or no
barani cultivation outside well limits. Where this state of thins prevails the
third plan is suitable and the Settlement Officer may find that he must in fact
assess each well separately.
539. Difficulty where persons irrigate from wells in which they have
no share :- Puzzling questions
arise when it is found tthat some of the fields regularly watered belong to
persons who have no share in the well itself. In Jullundur such fields wee as a
rule assessed in the bachhat irrigated rates though their owner objected if the
irrigation dated from the previous settlement or if the well-owner got water
from another well in which the objector had a share otherwise they were treated
as dry especially if the area was small. In Karnal-Ambala where the abinaaplan of
distribution was adopted the wellowner were asked whether they agreed to allow
the irrigation to continue till the next settlement. If they consented the
abianawas shared by all the irrigators but if they decline only such of the
irrigators as had a right to the well water were made responsible for its
payment.2
540. Differential rating of soils :- When the people ask for a different rating of
soils, in the bachheven though separate assessment rates have only been framed
for class of land their wishes should usually be respected. The settlement
tahsildar must then go over the area of the estte and make fresh
classification. The work need not as arule take long as soils usually lie in
blcoks.
541. Jagirdar's sir lands :- The cultivated lands owned by a jagirdar (sir jagir) should be treated in
the bachhas they would be treated if owned by a member of the village
brotherhood. If they are of exceptional quality they may be rated differently
from other lands of the same class but otherwise.
542. Old and new culturable waste :- Even when no assessment has been imposed by the
Settlement Officer on new or old culturable waste the people may wish to put a
portion of the demand upon them. They may even ask that a least such part of
the banjar jadidand kadim as is included in separate proprietary holdings shall
be rated exactly like cultivated land. Cases of this sore must be dealt with on
their merits. It will often be fair to rate jadidlike cultivated land and to
put a lighter rate on old waste. Jagirdars sometimes own blocks of grazing land
(birs) which are much more valuable than the ordinary pasturage of the village.
It is fair enough to assess such lands on their merits. But much will depend on
the assessment if any which they have hitherto borne. Any course should be
avoided which might lead assignees to suspect with the smallest show of reason
that attempt was being made to reduce the value of their grants by indirect
methods.
543. The common landof the village :- Part of the village common land may be found to
be in the separate possession of individual land-owner who cultivate it
themselves or through tenants and part may be titled by tenants who pay rent to
the brotherhood as a whole. It is well to include in the bachhall cultivated common
land. It must not be assumed that the profits of the common land really are
fairly divide among the shareholders and that each may properly be made liable
for the share which he would obtain if a partition took place.
544. Entry of new revenue and cesses in final jamabandi :- The revenue and cesses payable by each
shareholder according to the new bachh should be entered against his hodling in
the detailed jamabandi which forms part of the standing record. If that is a
jamabandi drawn up before the announcement of the revised demand it will
already show the revenue and cesses payable for the particular year to which it
relates. In that case the new revenue and cesses maybe written in the red ink
below the old. It is a good plan to enter in the bachhrecord and jamabandi
against each man's holding not only its assessment but also any sums payable on
account of any joint holding in which he has a share. In this way the whole
amount due from each holding should be noted and also the total for all
holdings. The new demand should not be entered in the jamabandi till the period
within which objections (paragraph 535) may be made has elapsed and all
applications have ben disposed of.
545. Reversion of settlement bachh :- Section 56 (2) of the Land Revenue Act provides
that the Collector may at any time for sufficient reason revise the settlement
bachh. It is not desirable that a power of this sort should be often exercised
but circumstances may arise when it may usefully be put in force (see for
example paragraph 438). In the case of progressive enhancement it will not
necessary for the collector to make fresh distribution a successive portions of
the demand which have been deferred become due. It is the duty of the
Settlement Officer in introducing the new assessment to announce over holdings
the demand which will finally be reached and the five years reductions should
be given by temporarily reducing the demand on each holding by so many annas in
the rupee. The Settlement Officer should use this power so as to ensure that
after five or ten years each village will be paying approximately its fair
share of the total assessment sanctioned for the circle and he should show on
the bachhfile for each holding the demand due at each enhancement.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Closing operations
546. Incorporation of new assessment in land revenue roll :- When the distribution of the demand over holdings
has been finished it is possible to state exactly the portions of the revenue
of each estate due to Government (khatsa) and to assignees (jagir) respectively
and the amount of the abatements to be made on account of protective leases.
The figures in the 10th of the statement in the village notebooks can then be
filled in and measures can be taken for the incorporation of the new assessments
in the district land revenue roll. The later operation demands great care if
confusion and the possibility of loss are to be avoided. Instructions on the
subject will be found in Appendix XVIII.
547. Recovery from jagirdars of cost of assessment :- It has been the rule in Punjab to require
jagirdars to contribute to the cost of assessment the estates whose revenue is
assigned to them. Accordingly section 148 (1) of the Land Revenue Act of 1887
provides that when land of which the land revenue had been assigned in whole or
in part is reassessed the assignee shall be liable to pay such a share of the
cost of making the reassessment as the Financial Commissioner may determine to
be just. As soon as the new assessments have been distributed over holdings the
Settlement Officer should send a statement of the amounts to be recovered to
the Commissioner for transmission to the Financial Commissioner. The orders on
the subject will be found in the Appendix XIX.
548. Custody of standing records :- As the operations in each tahsil are finished its
standing records should all the deposited in the office of the district
Kanungo. Patwaris should have complete copies of these records for the estates
in their circle including a copy of the village map.This latter copy will be on
cloth. An exact fair copy of the village map as filed with the standing records
will also be kept in the tahsil this copy being made on country mapping sheets.
Instructions regarding the above copies are contained in paragraph 20 of
appendix VII.
549. Transfer of correspondence etc. to district office :- Before the settlement is concluded the
correspondence which has occurred in connection with it should be examined,
ephemeral papers destroyed, and the rest arranged and handed over to the Deputy
Commissioner. It is a good plan to keep all such papers in a separate book case
in the district office together with the printed assessment reports which with
all the connected correspondence, should be bound together in a single volume.
The English village assessment circle and tahsil revenue registers the volumes
containing the professional survey maps and the final settlement report can be
kept in the same place. At least a year before the close of his operation the
settlement Officer should satisfy himself that there is proper accomodation in
the district office for all the records that he will transfer to the custody of
the Collector.
549-A. Disposal of equipment on termination of settlement :- As the Director of Land Records is reponsible for
the redisrtribution of equipment at the end of settlement the Settlement Offier
should six months before the termination of his settlement send to the Director
of Land Records a list of the tents furniture survey implements books
stationery forms and Musavis which he anticipates will remain over from his
settlement in order to enable the Director of Land Records not be in a position
to transfer all the equipment elsewhere at once the Settlement Officer will
when closing the settlement make over top the Deputy Commissioner for custody
such of the equipment with him sending at the same time a list of the equipment
to the Director of Land Records.
550. Settlement report :- The final settlement report should if possible, be written before the
Settlement Officer leaves the district. Under existing orders it should
ordinarily be sent in print. to the Commissioner within three months
of the close of settlement operations and be in the Financial Commissioner's
hands two months later. Elaborate reports of the kind formerly prepared are no
longer required. General information regarding a district must now be sought
for in its gazetter not in the settlement report which is intended to be
"a conside official doucment devoted almost entirely to the description of
the settlement operations and their results." Matters on which orders are
still required must be referred for orders separately and not in the settlement
report.
It should generally be
possible to arrange its contents under six heads to each of which a separate
chapter may be devoted -
(a) General description of the district.
(b) Its past political and fiscal history.
(c) Progress of the settlemtn with special
reference to the revision of the record.
(d) Revision of the assessment.
(e) Distribution of the revenue over
holdings.
(f) Miscellaneous.
The first two subjects
should be disposed of very briefly. It is useless to treat them in anything
like the detail which is suitable in a gazetteer or assessment report. Only
such information should be given as is indispensable for the understanding of
the account of the revised settlement in the succeeding chapters of the report.
The chapter on the revision of the assessment should include an abstract of the
note submitted with the detailed village assessment statement (paragraph 522)
and also a forecast of the probable financial results of the new settlement. In
the last chapter all matters not directly connected with the record or the
reassessment which have been discussed and settled in the course of the operations
may be noticed for example allusion and dilution rules management of canals or
of government forests the enquiry into land revenue assignements the village
common fund (malba) and the arrangements connected with the offices of zaildar
headman, and patwari, Settlement Officer are ordered in their final reports to
"prominently draw attention to all point in the revenue administration of
the district which require special watchfulness on the part of revenue
officer." A report drawn up on these lines need rarely exceed from 70 to
80 folio pages of print exclusive of the statements showing by tahsils the
population area of land total and cultivated the latter being sub-divided into
two or three main classes area of crops and revenue will usually be sufficient.
It is convenient in distrects where the assessment is at all complicated to
give in one appendix and abstract the methods of assessment sanctioned for
different classes of land. In another the special; rules if any sanctioned at
settlement for the assessment of lands affected by river action should be given
in a third the sanctioned scheme for the working of suspensions and remissions
(paragraph 554) and in a fourth the principal Government notifications relating
to the settlement. Notifications regarding appointments and powers need only be
referred to those containing instructions or other matters of importance should
be repordued in full. A fifth appendix should give an abstract of the cost of
the settlement. The report should be accompained by a map of the district on a
scale of 1 inch = 4 miles if the district does not exceed 2,500 square miles in
area if the area of the district exceeds 2,500 but does not exceed 4,500 square
miles in area of the district exceeds 2,500 but does not exceed 4,500 square
miles the scale should be in 1 inch - 8 miles. The map should show the main
physical features of the districts its canal railways and roads and its
division into tahsils and assessment circles. A glossary of the vernacular
terms used in the report should also be given.
550-A. Dastur-ur-lmal :- If
owing to the introduction of fluctuating assessments or for other reasons it is
found necessary to supplement the provisions of the Land Revenue Rules and the
Standing Orders by local rules for the guidance of patwaris and revenue
officers in such detail that they cannot conveniently be included in the
appendices to the Final Settlement Report the Settlement Officer should include
these rules in a dastur-ur-amal (or handbook for the guidance of district
revenue officers in carrying out the provisions of the settlement) which should
be carefully translated into the vernacular under his own supervision. This
dastur-ul-amal should be as brief as is consistent with clearness and
simplicity of language. The special dates if any fixed for crop inspections
should be stated in this compendium and any local rules as to the method of
holding crop insepctions all forms and statements peculiar to the district for
that grant of protective certificates for new wells etc. and for the remission
of land revenue on wells falling out of use; and instructions for the working
of fluctuating assessments should be givenin detail. When the dastur-ul-amal
has been approved by the Commissioner after consulation with the Director of
Land Records as to the forms to the prescribed for the district the
Commissioner arranges to have the required number of English copies printed and
Settlement Officer (or the Deputy Commissioner if the Settlemenht Officer has
by that time left the district) arranges for the printing of the vernacular
translation.
chapter xxxiv
Miscellaneous.
551. Miscellaneous taks imposed on Settlement Officers :- In this closing chapter will be noticed some
tasks of a miscellaneous character which fall to the lot of a Settlement
Officer. Most of them are imposed upon him for conenience sake, and not because
they have any special connection with the assessment of the land revenue.
552. Revision of district gazetteer :- It is duty of the Settlement Officer to prepare a
new edition of the district gazetteer. The section headed "Land
Revenue" should be a clear and succinct resume of the settlement report.
553. Classification of estates as secure and insecure :- A Settlement Officer is required to classify the
estates of each tahsil as -
(a) under fluctating assessment,
(b) secure and
(c) insecure,
and to prepare maps in
which thes three classes are marked by distinctie colours. Where part only of
an estate is under fluctuating assessment, the remainder will shown under class
(b) or class (c). The maps should be drawn on good tracing cloth and should
show all names only in Enlgish. After approval by the Finahcial Commissioner
four copies are made and sent to the Deputy Commissioner, the Commissioner, the
Director of Land Records and the Financial commissioners. Instructions on the
subject will be found in Standing Order No. 30, paragraph 22.s
554. Scheme for the working of suspensions :- It is this duty under the same order to draw up a
schem for the future working of suspensions of land revenue rendered necessary
by calamities of season. Whenever a district comes under
settlement in future it will be the duty of the Settlement Officer to revise,
if necessary, the existing maps and schemes.
554-A. Table of average yields :- The Settlement Officer must revise the table of average yields referred
to in paragraph 807 of the Land Administration Manual. The date to be used in
the compilation of the return will be taken from the assessment reports. The
revised statement should be sent to the Director of Land Records, who will
submit it for approval to the Commissioner.
555. Orders of Government of India as to revenue instalments :- A Settlement Officer is bound of consider whether
the existing arrangements with reference to the collection of the revenue are
convenient as regards -
(a) the proportion taken at each harvest ;
(b) the number of instalments in which the
demand realized and
(c) the dates on which payment becomes due.
The Government of India
in 1882 expressed an opinion that "whenever it is possible without any
serious alternation of existing administrative arrangements. And without any
material addition to the difficulties of the revenue staff in the collection of
the land revenue to make any approach towards maintaining a proportion between
the harvest out-turn and the cash demand, the opportunity should be taken to
establish a closer connection between current liabilities and current
assets" (Revenue and Agricultural Department Circular No. 15-R, dated 3rd
May 1882, paragraph 3) and ordered the matter to be investigated in every
district when a suitable occasion offered (paragraph 11). The arrangement made
should be that which is more convenient to the people and which"by
requiring payment when) they have most cash in hand allows them the amplest
facilities for escaping from the money lender" (paragraph 4. It is by no
means essential that the same plans should be followed throughout a tahsil or
an assessment circle. The circumstances not only of each tract but of each
village, should be considered (paragraph 7). Indeed it should not be overlooked
that a variation in the dates of the instalments has the incidental advantage
of insensible easing the money market and rendering less likely a rise in the
rate of interest and a fall in the price of grain such as results from the
simultaneous withdrawl of a large amount of silver from circulation (paragraph
8).
556. Apportionment of demand between harvests and number of
instalments :- Where an equal
division of the demand between the kharif and rabi is not suitable some simple
fractions such as one-third and two-thirds should be adopted. Formerly the
custom was almost if not quite universal of arranging for the payment of the
revenue of each harvest in two instalments separated by at least one month the
one from the other.2 In some parts of the country it was found tht
in practice the people usually brought the whole revenue of each harvest to the
tahsil at one time, and the tendency of late has been to consolidate the separate
payments, at least in the case of the spring harvest. In considering the
question it must be remembered that this involves a large demand for money at
one time, which may as observed above, possibly make it dear. In the kharif two
instalments are often indispensible especially where sugarcane is largely
grown.
557. Dates of instalments :- The dates fixed for payment in each should be late enough to give the
owners full opportunity in an ordinary year of disposing of enough of their
grain to pay the revenue with its proceeds by the time is falls due but not so
late as to offer any temptation to them to squander the fruits of the harvest
or hand them all over to the village money-lender. Crops can be roughly divided
into those which a farmer keeps or would like to keep for the food of his
family and his cattle; and those which he grows for sale. It is the time at
which the latter are garnered that must be chiefly considered.
558. Landowners to be consulted :- The best occasion for discussing the question of instalments with the
people is the time when the method of distributing the new assessment over
holdings is being determined. It is a matter in which they are inclined tothe
intensely conservative and a patient endeavor should be made to find out what
they really fear in connection with any suggested change. They mae know that
with reference to the actual conditions under which the money is raised for
payment into the treasury it is easier to get an equal amount at different
seasons than unequal amounts; which seem much better adapted to the actual
out-turn of the two harvests. In all matters connected with instalments great
weight should be given to their wishes; but occasions may occur when a mere
dislike to change make them blind to their own advantage and when therefore
their objections may properly be over-ruled.
559. Report of proposed changes in instalments :- By section 63 (1) of the Land Revenue Act the
Financial Commissioner is given power to fix the number amount and dates of
instalments. The proposals of the Settlement Officer should not be included in
the assessment reports but should be made in a separate report for the whole
district. The matter should be discussed beforehand with the Deputy
Commissioner and he should be asked to write a note to be sent with the report
to the Commissioner. In particular, the question whether one installment should
be fixed, instead of two for the collection of the land revenue demand of each
harvest should be considered.
560. Record of custom in administration papers of early Settlements:-
In the despatch dated 31st
March, 1849 by which the Board of Administration was constituted Lord Dalhousie
clearly laid down the policy of upholding "native institutions and
practices as far as they are consistent with the distribution of justice of
classes" of maintaining village communities "popular
instituions." The pursuit of this object involved a careful study of the
customs pre-emption and like which differed wisely from the prescriptions of
Hindu and Muhammadan law and out early Settlement Officers following the
example of their predecessors in the North-Western Provinces embodies in the
village administration papers of early settlements a statement of the usages
followed in such.
561. Introduction of tribal and local records of customs by Mr.
Prinsep :- In 1864 Mr. Prinsep
as Settlement Commissioner started the plan of preparing records of tribal
custom and the measures received the sanction of
the Punjab Government. The Government of India in expressing its approval of
the schme ordered the records to be limited to "actually recognized and
established custom."2
Mr. Prinsep also
requested his Settlement Officers to draw up tahsil records embodying the lex
loci on certain important matters connected with agriculture such for example
as the planting and cutting of trees and the rights and privileges of new
cultivators.3 His object was twofold to lighten the settlement
record by setting forth once and for all for tribes or tracts customs which had
hitherto been entered in the record for each estate and to collect information
whcih would be of use of the courts in the administration of justice.
562. The Punjab Civil Code :- The Punjab Civil Code drafted by Sir Richard Temple under the
instructions of Sir John Lawrence, and circulated for the guidance of judicial
officers in 1854, embodied a good deal of local custom and recognised and
propriety of civil courts being guided by it in their decisions as well as by
the precepts of the Hindu and Muhammadan law books.$4
With the passing of the
Punjab Law Act of 1872 the Punjab Civil Code ceased to have any binding force.
But that Act at the same time declared that" "n question regarding
inheritance special property of females betrothal marriage dower adoption,
guardianship minority, bastardy, family relations, wills legacies, gifts
partitions, or any religious usage or institution the (primary) rule of
decision" should any custom of anybody or class of persons, which is not
contrary to justice equity and good conscience and has not been declared to be
void by any competent authority" # (section, 5 see also section 7)..s
563. Rules under the Land Revenue Act of 1871 :- The gap created by the changed position of the
Punjab Civil Code led to increased attention being paid to the compilation or
records of tribal custom at time of settlement. In 1872 the Financial
Commissioner issued a circular onthe subject and the rules under Land Revenue
Act of 1871 provided that where the customs regulating particular relations were
common to the whole of a tribe or to a group of villages they might be
collected into tribal or ilakwar statements.2 The record was to be
one of usages actually existing and precedents were to be cited where postible.
"Nothing" it was noted, "can be called a custom which is not
acted on. Or which is not of the nature of a rule habitually applied by the
persons amongst whom the custom is said to preval whenever the occasion arises
and ................no determination of the headmen of the tribe or group of
villages to adopte new rules not founded upon existing custom would be of any
force as they have no power to blind the members of the communities to which
they respectively belong."3
564. Sir Lewis Tupper's scheme for systematizing in inquiry :- In 1873 Sir Lewis Tupper submitted proposals for
"giving a still greater degree of system and precision to the executive
investigation of customary law." The final result was the drawing up of
two sets of questions one dealing with tribal customs regulating the domestic
relationships inheritance et cetera and the other with local agrarian customs.
The sketch given in the foregoing paragraphs may be supplemented by reference
to the first volume of Sir Law Tupper's work on Punjab Customary Law, and
esepcially to its introductory chapter.
565. The rival-I-am :- In
any district in which no riwaj01-am or record of tribal custom has been
prepared it is the duty of the Settlement Officer to have one drawn up. It is
only necessary to make such records for the principal tribes in each tahsil.
The Settlement Officer should choose the tribes and draw up the list of
questions. He will probably find that he can simplify a few of those in Sir
Lewis Tupper's list and omit a good many of them altogether. But his questtions
should be arranged in the same order as in Sir Lewis Tupper's volume. The
actual inquiry may be made by the settlement Tahsildars or the Extra Assistant
SEttlement Officer who should assemble the leading men, including all the
village headmen of each tribe at a convenient center explain the questions to
them and record their answer. He should be particularly careful to ask for
precedents as regards customs which are likely to be disputed in the law
courts, as for example, where a tribe or part of a tribe assert a usag whereby
the primary division of the land in the case of an owner leaving make children
by two wives is into two equal shares, one for the offspring of each
(chundavand) as opposed to the usual custom of division among all sons per
capita (paygvand). The Settlemtn Officer should scrutinise the answers marking
any which seem to him to be founded on a misunderstanding of the meaning of the
questions or vague or probably incorrect. He should himself call together the
leading tribesmen in each tahsil and examine them again as to such doubtful
points. The faired vernacular riwaj-I-am may conveniently contain separate
columns for the question the answers precedents quoted and the Settlement
Officer's notes. Wherever it appears to a Settlement Officer that any answer
embodes rather a vague popular sentiment or a feeling of what ought to be than
what is actually customary he should not fail to note the fact. The faired vernacular riwaj-I-am should
be ketp in the district officer. Copies should be supplied to the offices of
the Senior Sub-Judge, the District Judge and the High Court.
Where a riwaj-I-am has
been drawn up at a former settlement a report must be furnished through the
Commissioner to the Financial Commissioner of the nature of its contents and its
completeness and trustworthiness as a record of tribal custom and instructions
must be solicited.
In recent settlements
English abstracts of the riwaj-I-am have been prepared by the Settlement
Officers. These are published as volume supplementary to Mr. Tupper's work on
"Punjab Customary Law."
566. Entries in riwaj-I-am have no legal presumption of truth :- No presumption of truth such as attaches to
entries inthe village administration papers under section 44 of the Land
Revenue Act of 1887 belongs to the contents of a riwaj-1-am. But if the record
of tribal custom had evidently been prepared after careful inquiry and
especially if the answer are fortified by the quotation of precedents courts of
justice may be expected to treat the replies recorded as valuable evidence.
567. Local record of agrarian usages :- Where agrarian customs as regards particular
matters of importance are uniform throughout a considerable tract of group or
villages they may often be conveniently embodied in general statemetns of local
usages. For example a record of the customary rules regulating the distribution
of the water of a hill stream may be very useful. A short entry in the administration paper
of each estate as regards matters dealt with at length inthe general record may
be made, "only the more salient and fixed points of custom" noted2
Sir James Lyall when Financial Commissioner held that the power of
incorporating the contents of a riwaj-I-am by mere reference in the village
administration paper should be used very sparingly, if at all as it was
"dangerous and liekly to lead to inaccurate generalization."3
568. Inquiry regarding land revenue assignment :- It is the duty of the Settlemtn Officer to
examine and attest all existing asignments of land revenue. This work should be
taken in hand at an early period of settlement operations, though not before
the Settlement Officer has acquired a good general knowledge of the
circumstance Officer has acquired a good general knowledge of the circumstances
ot eh different parts of his district. It is well to begin by finding out what
was actually done in the matter at the previous settlements and by tracing the
former correspondence and registers, to which the Settlement Officer will hae
to refer in passing orders. The inquiry must be made in the first instance by
the settlement tahsildrs, who should be furnished with full instructions as to
the procedure to be adopted and especially as to the kinds of cases which may
be collected in village lists and those in which the preparation of separate
files in necessary. They should also be made acquainted with the policy that
will be adopted in dealing with assignments. Delay in these cases is likely to
breed confusion and trouble. It must be remembered a difficult matter and that till
he has disposed of all the cases in a tahsil the Settlemetn Officer is not in a
position to prepare the registers of those as to which the orders of his
official superiors are required. He must not forget that a considerable time
may elapse between the submission of the registers and the receipts of orders
and that it will be embarrassing if the period for distributing the revenue
over holdings in any tahsils arrives before they have been obtained. It is
therefore, essetial to take up promptly the cases of the tahsil which will be
first assessed.
569. Treatment of different discerpant of grants :- Occassionally a few holdings may be found of
which the revenue is enjoyed by private individuals without proper authority.
In such cases resumption must be ordered with concurrence of the Collector (see
paragraph 186 of the Land Administration Manual) or sanction solicited. Where
an assignment has been released in perpetuity or during the maintenance of the
institution or duringt the pleasure of Government a general inquiry is
requisite a to whether the conditions of the grant are fulfilled. Where they
have been willfully and persistently broekn, resumption should be recommended.
This inquiry should be particularly stringest in the case of grants for the maintaince
of institutions are in the name of a individual there is a prime facie ground
for a searching inquiry as to whetehr the objects of the mafi are being served
and the conditions attached to it are being observed. Grants for life call for
no action unless it is considered proper that they should be continues
after the deaths of existing Nolders. Assignments for the term of settlement
should usually be proposed for continuence except when they are of a purely
personal character. The conditions on which such grants are renewed should be
so framed as to make it easy for Government to withdraw it favour at any time
from the existing incumbent in case of proved abuse or neglect of duty without
at the same time cancelling the grant tto the institution if proper arrangement
for its future management can be made by the village community or other body
which is interested in it maintenance. Thus the assignment should be to the
institution in the name of the manager for the time being, and it should be
made conditional on loyalty good conduct, and the proper maintenance of the
institution.
570. Small grants for village service :- Grants for the terms of settlement made for
village service or in favour of village institutions which do not exceed Rs 20
in annual value may either be resumed and assessed in the ordinary way, or they
may be struck off the Government list, but the land left unassessed for one
period of settlement to see whether the zamindars will agree to continue the
mafi as a grant from themselves by excluding it form the bachh. As an estate is
assessed as a whole without discriminating between khalsa and revenue-free
lands, the only feasible way of doing this is first to make the assessment in
the grants so treated. When the revenue is distributed over holdings, the
people should be informed that for the coming settlement Government has
foregone the demand which might have been assessed on these resumed assignments
and asked whether they will exclude the land form the bachh (paragraph 536).
The area of such grants is often extremely insignificant. When they are treated
in this way trouble is saved to revenue officials and what is more important
the assignments are restored to their original position as grants made by the
village communities and under their control. If the people refuse to exclude
these plots from the bachhit becomes clear that the assessment is their work
and not ours. It is sometimes expedient to propse that life mafis of this
description should on the deaths of existing holders before the next settlement
be converted into grants for the term of settlement so that when the time for
reassessment arrives they too may be put on a proper footing.2
571. Assignments in jagir estates :- For the treatment of assignments in jagir estates
reference may be made to Standing Order Nr. 7 and to the 99th paragraph of the
Karnal-Ambala Settlement Report where certain orders issued by the late Colonel
Wace when Financial Commissioner are quoted. These orders relate primarily to
the cis-Sutlej jagirs but the principle on which they are based would probably
be held to be also applicable to old jagirs in the Punjab proper.
572. Report of cases requiring orders :- The cases which require the orders of some higher
authority should be brought together in English registers where they should be
classified under proper heads. All the cases for one tahsil should be sent up
together. Separate registers should be prepared for -
(a) grants whose resumption is proposed for
breach of conditions ;
(b) grants whose continuance is proposed as
to which the orders of the Financial Commissioner are sufficient;
(c) grants whose continuance is proposed as
to which the orders of the local Government are required.
573. Preparation of new mafi registers :- Cancelled. For the prescribed register see the
rules in Part J, paragraph 59, of Standing Order No. 7- Assignments etc.
573-A. Under Land Revenue Rule 11 :- Every person to whom the land revenue of any land has been released or
assigned or who has redeemed or compound the same is required unless exempted
by the local Government to pay a contribution towards the remuneration of
zaildars and Inamdars appointed in the same is required unless exempted by the
local Govenment to pay a contribution towards the remuneration of zaildars and
Inamdars appointed in the district. The Settlement Officer should in the course
of his settlement submit a report showing the extent to which exemption should
in his opinion be allowed and take the orders of Government on the report.
547. Reference of Standing Order No. 7. :- In the foregoing paragraph a bare outline of the
duties of a Settlement Officer in connection with land revenue assignment has
been given. For the considerations which ought to guide him a deciding whether
a grant should be resumed or proposed for continuance for information as to the
authority which has been at different times inthe past, and is now, sufficient
for the upholding of mafis of various descriptions and as to the forms of
registers grant of sands etcetera, Settlement Officer must refer to the 3rd
Chapter of the Land Administration Manual and to Standing Order No., 7.s
575-A. liberal policy expendient :- It may be said generally that the policy of Government is to treat with
liberality at cases in which assignemtns are connected with religious or
charitable institutions or in consideration of which any definite service is
performed or which are haled by members of old families which still enjoy a
large measure of local esteem. To much stress should not be laid on the trouble
involved in the maintenance of petty grants. The people often attach more
importance to them than their intrinsic value would seem to justify, and it is
extremly impolitic to do anything that may arose a suspicion that in these
small matters the State in inclined to be less generous now that in earlier
days.
576. Patwari and kanungo establishments :- All questions connected with the number of
patwaris and kanungos and the limits of their circles should be dealth with by
the Settlement Officer in communication with the Deputy Commissioner Changes in
the number grading and pay of the Patwari establishment as also in the limits
of kanungos circles require the sanction of the Financial Commissioner. An increase in the kanungo establishment
requires the sanction of Government.2 All proposals as to such
chantes or increase should be submitted by the Commissioner t to the Financial
Commissioner through the Director of Land Records.
577. Scheme for gradual reduction of number of village headmen :- The excessive number of headmen in some districts
is an evil which has long been recognised. But at the same time reductions made
in a capricious or haphazard manner on the occurrence of vacancies are sure to
cause heart burnings and gradual reduction may be prepared during the progress
of settlement operations or in special circumstances at other times by the
Deputy Commissioner. The orders on the subject will be found in paragraphs
330-331 of the Land Administration Manual.
578. Preliminary report as to appointment of zaildars and inamdars:- The office of zaildar can only be established in
any local area with the previous sanction of the local Government (Land Revenue
Rule 1). Hence the introduction of the zaildari agency into any district must
be approved by the local Government. Any subsequent increase or decrease in the
number of zaildars can be made under the orders of the Financial Commissioner
(Land Revenue Rule 2) provided the percentage of the land revenue assigned for
their emoulments is not exceeded. If the appointment of zaildars has not
already been considered and negatived a Settlement Officer as soon as he feels
tht he has a sufficient acquaintance with the circumstances of his district
should draw up a preliminary report on the whole subject. In it he should
explainwhy no such agency has yet been appointed and submit rought proposals
for its organization. No attempt should be made to fix the limits of zails but
the tribal organization and other important features of the tract should be explained
in such detail as in necessary to enable Government to judge whether the agency
should be introduced. Any proposals to appoint inamdars may be made in the same
report. The opinious both of the Settlement Officer and of the Deputy
Commissioner should be given. The report should be submitted to Government
through the Commissioner and the Financial Commissioner, each of whom should
record his views on the proposal made in it.
579. Constitution of zails :- If the local Government approves of the introduction of the zaildars
agency the Settlement Officer should in consultation with the Deputy
Commissioner divide each tahsil into zails. In doing this care should be taken
to include in one circle as far as possible people of one tribe or villages
which have some connection or affinity, so that discordant elements may be
excluded as far as possible. It is not parcticable to lay down any standard
size for a zail. Usually it is made up of from four to eight patwari circle. It
may be convenient sometimes to have larger zails; but the question of size is
of less importance than the consideration whether the zails are so arranged as
on the one hand; togive a convenient representation of the leading tribes of
the tract; and onthe other hand not to give a zaildar more work or
responsibility than he can successfully perform or bear. In the cases in which
a small strong tribe inhabits a compact cluster of village, such villages may
be formed into a separate zail, even though the result should be a zail of
sepcially small size. It is desirable that a zail should not be divided between
two thanas or a thana between two zails and that a patwari's circle should all
be included in a single zail. The latter however is of much less importance
than the former;. But while the boundaries of zails and thanas should
ordinarily not overlap it is well freely to allow exceptions to this rule
rather than to break the ties of old tribal or historical connections or of
common interests.
580. Zail books :- The
zails having been arranged a separate zail book should be prepared for each
tahsil at the beginning of each book a small map of the tahsil at the beginning
of each book a small map of the tahsil should be give showing village
boundaries limits of patwari circles main tribed (by colours) and proposed
zails. The book should be divided into as many sections as there were zails.
The book should be divided into as three were zails. The book should be divided
into as many sections as there were zails. Each section should begin with the necessary
title followed by a map of the zail showing the same features as the map last
described but on a larger scale. To this should be added a statistical table in
the form given a Standing Order No, 21. Thereafter sufficient blank space must
be left for the memoranda required by the same order. Separate blank pages must
also be included for the entery of notes as to the zaildar's conduct or any
other matters connected with the zail which the Deputy Commissioner thinks fit
from time to time to record.
581. Report to the Financial Commissioner :- The zail books with a brief report on the nature
of the arrangement made must be sent to the Commissioner whose sanction to the
limits proposed for each zail is required Land Revenue Rule I (ii). It should
also be reported for the orders of the Financial Commissioner how it is
proposed to pay the zaildar whether by giving to each man 1percent of the
revenue of his own zail or by a system of graded inam amouting in the aggregate to a deduction
of 1 percent from the revenue of the whole district.
582. Appointment of zaildars :- Having received the orders of the Financial Commissioner, the Settlement
Officer and the Deputy Commissioner should together make the first appointment
of zaildars and inamdars in the manner prescribed by the rules under the Land
Revenue Act. For further information regarding the appointment, remuneration,
and duties etc. of zaildars and inamdars, the rules under the Land Revenue Act
(1 to 13) and paragraph 336-347 of the Land Administration Manual may be
consulted.
APPENDICES
appendix i
Assessment
Instructions issued from time to time.
A. - extract from instrutions for the revision of the settlement of the
saharanpur district issued in 1855.
xxxiv. The adjustment
of the Government demand is not a matter of arithmetical calculation, nor can
precise rules be laid down to guide the Collector, who must in a great measure
follow his own judgment, and his own methods for acquiring
information...........with this view (equalization of the assessment)
statements should at once be drawn up for each paragana, showing for each mauza
in it he cultivated, culturable, lakhiraj, barren, and otal area jama and rate
per acre of the jama on the total malguzari and cultivated areas as reocrded at
the settlement and as at present existing.
XXXV. The attention of the
collector will thus be at once drawn to any villages in which the cultivation
has materially increased since, the settlement or the rates are unusually low,
or in which, on the other hand, from whatever cause, a falling-off in the
extent of the cultivation in perceptible, or the rates are much above the
average.
XXXVI. The assets
of an estate can seldom be minutely ascertained, but more certain information
as to the average net assets can be obtained now than was formely the case.
This may led to over-assessment, for there is little doubt that two-thirds, or
66 per cent, is a larger proportion of the real average assets than can
ordinarily be paid by proprietors or communities in a long course of years. For
this reason the Government have determined so far to modify the rule laid down
in paragraph 52 of the "Directions to Settlement Officers" as to
limit the demand of the State to 50 per cent, or one-half of the average net
assets. But this it is not meant that the jama of each estate is to be fixed at
one-half of the net average assetsk, but that in taking these assets with other
data into consideration the Collector will bear in mind that about one-half,
and not two-thirds as heretofore, of the well ascertained net assets should be
the Government demand. The Collector should observe the cautions given in
paragraph 47 to 51 of the treatise quoted, and not waste time in minute and
probably fruitless attempts to ascertain exactly the average net assets of the
estates under settlement.
XXXVII. In villages
as the cultivation of which he has been much extended since the settlement by
the breaking up of new land or the percentage of irrigation increased by the
sinking of new wells or other improvements, the expenditure of capital must be
allowed (? For) and a moderate jama assessed.
XXXVIII. Besides the
settlement of the Government demand separate engagement should be taken for the
payment in addition of 1 per cent on the Government demand for the Road Fund,
for an equal amount for the School Fund, and for 1/4 or 4 annas per cent, for
the District Dak.
Note :- Rule XLII provided that these three casses and
the pay of the village chaukidar should be "assumed "as payable from
the assets before the determination of the Government demand". In a
village with a rental of Rs. - 1,000 and one chaukidar paid at the rate of Rs.
3 monthly the account stood.
Rs. A. P.
Revenue 476 6 0
Road, School and Dak cesses 11 4 0
Chaukidars 36 0 0
extract
from instructions for the re-settlement of
the gorakhpur district issued in 1856.
XII. The assessment
should be determined upon the general principles inculcated in the Saharanpur
rules, due advertence being had as well to pospective capabilities as to
present assets, and also to any expenditure of capital by a proprietor for
which he may not have had the means of obtaining a fully remunerative return.
b-
assessment instructions issued in 1873.
The following instructions under section 9 of the first Punjab Land Revenue
Act (XXXIII of 1871) issued in 1873 to the Settlement Officers of Delhi, Karnal
and Gurgaon were also adopted in the case of the other settlements made under
the Act:-
(i) The general principle of assessment to
be followed is that the Government demand for land revenue shall not exceed the
estimated value of half the net produce of an estate or in other words one-half
of the share of the produce of an estate ordinarily receivable by the landlord
either in money or in kind.
(ii) In applying this principle in the case
of the portion of the district where produce rents prevail, special attention
should be given by the settlement Officers to produce estimates.
(iii) In estimating the land revenue demand the
Settlement Officer will take into consideration all circumstances directly or
indirectly bearing upon the assessment, such as rent, rates where money rates
exist, the habits and character of the people, the proximity of marts for the
disposal of produce, facilities of communication, the incidence of past
assessment, the existence of profits from grazing, and the like. These and
other considerations must be allowed their weight.
(iv) The gross assessments for ; each
assessment circle having been framed by the Settlement Officer on the principle
above indicated, revenue rates on soils may be deduced therefrom, and the
proposed gross assessment, together with the proposed revenue rates, must be
reported to the Financial Commissioner for preliminary sanction, and will, when
sanctioned by the Financial Commissioner, from the basis of assessment of
particular estate in the circle; but in the assessment to be ultimately adopted
full consideration must be given to the special circumstances of each estate.
The principle laid down
in Rule 1 is to be observed in the assessment in each case.
c.
assessment instructions issued in 1889.
The instruction given below were issued to Settlement Officers in 1888,
but never received the final approval of the Government of India, and have been
superseded by the instructions which are now in force :-
(i) The general principle of assessment to
be followed is that the Government demand for land-revenue shall not exceed the
estimated value of half the net produce of an estate.
(ii) In assessing the estates contained in a
tract under assessment the method of the primary estimate of the land revenue
assessable on each estate and upon the tract as a whole shall be as follows :-
The tract under
assessment shall be divided into as many circles as may be required by broad
existing differences of fertility, propriety, or tenure, and there shall then
be framed for each circle as many revenue rates as may be necessary to
distinguish the main classes into which land is locally divided in respect to
soil and system of agriculture, irrigation or want of irrigation, so far as
such distinctions are clearly apparent in marked differences of value of net
produce, or are clearly recognised in prevailing rent rates. These circle
revenue rates shall be so framed as to represent approximately the estimated
average annual half net produce of an acre of each such class of land in the
circle.
(iii) In estimating the net produce of
cultivated land of any class, whether occupied by landowners themselves or by
tenants, the rents paid in money or in kind on an average of years ordinary
tenatns-at-will for such lands in the assessment circle to which the estate
belongs shall be the principle guide.
(iv) But when by the custom of any tract
certain expenses fall on the landowner, which can properly be set against the
rents above referred to (as, for example, the cost of wells, or of clearance of
canal channels, losses on advances to tenants, &c). full allowance will be
made for such expenses, and in the case of lands the rents or net produce of
which have been increased by wells or other works of improvement constructed at
private expense, care should be taken not to tax unfairly the capital invested
in the improvement, and to altogether remit for the period allowed by the
special, rules on the subject, any part of the assessment which may be due to
the increase of rent or net produce caused by such improvement.
(v) In assessing land irrigated by State
canals the Settlement Officer, unless otherwise directed by the Local
Government, will assess such lands as nearly as may be at the same rates as
land of similar quality and advantages in the same tract or district whcih is
not irrigated by canals, leaving the advantage derived by the landowner from
canal irrigation to be realized by canal-owner's rates.
(vi) When revenue rates on classes of land for
each circle and estimated gross assessments for the same have been framed by
the Settlement Officer on the principles above indicated, they will be reported
to the Financial Commissioner for preliminary sanction. But in the assessment
to be finally adopted full consideration must be given to the speical
circumstances of each estate.
(vii) For example, in finally assessing each
particular estate the assessing officer shall take into consideration, in
addition to the estimate obtained from the revenue rates, all circumstances
directly or indirectly bearing upon the profits and rents of the landowners,
especially such circumstances as the following :-
(a) Rents actually existing in the estate.
Or: if these are not ascertainable in neighbouring estates where the conditions
are similar, if such rents appear to be higher or lower than the average rent
rates of the circle.1
(b) All profits derived from the land.
Whether cultivated or uncultivated.
(c) The husbandry and average produce of the
estate.
(d) The habits and characer of the landowners
and tenants.
(e) Proximity of markets, and facilities of
communication and for disposal of produce.
(f) Incidence and working of previous
assessment.
And, so far as is justified
by these circumstances the assessing officer is authorised in the assessment of
each estate to depart from the revenue rates of the circle.
d-
assessment instructions sanctioned
in 1893 and revised in 1914
Preliminary
1. Under the provisions of section
49 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, the general re-assessment of a
district or tahsil cannot be undertaken without the sanction of the Local
Government.
2. Before granting such
sanction the Local Government should receive a forecast of the expected
financial results of the reassessment. The forecast will show by tahsils the
revenue rates upon which the expiring assessment was based; the actual amount
of the existing land revenue, the increase expected to result from the proposed
re-assessment and the general grounds on which the estimate of the increase is
based.
3. In cases in which the
ultimate new revenue anticipted from a district (or similar area settled in one
operation) differs from the existing revenue by more than 33 per cent, the
Local Government, before issuing instructions for undertaking a re-assessment,
should obtain the orders of the Government of India.
If during the course of
the operations or on their completion, it be found that the percentage of
enhancement exceeds the figures previously sanctioned by the Government of
India, the propsoals shall again be submitted for their sanction before the new
assessment is announced or confirmed.
If, on the assumption
that the enhancement would not exceed 33 per cent., the inception of re-assessment
operation has been sanctioned by the Local Government under rule I, and if,
during the course of the operations or on their competiton, it be found that
the enahcement will exceed 33 percent., the proposals should be submitted for
the sanction of the Government of India before the new assessment is announced
or confirmed.
General Principles
4. The fundamental principle
of land revenue assessment is that according to the ancient custom of the
country, Government is entitled to a share of the produce of the land from time
to time to be fixed by itself. The exact share to be taken is a question to be
settled separately for each tract and estate under assessment according to the
circumstances of the case.
5. Unless the Local
Government has, under section-42 (2) of the Land Revenue Act, 1887, otherwise
directed, or unless a fluctuating system of assessment has been ordered by the
Local Government, the Government share of the produce must be produce must be
assessed in cash at a fixed amount for each estate for a term of years.
6. The net 'assets' of an
estate mean the average surplus which the estate may yield after deduction of
the expenses of cultivation,. A full fair rent paid by a tenant-at-will, though
sometimes falling short of the net-assets; may generally, in practice and for
purposes of assessment, be taken as a sufficiently near approximation to them
on the land for which it is paid. When, therefore, the entire land of a tract
is let to such tenants paying such a rent, the 'net-assets' of the tract can be
easily calculated, if the tenants pay rent in cash. If the rents are produce
rents fixed in quantity, the calculation becomes more difficult on account of
inevitable variations in price over a term of years. If the rents are produce
rents fixed as a share of the crop, the difficulty becomes greater still, as
both character, quantity and price will vary. In most districts of the Punjab
difficulties of this latter kind are met with, and an additional difficulty
lies in the fact that a large proportion of the cultivated land is not let to
tenants, but cultivated by the petty proprietors themselves. The calculation
then becomes not only difficult but hypotehetical, and the results of greater
uncertainty and less value.
7. The assessment of an estate
will be fixed according in circumstances, but must not exceed half the value of
the net-assets.
8. The tract under
re-assessment will be divided into assessment circles in accordance with the
detailed instructions in chapter XVI of the Settlement Manual. When submitting
an assessment report for a tahsil or other area the assessing officer will
state, for each circle, the value of the half net-assets as calculated by him
and also the amount of the re-assessment which he proposes for adoption in
practice and the detailed rates by which he proposes to distribute it over the
different classes of land. He will explain how the half net-assets have been
calculated and his reasons for the actual re-assessment and rates which the
proposes to adopt. He will give this information in such from and with such
additional particulars as the Settlement Manual prescribes.
9. Before conveying sanction
under section 50 (2) of the Land Revenue Act to the assessment proposed by the
assessing officer, the Financial Commissioner shall submit the Settlement
Officer's report with the Commissioner's review, and the orders which the
proposes to pass thereupon, for the approval of the Local Government. The
assessing officer is expected to realize the amount fixed by orders passed on the
assessment report for the circle within a margin of 3 percent, either way. If
he thinks greater deviation desirable he must refer the matter for furtehr
orders before announcing his re-assessment. In the assessment of particular
estates the assessing officer is allowed to assess above or below rates at his
discretion subject to the detailed instructions in Chapter XIX and XX of the
Settlement Manual.
10. Copies of important orders
with connected papers regarding the settlement of any area, not less than a
tahsil, should be forwarded to the Government of India., without a covering
letter as soon as the orders are available in print, and a similar practice
should be observed if important alternations are at any time carried out in the
general instructions for assessment.
e - rules
regarding assessment of land revenue framed in 1929 under section 60 of the
punjab land revenue, act
The Punjab Land Revenue Act was amended in 1928. It reduced the standard
of assessment from one-half to one-fourth of the net assets and extended the
term of future settlements in fully developed tracts to forty years. It also
provided for the making of rules to codify the main processes adopted in
calculating the share of the produce to be taken as land revenue. The following
rules were accordingly framed and passed by the Punjab Legislative Council.
They now take the place of the executive instructions given in the part D of
this appendix :-
land
revenue assessment rules, 1929.
Published Vide Punjab Government
Notification No. 673-R Dated 23-12-1929.
(a) The method by which the
estimate of the money value of the net assets
of an estate or group of estates shall be made.
1. Estimate
of net asset based on rents in kind :- (1) An estimate of net assets as demfined in cluase (18) of section 3 of
the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 (hereinafter referred to as the act), shall
be assets framed on the basis of rent sin kind paid by tenants-at-will
prevailing in the estate or group of estates under consideration.
(2) The accurate caulcution
of this estimate depends on four factors :-
(a) the average acreage of each crop on each
class of land for which it is proposed to frame separate rates;
(b) the average yield per acre of each crop
so grown for which rent is taken by division of produce;
(c) the average price obtained by
agriculturists for each of the crop preferred to under clause (b; and
(d) the actual share of the gross produce
received by land-owners in the case of crops, which are divided, and the rent payable on zabti crop.
From the first three of
these factors an estimate shall be made of the value of the annual gross
produce of the estate or group of estates in question.
From that estimate and
the fourth factor an estimate shall be made of the annual value of the
land-owners' share of that produce or net assets.
2. Class
of land :- (1) The most
important classes of cultivated land are as, follows :-
(a) barani : depedent on rainfall;
(b) Sailab : flooded or kept permanently
moist by rivers;
(c) abi : watered by lift from tanks; jhils,
streams; or by flow from springs;
(d) nahri : irrigated by canals by flow or
lift;
(e) chahi : watered from wells.
(2) The most important
classes of uncultivated land are as follows :-
(a) banjar jadid : land which was remained
unsown for four successive harvests;
(b) banjor qadim : land which has remained
unson for eight successive harvests; and
(c) ghair mumkin : land which has for any
reason become unculturable such as land under roads, buildings streams, canals,
tanks, or the like, or land which is barren sand, or ravines.
3. Average
acerage :- The acreage to be
used in the estimate shall be the average matured area of the selected years.
These years will be the cycle or period of years of which the harvests are a
fair sample of the ordinary fluctuations characteristic of the agriculture of
the tract.
4. Prices
to be adopted :- The prices to
be adopted in the estimate shall be the average prices which are likely to be
obtained for their crops by agriculturists during the coming settlement, but
shall be based on the average of a sufficinetly long period, inthe past, and it
shall be assumed that the range of future prices will not be dissimilar. The
prices prevailing in years of famine or severe scarcity shall be excluded from
the calculation.
The prices adopted for
each crop shall be based on the prices current in the month in whcih the
agriculturist of the tract ordinarily dispose of their produce. If in any
estate or group of estates it is found that most of the agriculturists take
their produce to market towns and dispose of it there, allowance shall be made
for the cost of cartage to markets and for any fees paid at markets to agents,
weighmen, etc., and for any customary deductions such as 'watta' as actually
previal.
Note :- In determining the prince to be adopted the
Revenue Officer shall, among other data available to him, scrutinize the
following :-
(a) 'shop-keeper' books in selected
villages;
(b) harvest prices for each assessment
circle reported by the field kanungo for entry in the circle not-books;
(c) harvest prices published in the Gazette;
(d) prices obtained markets; and
(e) prices obtained by estates under the
Court of Wards and by large proprietors for their produce.
5. Average
yeidls :- In estimating the average
yiedls of each crop on the different classes of land in an estate or group of
estates and Revenue Officer shall be guided by the results of -
(a) experimental cuttings;
(b) his own observations;
(c) information gathered from trustworthy
persons;
(d) accounts of land-owners where obtainable,
e.g., account of estates (which had been) under the Court of Wards and of farms
maintained by the Department of Agriculture ; and
(e) yields assumed for similar tracts
elsewhere.
6. Menials
dues and expenses of collection :- In estimating the actual share received by landowners of the gross
produce, calculated in accordance with the preceding rules, the value of any
portions of that produce paid befofe it is divided, to artsans or menials for
help in tillage or harvesting or for the supply and repair of agricultural
implements, or for any other work subsidiary to agriculture, and any expenses
of collection of rent paid out of the common heap, shall be deducted.
Tenant Share :- From the balance the value of the share
returnable by the tenants, on the assumption made in the concluding portion of
cause (18) of section 3 of the Act, shall be deduceted. The value of the
remainder shall be the estimate of net assets, after adjustment, in accordance
with the instructions contained in rule 7.
7. Adjustment
to be made :- (a) In the absence
of a contract to the contary land revenue is payable by landownres, and water
rates by tenants. In cases where tenants pay a certain proportion of the land
revenue, or landowners of the water rates, a corresponding addition to, or
deduction from, the estimate shall be made.
(b) Where means of irrigation and
embankments are maintained by a tenant at his own expense, no deduction shall
be made from the estimate on this account. If, however, any part of the cost of
such maintenance is borne by the landowner, a corresponding deduction shall be
made from it.
(c) Where the cost of all or any part of the
seed or manure used on the land is borne by a landowner, and is not counterbalanced
by either the receipt by him of a larger share of the produce, or a smaller
allowance of fodder to the tenant than is customary, or the like, a
corresponding deduction shall be made from the estimate.
(d) Where a landowner provides, at his own
cost, improved agricultural implements for the use of his tenants, and makes no
charge for the use thereof, whether in the way of a larger share of the
produce, or otherwise, a corresponding deduction shall be made from the
estimate.
(e) Concessions with regard to fodder
ordinarily take one of the following forms :-
(i) a specified area per pir of bullocks or
some similar unit of area is devoted by a tenant to the raising of fodder crops
of which the landowner receives no share ;
(ii) a tenant is permitted to cut certain
crops green for fodder and the landowner resceives nothing on account thereof;
(iii) the landowners takes either on share of
fodder or only a share of the grain of certain crops.
In any of these cases,
or in any other case in whcih a landowner permits, the use for fodder by his
tenants of crops grown on his land and takes either no share thereof, or a
share smaller than of the grain a corresponding deduction shall be made from
the estimate.
(f) Where a landowner employs paid agency at
his own expense to collect his share of produce, a corresponding deduction on
account of the cost of that agency shall be made from the estimate.
(g) Where a landowner advances monies free
of interest of his tenants for agricultural purposes, a deduction on account of
the interest due on such advances shall be made from the estimate.
The rate of interest to
be allowed in making such deduction shall be not lower than that allowed by the
local Central Co-operative Bank on deposits made with it, or higher than that
charged by the same bank on loans advanced by it.
8. Estimate
of net assets based on cash rents :- A second estimate of net assets shall also be framed on the basis of cash
rents payable by tenants -at-will prevailing in the estates or group of estates
under consideration on the assumption made in the concluding portion of clause
(18) of section 3 of the Act. This estimate shall only be framed where the
following factors are present :-
(a) the existence in any circle of a system
of cahs rents on a sufficiently large scale to enable them to be used as a
guide in estimating the renting value of the remainder of the land of the
circle;
(b) the recognition in the Revenue Records
of such distinctions of soil and class as are usually accompanied by marked differences
of renting value.
9. Abnormal
rents :- All rents which are not
true economic rent and are not based on the prevailing rent-rate or the average
rate actually paid on any class of land shall be excluded by the Revenue
Officer from hi calcualtions as abnormal. Thus the following rents shall be
considered abnormal :-
(a) rents consisting of the land revenue
with or without a small additional payment as proprietary fee unless the
land-revenue is high and the land poor;
(b) privileged rent paid by relations,
friends, dependents or persons discharging religious duties;
(c) rents unduly inflated by jealously or
special local or personal conditions of a transitory character, rents so
exorbitant as to be no index of the real letting value of land, and rents in
which other factors such as mortgage money enter.
The Revenue Officer
shall scrutinize each rents carefully in each village as it comes under
inspection. He shall satisfy himself that they have been correctly recorded,
and shall then decide what rents shall be eliminted as abnormal.
10. Adjustments
to be made :- The Revenue
Officer shall, from the rents remaining after elimination of abnormal rents,
frame an estimate of the landowners' net assets subject to the following
instructions :-
(i) the provisions of rules 7 (a), (b),
(c), (d), (f), and (g) shall mutates mutandis, apply;
(ii) deduction shall be made, if necessary,
for fallows or bad harvests.
The amount of the
deduction to be made in each case depends on the result of the local enquires made
by the Revenue Officer;
(iii) deduction shall be made for shortage in
collection of rent, where such shortage is not due to bad management.
11. Miscellaneous
income :- Should be landowners,
whether they take rents in cash or in kind, also enjoy as such any income or
dues from land which have not been taken into account in the estimates framed
under the preceding rules, the amount of such income or dues shall be added to
the net assets.
12. Estimate
of true net assets :- The final
estimates of net assets based on (a) rents in kind ; and (b) cash rent
calculated in accordance with the preceding rules shall be compared, and the
Revenue Officer shall then arrive at a definite estimate of what are the true
net assets of each estate or group of estates.
(b) The
method by which assessment to land revenue shall be made
13. Forecast
report :- Before the
re-assessment of any area is undertaken a forecast report shall be submitted of
the expected financial results of the re-assessment showing whether for financial
reasons or otherwise re-assessment is desirable. In the report specific mention
shall, interalia, be made of the following matters :-
(a) the existing assessment, the suitability
of its from to local circumstances, and the fairness of its distribution over
estates;
(b) changes in cultivation, population;
means of irrigation, and markets and communication;
(c) rainfall;
(d) prices;
(e) any factors affecting the general
prosperity of the tract, as an increase in [water-logging and Thur and Floods.]
Before the report is
prepared, the leading agriculturists and organizations of land owners of the
area concerned shall be consulted; so far as practicable, and it shall be noted
in the report to what extent this has been done and what opiniones have been
elicited.
14. Assesment
circles :- The area under
re-assessment shall be divided into assessment circles as defined in clause
(19) of section 3 of the Act.
15. Publication
of proposals :- (1) The Revenue
Officer shall frame his proposals with respect to classes of soils, selected
years, prices to be adopted and assessment circles in accordance with the
provisions of rules 2,3,4 and 14, respectively as soon as soon as possible
after the commencement of settlement operation.
[(2) The Revenue Officer shall
have abstract of his proposals prepared and translated into Hindi in Devnagri
Script in the Hindi Region and Punjabi in Gurmukhi Script in Punjabi Region
Printed copies of this abstract shall be supplied by post to all Legislators.
Organisations of landowners of the area concerned, Sarpanches, Lambardars,
non-official members of the District Boards Panchayat Samitis and Zila
Parishads, represnting the said area. A period of thirty days from the date of
posting shall be allowed within which they may file objections on all or any of
the mattes referred to in sub-rule (1) to the Revenue Officers.
Explantion :- The expression "Hindi Region " and
"Punjabi Region" shall have the meaning assigned to them in the
Punjab Regional Committees Orders, 1957.]2
(3) The Revenue Officer shall
take such objections into consideration and forward them with his views thereon
together with his proposals through the Commissioner for the orders of the
Financial Commissioner.
16. Special
inspection of each estate :- Before
preparing the report prescribed by subsection (2) of section 50 of the Act the
Revenue Officer shall make a special inspection of each estate, and record an
inspection note thereon.
17. Assessment
proposals :- The Revenue Officer
shall, having taken into consideration the existing assessment, the true net
assets arrived at under rule 12 and all other relevant factors, make his
proposals as to the future assessment of each assessment circle.
18. Particulars
to be stated :- In the report
submitted under sub-section (2) of section 50 of the act the Revenue Officer
shall, inter alia, state clearly for each assessment circle -
(a) the value of the true net assets as
calculated by him;
(b) the re-assessment which he proposes, and
(c) the detailed rates by which he proposes
to distribute it over different classes of land or crops.
19. Abstract
of assessment report to be published :- (1) After the preparation of his report, but before it is forwarded to
the commissioner, the Revenue Officer shall have a breif abstract prepared and
translated into [Hindi or Punjabi as the case may be] vernacular, containing :-
(a) the principal data on which the true net
assets estimate has been based, viz., rates of yield assumed; rates of cash or
in kind; average total areas cultivated and matured, deductions allowed for
expenses of cultivation menials dues, etc., and the value of land as disclosed
by sales and mortgages;
(b) the general considerations on which the
pitch and amount of the total actual assessment proposed to be taken are based,
i.e., the increase in resources through irrigation, extension of cultivation,
rise in prices, miscellaneous income, etc;
(c) the total assessment and the average
revenue rates proposed for adoption in framing village assessments, with such
brief explanations as may be necessary, including the clear proviso that there
is no guarantee that any particular estate will be ultimately assessed at the
exact rates proposed.
(2) [Copies of this abstract
shall be supplied by post to all zaildars, sufedposhes, headmen, and
organizations of landowners of the area concerned, and to non-official members
of the District Board, and elected members of the Punjab Legislative Council
representing the said area.
A period of thirty days
from the date of posting shall be allowed within which any revenue payers or
group of revenue payers or occupancy tenats may make a representation or
objection to the proposed assessment to the Revenue Officer.
Any such representations
or objection shall be considered by the Revenue Officer, who shall forward them
with his views thereon together with the report to the Commissioner.
20. Deviation
to be allowed :- The assessment
ordered by Government of each assessment circle shall be imposed within a
margin of three per cent, either way.
21. Assessment
of particular estates :- Subject
to the provisions of sub-section 3 of section 51 of the Act, the assessment of
each estate shall be fixed according to circumstances.
22. Progressive
assessments :- Large enhancements
of land revenue on particular estates, shall, if necessary, be mitigated by the
imposition of the revised demand in a progressive form, i.e., a portion of the
increased demand shall be deferred for a period of years.
23. Distribution
of assesment over holdings :- (1)
Before making or revising the distribution of a fixed assessment over the
several holdings of an estate the Revenue Officer shall enquire into the usage
over followed in the previous distribution, and in deciding the method of the
new distribution, he shall have regard to that usage and to the wishes of the
landowners, so far as may be practicable and equitable.
(2) (a) The
Revenue Officer shall then make an order setting forth the method of the
former, distribution, and the method by which the new distribution is to be
made, and shall direct that a record of the new distribution be prepared
showing -
(1) serial number of holding;
(2) lanowner (with description) liable for
the land revenue on each holding;
(3) area of holding, with such details as
are necessary for the purposes of the distribution;
(4) rate or measure by which the new
distribution is made;
(5) amount charged to each holding by former
distribution;
(6) rates and cesses charged by a percentage
on the land revenue payable by each holding by the former distribution;
(7) amount charged to each holding by the
new distribution ;
(8) rates and cesses charged by a percentage
on the land revenue payable by each holding by the new distribution.
(b) Where the rent of a tenancy is the whole
or a share of the land revenue thereof, with or without an addition in money,
kind or service, or where an occupancy tenant pays his rent by a cash rent on a
recognised measure of area, or by a cash rent in gross on his tenancy, the
tenancy and the result of procedings (if any) taken under section 27 of the
Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887, shall be shown in this record under the landowner's
holding of which the tenancy is part an additional entry showing the tenant's
name being inserted between entries (2) and (3).
(c) [-]
(3) The record thus mad eshall be published
by delivering a copy thereof to the headman of the estate, and by posting
another copy at a conspicious place in or near the estate. A copy shall also be supplied to the patwari.
(4) If the assessment is the form of rates
chargeable according to the results of each year or harvest, the Assistant
Collector, to whom the Revenue Officer may assign this business by order under
section 12 of the Act, shall cause a record of the sum chargeable to each
holding to be prepared for each year or harvest (as the case may be) giving the
particular [entries (5) and (6) excepted] set out in sub-rule (2) and shall
publish it in the manner prescribed in sub rule (3).
(c) The
principles on which exemption from assessment shall be allowed for
improvements.
24. Exemption
of land benefited by improvement from enhanced assessment :- (1) When a masonry well is constructed at private
expense or with the aid of a loan from Government, for purposes of irrigation,
after the coming into force of these rules, the land which benefits from the
well shall be exempted from liability to any such enhanced or additional
assessment of land revenue as may be due to the existence of the well, until
the expiry of such period as may bave been sanctioned at the previous
settlement, reckoned from the havest in which the well is first brought into
use. The minimum period of exemption for the purpose of this rule shall be [30
years]2, but in any case where it is shown that such period is
insufficient to repay to landowner twice the cost of the well out of the
additional net assets due to the well, it may be extended to such longer
period, not exceeding 40 years, as may be considered sufficient for that
purpose. In cases where the Revenue Officer refuses to grant an exemption up to
a period of 40 years, the aggrieved party shall have a right of appeal to the
Commissioner.
(2) When a well, whether in
use or out of use through disrepair, is repaired for the purpose of irrigation,
an exemption from liability similar to that in sub-rule (1) may be given for
such period (if any) not exceeding half the period specified in that sub-rule
as the officer granting the exemption may consider equitable, with reference to
the amount of expenditure incurred on repairing the well and to the principle
explained in sub-rule (1).
(3) When a tube-well is
constructed at private expense or with the aid of a loan from Government for
purposes of irrigation, the land which benefits from the well shall be exempted
from liability to any such enhanced or additional assessment of land revenue as
may be due to the existence of the well until the expiry of such period as may
be considered by the Financial Commissioner to be sufficient to repay the
landowner twice the cost of the well out of the additional net assets due to
the existence of the well. The minimum period of exemption for the purpose of
this rule shall be 30 years and the maximum 40 years.
[The minimum period of
exemption for the purpose of this rule shall be 30 years and the maximum 40
years.]
(4) During the period of
exemption specified in sub-rule (1) to (3) the land revenue assessment of the
land irrigated by the well or tube-well shall not exceed the amount which would
have been assessed had not new well been constructed or no old well repaired
and in particular no fixed lump assessment shall be imposed on the well during
the period of exemption.
(5) In tracts when there is
practically no assessment on land in its unirrigated aspects the whole fixed
assessment on well lying beyond the reach of river floods or canal water, i.e.
chahi-khalis lands shall be remitted during the period of exemption. In the
case of chahi-sailab and chahi-nahri lands the rates of assessment imposed for
the perod of exemption shall be as follows :-
(a) Where the land irrigated by the well is
situated within reach of river floods, the sailab rate or rates, fixed or
fluctuating as the case may be, as sanctioned for the time being ;
(b) Where it is within reach of canal water,
the nahri-khalis rate or rates, fixed or fluctuating as the case may be as
sanctioned for the time being.
Where in the tracts
mentioned above there is no fixed assessment on well irrigated lands, no rates
othe than sailab or nahri-khalis rates as above shall be charged.
(6) For irrigation works
other than wells or tube-wells, such as dams, reservoirs, water cuts, minor
canals, or canals distributaries, constructed or repaired at private expense or
with the aid of a loan from Government, exemptions similar to those allowed for
wells under sub-rules (1) and (2) shall be granted. The period of such
exemptions shall be determined in each case by the Revenue Officer, but no
exemption for a period exceeding 10 years shall be granted without the sanction
of the Commissioner. Or exceeding 20 years without that of the Financial
Commissioner.
(7) The period of exemption
specified inthe forgoing sub-rules may, for sufficient reasons, be extended
with the sanction of the Financial Commissioner.
24-A. Remission of revenue when well falls out of use :- (1) So much of the assessment of the land
irrigated from a masonry or tube-well as is based on the profits of irrigation
from such well shall be remitted .
Remission of revenue
when wells fall our use.
(a) When the well ceases to be fit for use ;
(b) When irrigation from it is superseded by
canal irrigation and canal advantage revenue or owner's rate has been imposed
(2) A similar remission may
be granted if the well, though still fit for kuse has been out of use for four
harvests, provided that no remission shall be given if the disuse of the well-
(a) occurs in the ordinary course of
husbandry, the well being intended for the merely in seasons of drought;
(b) is due to the introduction of canal
irrigation and canal- advantage revenue or owner's rate has not been imposed.
Note:- The revenue based on
the profits if irrigation from the well shall ordinatily be assumed to be as
follows :-
(i) where a lump sum has been imposed at
the distribution of assessment onthe well on the well in addition to a non-well
rate, such lump sum;
(ii) where a lump sum, inclusive of a
non-well rate, has been imposed at the distribution of assessment, such lump
sum after deducting the equivalent of non-well rate;
(iii) where the distribution of the assessment
has been by soil rates the difference between the actual assessment of the area
irrigated and the amount which would have been assessed on that area if it had
not been irrigated.
25. Period
of exemption for wells to be fixed :- When settlement operations are in progress the Revenue Officer shall
obtain through the Commissioners the sanction of the Financial Commissioner
with respect to the period of exemption for wells other than tubwells, for each
assessment circle.
26. Grant
of exemption certificates at settlement :- In every case in which the Revenue Officer grants exemption he shall give
the landowner a certificate specifying the well or other work on account of
which it is granted the date of its construction or repair, the term for which
the exemption will last, the land which would otherwise have been assessed at
irrigated rates, and the additional demand to be imposed at the end of the
period of exemption. If the land is under fluctuating assessment, the
certificate shall further state what the exemption will be under the system as
sanctioned for the tract.
27. Grant
of certificate at other time :- When
a well, tube-well, or other work is constructed or repaired during the currency
of a settlement in circumstances as to entitle the owner to an exemption from
assessment at irrigated rates, the Revenue Officer shall make a special enquiry
and grant a certificate of exemption in accordance with the provisions of rule
24. If the exemption is to take effect immediately, the certificate shall show
distinctly the amount of existing land revenue to be remitted. But if the
exemption is not to take effect till the next revisin of assessment, no action
need be taken unless the owner of the work in question applies for a
certificate. In such a case on entry shall be made as to the area subject to
the concession or the amount of the exemption.
28. Exemption
of reclaimed waste land :- When
a landonwer desires to secure an exemption from assessment on reclaimed waste
land in order to compensate him for incurring substantial expenditure on its
reclamation, he shall apply, before he commences the work, to the Financial
Commissioner for such exemption, giving a description of the land to be
reclaimed, the difficulties attending its reclamation, and the sum proposed to
be expended on reclamation operations. The Financial Commissioner shall, after
making such enquiries as he deems necessary, decide as to whether any exemption
shall be given.
If the Financial
Commissioner sanctions an exemption, he shall fix the maximum period of the
exemption to be granted. At the close of reclamation operations, the Financial
Commissioner, after verifiation of the actual amount expended on reclamationand
the area reclaimed, shall be written order exempt the area reclaimed from
assessment of land revenue for a period sufficient to reimburse the landowner
to the extent of twice the sum expended on the reclamation operations, subject
to the maximum limit previously fixed.
(d) The
manner in which assessment shall be announred.
29. Order
of assessment for each state :- The
Revenue Officer shall, on receipt of the orders of Government on his assessment
proposals, draw up an order determining the assessment proper on each estate.
30. Announcement
of assessment :- (1) For the
purpose of announcing the assessment imposed on each estate a notice shall be
issued summoning the headmen and other persions interested to attend at a place
and on a date specified. On such date and at such place the Revenue Officer
shall announce the assessment.
(2) The headmen of each
estate shall be given a memorandum showin the future assessment of the estate
and any additional particulars deemed necessary.
(3) The harvest from which
the new demand shall take effect shall be announced to the headmen and other
persons interested and shall be noted in the memorandum furnished to the
headmen.
(e) The manner in which the
rate of incidence of the land revenue is to be claculated for the purpose of
sub-section (3) of section 51.
31. Calculation
of incidence :- In assessment
circle in which fixed assessment was imposed at the last previous assessment
the rate of incidence of such assessment shall be the rate obtained by dividing
the total assessment on cultivated land, as finally imposed by the Revenue
Officer who made the assessment by the cultivated area as ascertained by him
for the purpose of assessment.
(b) In assessment circles in
which fluctuating assessment was imposed at the last previous assessment, the
average acreage of crops forming the basis of the net asset estimate at such
assessment shall be multiplied by the final rates sanctioned. The figures thus
arrived at shall be divided by the cultivated area as ascertained for the
purpose of assessment by the Revenue Officer who imposed the assessment and the
result shall be the rate of incidence of the last previous assessment.
(c) In assessment circles in
which the assessment imposed at the last previous assessment was partly fixed
and party fluctuating the average acreage of crops forming either partly or
wholly the basis of the net assets estimate of such assessment that are subject
to fluctuating assessment shall be multiplied by the final rates sanctioned for
fluctuating assessment. To the figures thus arrived at shall be added the final
fixed demand imposed by the Revenue Officer and the total shall be divided by
the cultivated area as ascertained for the purpose of assessment by the Revenue
Officer. The result shall be the rate of incidence of the last previous
assessment.
(d) The rate of incidence on
the cultivated area for the purpose of the revised assessment shall be
determinewd mutatis mutandis by such of the methods in clauses (a), (b), and
(c) of this rules as are applicable to the circumstances of the circles under
assessment applied to the cultivate area determined by the Revenue Officer at
re-assessment.
appendix ii
(settlement
manual paragraph 223)
Forecast Reports
1. A forecast report should
be brief. All that Government required is to be staisfied that the financial
prospects are such as to justify the undertaking of a general re-assessment,
failing that there are other reasons which make a resettlement desirable.
Rule 13 of the rules
framed under section 60 (b) of the Land Revenue Act [vide Appendix I-Part (E)]
provides that leading agriculturists and organization of zamindars shall be
consulted before the report is prepared.
2. The only statements
required are rainfall statement and the three tables of which specimens are
annexed, and also in districts in which cash rents are all common, a table
comparing the rents prevailing at the time the settlement was made and at
present. The report should be illustrated by a small scale map showing tahsils
assessment circles, rivers canals main roads and railways.
3. The following may be
adopted as a rough outline of the subjects to be dealt with the report :-
I-Preliminary.
(a) Physical features.
(b) Ranifal !
(c) Present assessment circles and
classification of soils.
(d) Character of agricultural population.
(e) Any factors affecting the general
prosperity of the tract as an increase in water-logging.
It ought to be possible
to dispose of the above in the short paragraph.
ii-
development of resources.
This should include such explanation and discussion of the figures given
in statement I as is required. In addition any improvements in means of
communication and the progress of alienation should be noticed. The proportion
of the cultivated area under mortgage in each tahsils (Appendix VI of Revenue
Register) should be mentioned and the class to which the mortgages chiefly
belong.
The rise or fall in the
value of land during the term of the expiring settlement should be noticed an
examination of its sale value in terms of mutliple of the land revenue paid for
it at various periods being made on the lines indicated in paragraph 381-A and
381-B of the Settlement Manual.
iii-
history of prices since last settlement with an estimate of the effective rise
which has occured.
In connection with statement II paragraphs 376-377 of the Settlement
Manual may be read. The rise in prices should ordinarily be calculated from the
comparison between the commutation prices which formed the basis of the
assessment about to be revised and the average prices for the last 20 years
(column 3-6 of the statement), but the average prices for the last 10 years
(columns 7-9) should also be quoted.
iv-
estimate of probable enhancement
The increase for rise of resources may in the absence of any sepcial
reason to the contrary such for example as the substitution of canal for barani
cultivation be taken as equal to the rise in cultivation. The increase for rise
of prices will be whatever percentage the Deputy Commissioner considers to
represent the effective rise of prices. This may differ considerable from the
arithmetical deduction from the figures in column 5 of statement for example in
deciding what percentage to adopt as showing the effective rise more world
should be paid to the prices of crops which farmers grow largely for sale than
to those of crops grown mainly for their own consumption. There may be
excellent reasons for departing widely in actual assessment from the
arithmetical result shown in column 8. Statement III. Column 9 should be show
the demand which the Deputy Commissioner thinks can prudently be fixed. If it
differs much from the assessment shown in column 8 the reason for thinking the
latter excessive should be shortly stated.
The net-assets estimate
of each circle prepared at last settlement should be varied according to the
effective rise of prices and changes in resources so as to represent the
probable net-asset estimate based on the most recent figures available. The
probable new demand should not exceed one-fourth of that figure.
v-other
matters
In reporting on the maps and records and Deputy Commissioner should say
how far he thinks it will be necessary to remeasure the villages and to make a
complete revision of their records.
It should also be
clearly stated (a) whether a professional riverain traverse survey has been
previously carried out and in what years (b) whether an adequate number of the
pillars marking corners of squares which were demarcated and erected by the
previous professional survey on the higher margin of the reverian area under
inundation are still in situ.
It is not necessary for
him to make proposals as to the establishment required for settlement
operations but he should state for each tahsil what is the number of (1)
patwaris circles (2) patwaris and assistant patwaris and (3) field kanungos and
should note whether he thinks the existing staff adequate for the requirement
of the ordinary revenue work of the district.
appendix iv
(settlement
manual paragraph -232).
Judicial powers exercised by
Settlement Officer at
different periods.
Shortly after annexation the Board of
Administration forbade the civil Courts in the districts west of the Bias to
entertain any claims for land till a regular settlement had been effected and
at the same time the district revenue courts were directed to "confine
their attention to the question of possession, and leave to the Settlement
Officers hereafter the decision of disputed rights." A little later the provision of
Regulation VII of 1822 which allowed a disappointed claimant to contest the
finding of a Settlement Officer by brining a civil suit in the district Court
was set aside with the sanction of the Governor-General and the decision of
Settlement Officer in all cases decided on their merits after full enqiry were
made final "subject to the usual revenue appeal."2
Settlement Officer were vested with the full power of Civil Courts as regards
land suits.3 The period of limitation was fixed at 12 years and this
was sometimes interpreted as meaning 12 years counting back from the date of
annexation or from the date on which the claim was first put forward in the
district revenue courts. When the first Punjab Courts Act, XIX of 1865 came
into force care was taken to maintain the jurisdiction of Settlement Officers
as regards land suits. The 21st section of that act provided that when the
district was under settlement any special officer in it might be invested with
the civil powers of a Commissioner Deputy Commissioner Assistantt, Commissioner
or tahsildar for the purpose of deciding suits in respect to land or the rent
revenue or produce of land. Similar provisions were embodied in section 49 of
the Second Punjab Courts Act XVII of 1877, Settlement Officer were usually
invested with the powers of a Deputy Commissioner to decide suits or appeals
regarding land or the rent revenue, or produce of land. But inthe districts of
the old Delhi territory re-assessed between 1871and 1878 it was determined to
confine the jurisdiction of the Settlement Courts to cases under the Tenancy
Act of 1868 on the ground that these districts "were settled many years
ago and the rights of all parties must have been determined either by length of
possession or by decree of courts. In 1878 it was proposed to follow the same
course in al the districts then about come under settlement but ultimately the
jurisdiction of the Settlment Courts was made to extend to suits.
(a) under the Tenancy Act;
(b) to alter or cancel any entry in the
register of names of proprietors of revenue-paying land;
(c) under section 9 of the specific Relief
Act of 1877.
(d) for declaration of title in land, or the
rent revenue or produce of land brought by parties in possession of the right
claimed.
It was
also intended that claims under head (b) should only be cognizable by
Settlement Courts where the planitiff was in possessions. The description under
head (b) was not considered sufficiently precise and was gradually expanded but
the changes made were intended to define and not to restrict the powers
hitherto possessed in cases between landlords and tenants. In 1886 a fresh form
of notification was introduced giving Settlement Officers the powers of a Deputy
Commissioner, under section 46(1) of the Punjab Courts Act of 1884 for the
trial of all classes of suits mentioned in section 45 of the same Act. With six
exceptions. The effect was to withdraw from Settlement Officers jurisdiction in
suits under heads (b) and (d) above but to enable them to decide suits for the
determination of "dispute regarding boundaries of land which have been
fixed by a Court of Revenue Officer." Chapter VI of Act XVIII of 1884 was
repealed by the Land Revenue Act of 1887 but Chapter XI of the latter Act
enables Government if it please to make land class in any local area solely
cognizable by the officer making or specially revising records of rights in
that area. So no use has been made of this chapter and Settlement Officer are now
invested only with the powers of a Collector under the Tenancy Act, XVI of 1887
and their exercise of these powers in confined within narrow limits by
executive instructions (see Appendix VI).
appendix v
cancelled
appendix vi
(Settlement Manual Paragraph 229)
Business to tbe Disposed of by
Settlement, Officers Director of Land Record And the Commissioner
A- table showing business arising under the punjab land
revenue and tenancy acts which will be dispose of by setlement collectors
Land Revenue Act.
1. Chapter III of Land Revenue Act
relating to headmen (other then chief headmen) kanungos and patwaris also cases
of neglect of duty or disobedience of orders by any person holding office under
this chapter so far as those duties or orders relate to business controlled by
the Collectors. If cases come to the notice of the Settlement Officer reuiring
action under Land Revenue Rule 21 (IV) he should report them to the Deputy
Commissioner.
The Collector of the
district should consult the Settlement Collector before finally disposing of
successions of zaildarship;' but is not bound to adopt his recommendation.
Proposals for revision of zaildari arrangement should be prepared by the two
Collectors jointly.
2. Chapter IV of Land
Revenue Act (Records).
3. Chapter V of Land Revenue
Act (Assessments)
4. Chapter VIII of Land
Revenue Act (Surveys and and Boundaries).
5. Chapter IX of Land
Revenue Act (Partition).
6. The following section of
Chapter XII of the Land Revenue Act viz. Sections 145, 146, 147, 148 and 150, also
section 149 so far as concerns business allotted to this Collector.
Punjab
Tenancy Act.
7. Section 76, sub-section
(1) clause (a) and section 77, sub-section (3) clauses (a), (b) and (c) also
clause (m), so far as it concerns kanungos and patwaris.
Note 1. :- The Settlement Collector has no powers under
chapter vi and vii of the Land Revenue Act; but the collector of the district
should refer to him for report all cases in which remissions or suspensions of
the land revenue appears to be required on account of calamity of season or
other failure of assets. Similarly the Settlement Collector may of his own
motion, report such cases to the Collector of the district for orders. It is
important that the officer who is charged with the duty of revising the assessments
should enquire into all cases of this kind, and the collector of the district
should not set aside his recommendations in any case without the sanction of
the commissioner.
Note 2. :- Of the quartely and annual business returns, part
v, which relates to village records and also all crop returns and agricultural
statistics (other than those relating to prices and rainfall), should be
submitted by the Settlment Collector and an other returns by the Collector of
the district.
Note 3. :- For business connected with land revenue
assignments see paragraph 186 of the Land Administration Manual and paragraph
568, et. seq of this Manual.
B. - work in connection with settlements which will be disposed of by the
commissioner and director of land records
1. Duties
of the commissioner and Director of Land Records in districts under settlement
:- The commissioner will
exercise general control in all matters connected with the conduct of
settlement within his division subject to the directions of the Financial Commissioner.
He will supervise all matters connected with settlement operations and consult
and advise the local officers thereon. The position of the Director of Land
Records in regard to map correction and revision of reords in settlement is
defined in paragraph 207; Land Administration Manual. He will aid the Settlment
Officer with his advice, but on matters requring orders he will report to the
Financial Commissioner who will isue his orders to the Settlements Officer
through the commissioner of the division.
2. Submission
of reports from districts under settlement :- Reports, referenes and returns relating to
settlements shall be submitted (by Deputy Commissioner, prior to the
commencement of a settlement, and by the Settlment Officer afterwards) to the Commissioner,
who will himself dispose of all matters he has power to dispose of and refer
other matters with his opinion for the orders of the Financial Commissioner.
The quarterly business
returns in districts under settlment, prescribed in Standing Order No. 52, are
submitted by the Settlment Officer to the Commissioner. The Commissioner
returns statements I to III with his remarks to the Settlement Officer, while
statements IV and V in duplicate are forwarded with his comments to the
Director of Lands Records. The Dirctor of Land Records his remakrs and forwards
them to the Financial Commissioner. One copy is field in the Financial
Commissioner's office one copy is returned with the orders of the Financial
Commissioner through the Director of Land Records of the Commissioner, and by
the latter to the Settlement Officer.
3. Preliminary
reports and special reports :- Settlement
officers are required to submit preliminary reports regarding assessment
circles, soild classification, prices, the extent of remeasurement required,
and the years to be adopted in framing the produce estimate (paragraph 225 of
the Manual. Such reports will be submitted to the Commissioner who will forward
them with his recommendations to the Financial Commissioner for oders. The Financial
Commissioner will consult the Director of Land Records if he considers it
necessary before passing orders. The orders of the Financial Commissioner will
be communicated by the commissioner to the Settlement Officer, a copy being
sent to the Director of Land reocrds for information.
Reports are submitted by
the Settlement Officer on the following subjects through the Commissioner for
the orders of the Financial Commissioner :-
(a) All questions connected with forests and
Government waste.
(b) Leases of Government land.
(c) Tirni.
(d) Land revenue assignments.
(e) Zaildari and sufedposhi inams.
The orders of the
Financial Commissioner on these cases are communicated to the Settlement
Officer through the Commissioner and the Director of Land Records need not be
referred to in connection with these subjects.
4. Settlement
budges and accounts :- The
control over settlement budgets and accounts and all other administrative
authority and power referring to settlements are now exercised by the Commissioner
subject to the orders of the Financial Commissioner. Previously established
settlement procedure should not be departed from without the sanction of the
Financial Commissioner.
5. Completion
of miscellaneous work by the Settlement Officer :- It will be the duty of the Commissioner at the
commencement of the concluding year of a settlement to see that all reports on
such subjects as revenue assignments, patwairs and zaildars circles and
emoluments, lease of Government land and tirni are submitted through him to the
Financial Commissioner in good time so that orders may be passed and carried
out before the Settlement Officer leaves the district. Any changes in the
record of agricultural or revenue statistics which the Settlement Officer has
to suggest should be submitted to the Commissioner and by him through the
Director of Land Records to the Financial Commissioner for orders. The
Dastur-ul-amal proposals should be submitted to the Commisoner who will approve
of them after consultation with the Director of Land Records.
6. Powers,
postings and leave of Settlement officials :- (a) Proposals for conferring on any Settlement
Officer, Assistant Settlement Officer or Extra Assistant Settlement Officere
powers which it is not usual to confer on members of the class to which he
belongs should be submitted by the Commissioner through the Financial
Commissioner.
(b) Matters relating to (i) leave of
officers in charge of a settlement and (ii) first appointments of Settlement
Officers, Assistant Settlement Officer and Extra Assistant Settlemtn Officers
are dealt with by the Financial Commissioner.
(c) The posting of officers for settlement
training will be arranged by the commissioner in direct communication with
Government but the report on the training of the officers will be submitted to
the Financial Commissioner.
7. Settlement
Kanungos :- (1) At least two
months before he begins to reduce establishment the Settlement Officer should
report to the Director of Land Records the names, with full particulars as to
home, previous experience, etc. of all permanetn and sub-pro-tem settlement
kanungos who are liekly to be set free from his settlement.
(ii) The Director of Land Records should
provide for these kanungos in some other settlement. Officiating kanungos must
make room for permanent and sub-protem. Men, and sub protem men for those who
are permanent.
(iii) If it can be arranged kanungos should be
posted to settlements as near as possible to their homes.
(iv) Kanungos who have doen measurement by
triangulation in a hill tract should be specially selected for similar work
elsewhere when required.
C - memorandum regarding preparation for settlements.
1. Appointment
of future Extra Assistant Settlement Officer as Revenue Assistant :- Settlement operations usually begin in October,
but if it is possible to select the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer some
time beforehand, he should be posted to the district as Revenue Assistant in
the course of the hot weather. It will be his duty to make preparations for the
initation of Settlement work in order that no time may be wasted when
Settlement Officer is finally posted to the district.
2. Duties
of future Extra Assistant Settlement Officer :- The first subject which may be the duty of the
future Extra Assistant Settlement Officer to invetigate is the state of the
revenue records and one of the first subject on which the Settlement Officer
will be called upon to make a decision will be the choice betwen remaesurement
and map revision (Settlement Manual Appendix XXI). Some information on the
state of records should be contained in the Forecast Report, but it will be the
duty of the future Extra Asistant Settlement Officer to examine the quetion in
detail and prepare materials which will enable the Settlement Officer to submit
his proposals to the Financial Commissioner as soon as possible after arrival.
To assist him in this one Settlement kanungos per tahsil and pethaps on advance
staff (paragraph 8 of Appendix XXI of the settlement Manual) will be sent to
the district by the Director of Land Records to join at the same time as Extra
Assistant Settlement Officer and the operations described in paragraphs 2 and 3
of Appendix XX. Settlement Manual, Will be carried out by the distict revenue
establishment, reinforced by the Kanungos as soon as possible in the hot
weather. When the Janch Partal files each Tahsildars, they will simply forward
them with their opinion to the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer, instead of
taking the action contemplated in paragraphs 4 and 5 the Extra Assitant
Settlement Officer will draw up a report which will be put before the
Settlement Officer as soon as he arrives.
3. Settlement
Patwairs :- The future Extra
Assistant Settlement Officer should also consider after enquiry from the
director of Land Records whether there is likely to be any difficulty in
procuring a sufficient number of trained Patwaris, and if there is he should
arrange to open a patwari school (paragraph 10 of Standing order No. 15 para 6.
the number of patwari candidates canno exceed 33 per cent of the number of
patwaris but for the purposes of a settlement it is within the discretion of
the Settlement Officer or (before his arrival of the Deputy Commissioner) to
raise it to 67 percent. If even so a sufficient number of settlement patwaris
cannot be obtained, additional patwaris can be recruited from other districts
on the conditions specified in paragraph 19 of Standing Order No. 16 but this
of course will not be done until the Settlement Officer has arrived.
4. Inspection
of Records :- Every effort
should be made to bring records up-to-date under the ordinary rules before the
inception of settlement operations. For this purpose the Director of Land
Records should make a special inspection of the records towards the end of the
cold wealther preceding the commencement of settlement operations and should
note the subjects requiring the attention of the revenue staff, such as arrears
of mutations and partitions and the corrections of maps by tatimma shajars. It
will be the duty of the future Extra Assistant Settlement Officer to see how
far the directions of the Director of Land Records have been carried out and to
complete the inquires which he prescribed.
5. Accommodation
:- The future Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer should also consider the question of accommodation and if
satisfactory local arrangements cannot be made should submit proposals through
the Deputy Commissioner to the Commissioner.
6. Equipment
:- The equipment required for
the Staff of a settlement may be divided into the following heads :- (i) Tents,
(ii) furniture, (iii) Survey implements, (iv) Book (v) Stationary (vi) Forms
and (vii) musavis.
The Director of Land
Records is responsible for the redistribution's of equipment at the end of a
Settlement. Six months before a settlement comes at the end, the Settlement
Officer will send to the Director of Lands Records a list of the equipment
which he anticipats will remain over from his settlement. This will enable the
Director of Land Records to arrange for this equipment to be sent to other
another settlement When settlement comes to an end the Settlement Officer will
hand over to the Deputy Commissioner such equipment as has not already been
sent elsewhere at the same time sending a list of this equipment to the
Director of Land Records. The futur extra Assistant Settlement Officer of a
settlement acting as revenue Assistant will ascertainwhat equipment is
necessary of his settlement and then send a list to the Director of Land
Records who will arrange for such equipment, as is on his list to be sent from
the other districts where it has been left. For the remaining equipment which
Director of Land Records cannot arrange for the Extra Assistant Settlement
Officer will make arrangements as detailed below independently of the Director
of Land Records, who will however give advice if he is asked to do so. There is
no advantage in making Director of Land Records an intermediary except when it
is a case of a redistribution between settlement.
7. (i)
Tents :- These general principles
may be applied in detail to each class of equipment. The sanctioned scale of
tents for settlement staff is given in paragraph I. Stnding Order 45 and the
Extra Assistant Settlement Officer should arrange for the supply of tents on
that scale in the manner described below. Six months before the tents are
available, the Settlement Officer will report the fact direct to the Director
of Land Records. The Director of Land Records will then make arrangements for
their disposal to any new Settlement that is starting. The Extra Assistant
Settlement Office, who is put first in charge of the district to be settled,
will ascertain from the Direcotor of Land Records as to what tents are
available from other districts. The Director of Land Records will then issue
instructions for the transfer of availabel tents and will certify to the
Financial Commissioner the balance which the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer
should be allowed to purchase. The Financial Commissioner will then convey
sanction for such purchase through the Commissioner (copy to Director of Land
Records) and the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer will thereupon make the
purchase.
8. (ii)
Furniture :- Six months before
the close of settlement it should be decided by the Settlement Officer what
furniture will be worth transporting and what should be disposed of by auction.
Such furniture as is worth transporting should be reported by the Settlement
Officer to the Director of Land Records. The remaining furniture required will
then be made by the Director of Land Records. The remaining furniture reuired
will then be reference to the Commissioner. When the Settlement Officer
arrives, if he finds this furniture insufficient he will of course be entitled
to supplement it in the ordinary manner.
9. (iii)
Survey :- A list of the survey
implements to which a patwari is entitled is given in paragraph 67 of Standing
Order No. 15 As in the case of tents and furniture the future Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer should first ascertain from the Director of Land records
what survey implements are available from other settlements. He should then
obtain details of all the survey implements with the present patwaris and see
how many extra implements with the necessary in addition to those which they
have already got. He should also estimate what implements will be required for
the extra settlement partwaris and should then send a combined indent to the
Director of Land Records who will supply him the implemtns that are availabel
from other settlements. The remainder he should arrange to purchase himself,
the procedure followed being similar to that for furniture. On receipt of the
report from the closing settlement, the Director of Land Records will also
decide whether there are any Mathematical instruments which can be returned to
the Mathematical Instrument Office or whether they should be retained for use
in other settlements.
10. (iv)
Books :- The same princip;le
applied to books. The sanctioned scale of books of Settlements staff is given
in paragraph 17 of Standing Order No 47. At the end of a settlement a list of
the books that are available should be sent to the Director of Land Records and
at the commencement of the new settlemetn an indent should be sent to him in
accordance with the sanctioned scale. He will inform the Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer as to what books are available from other settlements and
the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer will arrange for obtaining the remaining
books for himself in accordance with the rules (Standing Order No. 47, paragraph
17).
11. (v)
Stationery :- Rules for the
obtaining of stationery are given in paragraph 37 of Standing order No 49and
part ii of Punjab Stationery and Printing Manual. Most of this will have to be
indented for by the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer through Commissioner
from the Stationery Department as explained in paragraph 37, but he should
first ascertain from the Director of
Land Records whether any stationary is available from other settlements and
similarly at the end of a settlement the settlement officer should inform the
Direcot of Land Records whether any stationary is left over.
12. (vi)
Forms and (vii) Mussavis :- A
list of forms used in the course of settlement is given in paragraph 38 of
Standing Order No 49. The Settlement Officer will get these forms as well as
Mussavis and any other forms that may be introduced by him direct form the
Controller, Government printing, Chandigarh. The future Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer will, however first ascertain from the Director of Land
Records whether there are any forms and mussavis which can be made available
from other settlements. At the end of a settlement the Settlement Officer will
report to the Director of Land Records the number of settlement forms and
mussavis that are not required for use in the district and can be transferred
to other settlements.
appendix vii
(Settlement Manual, paragraph 256)
A. -
procedure connected with the complete measurement of a village
1. Preparation
of Khatauni's and shajjra usab :- Before Commencing the fields measurements of any village it is essential
that correct and complete Khataunis shold be drawn up. If the previous annual
papers have bene properly prepared, and the jamabandi is correct to date, this
will give little trouble. If it is not correct, then all mutations of rights
omitted from the jamabandi must be enterd up in the list of mutations of the
current year. The khataunis will then agree with the jamabandi so correted plus
chantes in tenants -at will. And to make sure that the khataunis are correct
and complete there will be drawn up at the same time a shajra nasb of the
owners. The procedure will, therefore, be as
follows :- The kanungo or patwari, having collected the owners in the village, put the last jamabandi before
him, and draw up a genealogical tree of the owners or I there is one inthe
previous records; correct that to date. In doing this he will compar the
generalocial tree and the jamabandi, holding and will explain the entries to
the owners. The comparison of the two papers will bring to light all ommissions
from the jamabandi connected with the descent of the owners and ommissions from
the jamabandi due to transfers, partition, changes of tenants, and other like
causes, will be pointed out by the owners. Forms of the khatauni, index, and
list of khatauni totals with necessary instructions, are appended.
a. - khatauni or holding
slip
Tehsil ______________________ Mauza Taraf _______________
Patti
|
Last jamabandi No.
|
|
|
New Khatauni No.
|
Owner
|
|
No. in Register of Mutations
|
Tenant
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
|
*Number and name of filed
|
Name of well or
|
Area and class of
|
Rent
|
Remarks
|
|
Former
|
New
|
other source of irrigation
|
land and total of holdings
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*For form of shajra nash and instructions for its
preparation see appendix VII.
(1) This form will be printed
on one-eighth of a sheet, that is to say, on paper size 10"- 6". It
will be printed on one side only. It necessary, the patwaris can continue the
entries on the other side. Lines will be printed across columns 1-3 for the
separate entry of each fields. The whole will be sewed together at top, like a
bahi, the alphabetical index being added. A leather patta will also be added to
protect the paper of the same sort as is used to protect bahis. One leaf will
be sufficent for each holding.
(2) The khatauni number will
be entered in ink before measurement are commenced. There is no real reason why
an accurate list of the holdings should not be made. If by chance one or two
holdings are subsequently discovered, these can be added in their place by sub
numbers when the tahsildar attests the village finally after close of
measurements, the series of numbers can be corrected can be corrected once for
all.
(3) The names and shares of
owners and cultivtor should be entered with great care and after careful
attestion. If names and shres have already been entered in one holding in full
detail, and in a subsequent holding it is desired to incorporate the same entry
by reference, this may be done: for example, Sham Singh ahd others as in
holding No 3. (three). But the number of the holding must be entered in such
cares in figures and in words; and care should be taken that short entries
referring to different holdings are not made in nearly identical terms. Also
the reference should always be to the Khatauni number; the measurer has nothing
to do with jamabandi numbers.
(4) Enter shares in the
plainest terms, just as the patwari enters them in his ordinary annunal papers,
for example :-
A and B in even shares.
D and F in even shares
half, and G and H in even shares, half.
Several persons (stated
by name) in the following shares :-
K and L in even shares,
half; M.N. and others, half on three (3) shares,
M and N in even shares
O.P. & R in even
shares
I share.
If there are a great many
shares, where them out in full on the back of the kharauni, making a short
entry in the column 'owner' on the upper side thus A, B and others, total 15
owners as detailed on reverse. It is most important that all shares should be
entered in the village papers in the same words and terms as those by which the
zamindars described them. No attempt should be made to substitute for these
terms more elaborate descriptions. and those forms of expression should be
preferred which will be most conveniently transcribed in the annual papers. It
is not at all necessary to describe all the shares of a holding by the same
denominator; they should be put down just as the zamidars tell them off.
(5) As regards sales and
mortgages with possesson (they should be shown in every case with the detail
directed in the Standing Order in Records-of-rights.
(6) Mortgages without
possession will be entered will be entered will only under the circumstances
and with the details directed in the Standing Order records-of-Rights.
(7) If a hereditary tenant
has sold or mortgated his holding and the transfer has been acted on, it will
entered in th register of mutations and incorporated in the Khatanuni, subject
to any order of Court tht may be produced concerning a transfer of his nature.
(8) Enter very carefully the
rents paid by tenants. If the rent is a share of the produce, note any payments
made from the whole heap before the produce is divided. If the rent is cash, it
should be so described as to show whether the rent is a lump charge on the
holding or a rate per higha or whether the rent is per harvest or per crop, or
per annum or by apprasement.
(9) Ordinarily no entry
relating to trees will be made. But the patwari should enquire whether any
trees are owned by other than the owner or cultivator and in cases in which
trees are owned by persons who so not hold the land, the patwari will enter the
facts in the column of remarks in the Khatauni.
(10) If the revenue of Khata is
assigned, note the fact and the name of the mafidarbriefly in red ink in the
column of remarks.
(11) Do not collect all the
mafi khatas at the end, Let each khata come in the place to which reference to
the owenership, it properly belongs.
(12) Land appropriated for
public purposes. All land permanetly appropriated for public purposes should be
entered in the khataunis as directed in the jamabandi. Mutations expressed by
these entries need not be entered in the register of mutations.
(13) It is not necessary to
enter a name for every filed along with its number. If fields are known by
names the names should be entered. But where fields are not commonly known by
districts names, no names of fields need be entered.
(14) The following soils will
be recorded in the khataunis -
(i) Ghair mumkin, banjor kadin and banjar jadid,
as directed for the crop girdawari and milan rakba.
(ii) Chahi is all land irrigated regularly
from a well (whether the well is pakka or kacha and whether teh water be lifted
by buckets, wheel or dhenkli) Some land is thus irrigated every harvest, other
land every year, and some land once in two years. Whatever land gets regularly
should be sown as chahil. The actual area of crops irrigated will not appear
from the measurement papers, but from the crop gridwari papers.
(iii) Nahri is land watered by a canal. The
limits of this land will be defined in the same way as those of chahi land.
(iv) Abi is land watered from tanks, jhils,
river branches and springs and not falling under heads of chahi or nhri. The
limits of this land will be defined in the same way as those of chahi land.
(v) Salab is land usually flooded in thge
rains by large rivers or their branches.
(vi) Barani is all cultivation not included in
above classes.
The collector can direct
that other soil distinctions be recorded if he consideres this necessary.
It should be added that
there is some land near rivers or canals or jhils which is always moist. This
also should be entered as sailab if of any considerable amount or importance.
But small areas of this kind may be recorded as barani. Fruit-bearing gardners
will be neckoned as cultivated land, and their areas will be classed under the
above heads according as they are irrigated or not. Groves of other trees will
be classed as banjar kadim.
B. - alphabatical index to be prefixed to khatauni.
|
LETTER
|
OWNERS
|
HEREDITARY TENANTS
|
TENANT-AT-WILL
|
|
|
Name
|
Khatauni No.
|
Name
|
Khatauni No.
|
Name
|
Khatauni No.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c-list of
khatauni totals
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
Khatani No.
|
How may fields
|
give in these columns the details of are as
and well squired for the milan rakba
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
|
Column 3. :- It should be borne is
mind that this classification and that given in the milan rakba must agree.
*See chapter XIII of this Manual.
2. Parchas
to be given to zamindars :- When
the khataunis are ready the patwari will give to each agriculturist a copy of
the khataunis relating to him. These copies are known as parches. Of mortgaged
holding a parcha will be given both to mortgagor and mortgaged, but not to
collateral mortgages. In holdings in which there are several shares it is
generally sufficent to give a parcha to one share; but if another share asks
for a copy; it should be given to him also. Of tenant's holdings one copy
should be given to the tenant and the other to the owner.
3. Attendance
of owners and cultivators :- The
Sharja nash and khataunis having been completed, and the parches having been
distributed to the zamindar, the patwari will commence measurement work. Every
evening he will inform the village hedmen what fields will be measured on the
day following and the village headmen will at once inform the owners and
cultivators concerned, and direct them to attend the patwari the following
morning.
4. Chainmen
:- The headmen of the village
will supply for the field work two chainmen.
5. Papers
which patwari will have with him :- The patwari should have with the during his fields measurements the
former shajra, his copy of the last detailed jamabandi (with alluvion and
diluvion papers, if any) also the new shajra nasb and register of mutations.
These papers and the papers in hand are the only papers that he should take
with him in his daily measurement work.
6. Procedure
as each field is measured :- As
reach field is measured he will delineate it in pencil on the shajra, work out
of area, inform the owner and cultivator of the result., consider their
objections; if any and them write up the field book, the khatauni, zamindars's
percha. The form of the field book is given below :-
Field Book
|
Number of field
|
Former Number
|
Number of khatauni
|
Area calculation
|
7. List
of fiels on margin of field map :- In order to make it easy to refer from the field map to the jamabandi :
the patwari will write a list on a separate mapping sheet (to be filled with
the map) as under :-
|
Number of field
|
Number of khatauni in which entered
|
8. Procedure
when owner or tenant is absent :- If owner or tenant is absent when a field is measured the patwari will
make a mark X in the remarks of the khatauni, and write over the mark the
letter M or K to indicate whether absentee is the owner or cultivator, and will
sign his name under the mark. If the absentee arrives afterwards, a place will
be left in his parcha for the field measured in the absence of the parcha
holder, nor return to those fields in order to explain the entries. It is the
kanungos work to do in the fields in order to explain the entreis. It is the
kanungo's work to do this.
Note :- The above procedur for securing the attendance of
right-holders and keeping them informed of the entries made in the measurment papers
regarding their land is not applicable to cases where Goernement land in the
possessions of department is under measurement. Before remasurements are
commenced in any district or tract the Settlement Officer or Collector should,
if there is any land of the above description within the limits of the district
or tract ascertain from the executive officer of the department concerned, who
is in the charge of the said land whether the proposes to depute a subordinate
to be present at the measurements. If the departments officer desire to do so,
the Settlement officer or Collector should arrange, as far as possible for the
measurement of the Government had to be made at a time convenient both to the
department concerned and to the settlement or revenue subordinate. The
Settlement Officer should also if desired by the departmental officer, furnish
the latter, free of charge with copies of the entries in the measurment Papers
and maps relating to the Government land in his charge, and should consider any
represenation made to him by the department officer in regard to there. In the
above connection attention to the instructions contained in paragraph 45 (A) of
Standing Order No. 16 is necessary.
9. Procedure
in case of trifling disputes of discrepancies :- In cases of petty disputes as to the position of
a boundary, if there is a permanent boundary, the patwari will measure
according to the boundary, if there is not, then he will measure according to
the former papers. He may be allowed to neglect slight differences between
former and present measurment, as may be proper in each village; so that the
zamindari's attention may be not be directed to useless disputes. But if an
owner has added to his field land that he owns jointly with other, except in
course of partition, such land must be measured as a separate number. In places
wher land is of little value, if an occupancy tenapt has extended his field by
plughing out; and there is no boundary between the new and old land; nor other
plain evidence, such as payment of a different rent, by which the new land can
be separated from the old land, the patwari will survey the whole in one
number. In such a case it is not his duty to distinguish between old land and
new land.
10. Field
names and order in which fields should be numbered :- The numbering of the fields on the maps should
run in a connected chain. So far as the fields of one holding lie together they
should be measured without break. Where field divisions followsoil
distinctions, the order of the holding should not be broken on this account.
Similarly if the land is owned by wells or by separate pattis, he fields of
each well or patti lying in one block should be numbered in a connected series,
and not be mixed up in the measurement papers with those of adjoining pattis
and wells. And the limits of each patti or well should be shown by a coloured
line. Also if one field lies in the middle of a larger field it should be so
measured, without breaking up the larger field into two. Field names, if
locally used, should be entered under the survey number to which they relate.
11. The
abadi :- The villages should be
measured in one number together with the small plots attached in which cattle
are penned, manure is stored, and straw is stacked, and other waste attached to
the village site. The entry in the column of ownership and occupancy will be
simply abadi deh.
12. Village
roads :- Village roads through
irrigated lands or through highly cultivated land, or wherever these roads have
distinct boundaries, should be measured according to their existing bounds. If
any road has no distinct bound it should be entered as three kadams wide. But
where the position of a way shifts with the cultivation on of each year, it
should ; be indicated in the map with a red line; and a note should be made in
the khatauni against each field which the way crosses, thus; "The way to
village A crosses this field." If by acting on these instructions a
village road is in any case recorded very differently from the record of it at
last measurement, and public inconvenience appears probable, the road should be
measured as above directed, and the case be reported to the revenue officer.
Perhaps in some cases the revenue officer may be able to prevent inconvenience
of this-kind. But usually the fixed boundaries of village roads cannot be
altered.
13. Boundaries
of fields not marked on ground how shown :- Where the boundary of a survey number is known, but is not marked on the
ground owing to rich cultivation or sandy soil, the boundary should be delineated
on the map by broken lines.
14. Procedure
at beginning and end of day's work :- At the commencement and end of every day's work the patwari should -
(a) test the chain :
(b) check the entries of number sabik
(former field No.)
(c) compare the area entries of the field
book and khatauni.
14-A. Daily outturn :- A
Settlement Officer should, after he had some experience of district, lay down
with the approval of the Commissioner his own standard of outturn per chain per
diem in remeasurement according to the circumstances and nature of the district
and communicate the same through the Commissioner and the Director of Land
Records of the Financial Commissioner. This standard will be used as a guide in
checking the quarterly business returns.
15. Inking
in of fields :- The fields will
be inked into the shajra, week by week; after kanungo has tested them. Viz.
filed numbers in red ink; and all other entries in black ink.
16. Toprographical
signs to be entered in field maps :- In order to meet the requirements of the Survey of India certain
topographical signs used by the department should be used. A list of the signs;
together with specimen cadastral maps, can be obtained from the Financial
Commissioner, these signs should be followed in all topographical and patwaris;
maps as far as possible. When a survey party is at work in a district under
settlement a few selected men should be sent to be taught by the Surveyor the
proper method of representing these signs. It should be clearly understood that
these diretions in no case supersede those contained in the Mensuration Manual.
17. Colouring
of maps :- Too much attention
should not be given to the appearance of the maps an apart from correctness.
The colouring, however, should usually be done by selected patwaris or by
specially entertained colourists. If a map has become dirty or discoloured, it
should be left alone, and, if owing to cracks in the paper or some other
reasons it is absolutely necessary to prepare a fair copy, the original should
be filed as well as the copy.
18. Maps
to be kept in flat boxes :- The
map should be kept flat after being filed in the record room. The mapping
sheets of each village should be attached together by tape or string running
through two eyelets pierced in the top right and left hand corners of each
sheet.
19. Index
map :- Index maps should be
prepared on mapping sheets, each square being divided into the requisite number
of smaller squares for the purpose. Where possible, the scale to be adopted
should be 240 kadams of 5-1/2 feet to the inch (4 inches to the mile), as this
is the scale usually adopted in revenue survey maps. The reduction from the 40
kadam to the inch field maps should be done by scale. This work is facilitated
by scales with inches subdivided into sub-multiples of 240. The Director of
Land Records informs Settlement Officers of the name of the firm from which
such scales can be procured. To test the work rapidly the kanungos can be given
double compasses, of which one pair of arms measures a distance exactly six
times that measured by the other pair. Such compasses can be made up in most
large towns. When the karm in use is such that the maps on the square system
cannot be readily reduced to the scale of 4 inches to the mile by the use of
the scale, as in Hissar, where the karm is 57.157 inches and in the hill part
of Gurdaspur where its length is 57.5 inches, the required reduction can be
made by the help of the pentagraph. Even if the proportion between the field
map scale and the scale of 4 inches to the mile is not one of those for which
the instrument is graduated, the pentagraph can be set empirically so as to
give it. To obtain the proper setting a trial should be made with two squares
made in the proper proportions, and care should be taken that the pointer and
the fixed axis in which the instrument revolves are so fixed as to be always in
one straight line. The index map should show the same features as those shown
in the revenue survey maps of the villages, and the signs will be those
employed by the Revenue Survey Department, most of which are the same as in the
40 kadam village maps. Each Settlement Officer will have to give his own
instructions as to the points to be shown in these maps according to the
character of the country under survey. Besides serving as an index to the
village map this reduction is required for two other purposes. (1) the check of
the patwari's measurments with scienfitic data (paragraph 21 below) and (2) the
preparation of the tahsil and district maps prescribed in S.O. No 16. paragraph
30. If there are time and money available, the patwaris may be instructed to
make copies of the index maps to be kept by themselves for use. The Settlement
Officer will determine the material on which such copies are to be made.
20. Copies
of village map requied :- of the
village maps. two or if necessary three copies will be made, viz:-
(i) for the tahsil fair copy (parat tahsil);
(ii) for use in girdawari ;
(iii) for other departments; if necessary (see
note to paragraph 8) :-
(i) The tahsil fair copy should be made on
country mapping sheets;
(ii) The copy for use in girdawari should be
on cloth;
(iii) The copies made for the other departments
will be made on the material desired by the department concerned.
Copy No. (1) should be
in every respect an exact copy of the mapping sheets filed with the Settlement
record.
Copy No. (ii) should
also be a close copy it should show the lengthof the field boundaries in karams
and should be coloured; but in the cases of large stretches of waste land, the
colour should be laid only round the edges of the waste area, and not spread in
a wash over the whole.
Copy No. (iii) will be
prepared in such manner as is most suitable to the department concerned.
b. -
comparison of village maps with survey data
The instructions in paragraph 21-25 apply only to estates in which
re-measurement is undertaken. but those in paragraphh 26 are also applicable to
estates in which map correction is substituted for re-measurement.
(1) Khakas and the comparison of patwari
measurements with the data supplied by the Survey Department.
(2) Comparison of the distances between
Trijunction points.
1. Where the patwari's measurements are on
the square system.
21. See
Manual of Land Measurement paragraph 72-85 - Patwari to submit khaka and
statement :- When the patwari
has completed the laying down of the squares, he will at once send to the
Settlement Officer a copy of the rough index may (khaka) on which he has shown
the position of each Trijunction pillar and of every station left by the
Government of India Survey in the manner prescribed in paragraph 85 of the Land
Measurement Manual and along with it a statement in the following from showing
the distance in karms from each trijunction pillar to the next. calculated as
the hypothenuse of a right angled triangle the sides of which are the distances
along the sides of the squares :-
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
|
No. of Villages
|
Name of Village
|
Name of ad-joining of villages
|
Trijunction No.
|
Distance along side of squares in karams
|
Direct Distance is Karams Patwari';s measurement
|
Distance by imperial Survey data
|
Difference in Karams between columsn 7 and 9 plus or minus
|
Difference per cent to one place of decimal
|
Remarks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Base of right-angled triangle
|
Perndi-cular of right angled triangle
|
|
In feet or in Gunter's Chains are in inches on Revenue Survey map
|
The shem reduced to Karams
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feet
|
|
|
|
|
|
20
|
Muhammadzai
|
Kaghazai
|
1-2
|
576
|
512
|
771
|
4,234
|
770
|
+1
|
.1
|
|
|
|
|
Nasrat Khel
|
2-3
|
855
|
145
|
867
|
4,746
|
863
|
+4
|
.5
|
|
|
|
|
Banda Nirza Hussian Ali
|
3-4
|
923
|
393
|
1,003
|
5,513
|
01,002
|
+1
|
.1
|
|
|
|
|
Regi Shinu Khel
|
4-5
|
648
|
302
|
715
|
3,915
|
712
|
+3
|
.4
|
|
|
|
|
Garhi Mauz Khan
|
5-6
|
864
|
678
|
1,098
|
6.022
|
1,095
|
+3
|
.3
|
|
|
|
|
Mansur Khel
|
6-7
|
607
|
368
|
709
|
3.,883
|
706
|
+5
|
.6
|
|
|
|
|
Independent territory
|
7-1
|
3,009
|
1,206
|
3,241
|
17,793
|
3,236
|
+5
|
.2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The first seven columns
of this statement will be filled up by the patwari the rest being left to be
filled up at headquarters. The distance to be entered in column 7 will be found
by extracting the square root of the sum of the squares of the distances
entered on columns 5and 6. No fraction of a karm should be entered. This
statement will be checked and signed by the kanungo and forwarded with the
kahka to headquarters. This khaka should not contain any details within the
village such as abadi, road, wells, pond, etc. All that need be given are the
positions of the trijunctions and any surveys stations there may be and a rough
outline of the village boundary prepared by hand from the old map.
22. Check
at headquarters :- On receipt of
the statement at headmasters the Settlement Officer will have the statement
completed from the date furnished by the Imperial Survey Department. If the
Settlement Officer has been furnished with travese data he will have entered in
column 8 the distance between each pair of trijunction pillars as there given
in feet or in Gunter's chains whichever is given in the traversa data. If he
has received no traverse data, the scale should be applied to the Revenue
Survey map and the number of inches and hundredths of an inch so found entered
in column 8. A diagonal for inches and hundredths of an inch so found entered
in column 8. A digonal circle for inches and rundredths should be used. (Card-board
ones can be obtained cheaply). In either case the same distance expressed in
karms should be entered in collumn 9; and the difference in karms and the
difference percent worked out; it being stated in each case whethere it is plus
or minus. In any case in which the difference exceeds one percent; the
patwari's calculation of the distances should be chekced by comparing it with
the distances entered on the khaka; and a note of the result of the comparison
should be made. The statment will then be placed/before the Settlement Officer
for his orders. All casses may be passed as correct in which the difference is
less than two percent, in hilly country or one percent in level country but
where the difference is greater than this an explanation should be called for
unless the distance is a short one. The comparison should be made and orders
issued before the measurments of the village are completed.
23. Registers
at headquarters :- A register of
these comparison should be maintained by the
Settlement Officer, the village being entered in it in the recognised order
(hadbast). The form of register should be* filled up for each village as the
comparison goes on, the entries being made in pencil until the map has been
finally passed by the Settlement Officer when they should be inked in. The
distance between each pair of trijunction points will appear twice in the
register, viz., In the statement of each of the adjoining villages. These
entries should be compared with each other and any serious discrepancy eliminated.
When the comparison is completed for each tahsil, the number of cases in which
the differences in less than one percent of more than one two or three percent
should be calculated and the results for the district should be given in the
Final Settlement Report.
24. Scale
of Khaka and Index Map. - The
Revenue Survey maps generally on the scale of 4 inches = 1 miles i.e. 240
Kadams of 5 feet to the inch and it will usually be found most convenient to
have the patwari's final Index map drawn on that scale. The Khaka however can
most conveniently be made on a scale a quarter of the size of the scale used in
the field map by dividing the side of each square on a sheet into four. The
scale on which the Khaka has been made should in any case be mentioned on it.
II - Where the patwari's
measurements are on the triangular system.
25. Procedure
prescribed . - As soon as the
patwari has finished his triangles he will at once send to the Settlement
Officer a copy of his khaka, as above prescribed and a statement showing the
distances between each pair of trijunction points according to his
measurements. The map should be made on the usual mapping sheets ruled into
squares, and he will make his khaka by reducing the squares proportionally as
is done when the measurement itself has been made by squares, noting the
distance by scale on the map of each trijunction point from the sides of the
nearest square shown on his mapping sheets. He will then calculate out the
direct distance between each pair of trijunction pillars as above prescribed
and submit a statement in the form already given.
In all other respects
the comparison will be made, and the statement and register completed in the
same manner as has been prescribed for measurements made on the square system.
(3)-Comparison of areas.
26. Report
and Register prescribed :- Where
areas of village have been calculated by the Imperial Survey Department; they
should be communicated to the tahsilder and when the measurements of the
village have been completed, a copy of the patwari's final Index Map should be
sent to the Settlement Officer with a statement in the following form :-
(3)- Comparison of areas.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
|
No. of villages
|
Name of village
|
Area in Acres
|
Differences Between
Columns 3 and 5
|
Reasons for difference in all cases in
|
|
|
|
By Imperial
|
By Patwari's measurement
|
In acres plus
|
Per cent plus
|
which it
|
|
|
|
Survey
|
At last settlement
|
Now
|
or minus
|
or minus
|
exceeds per cent
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Settlement Officer
will on the receipt of this statement, compare the Index Map with the Revenue
Survey may (ir available) and decide whether to accept the result of the
measurements or call for further enquiry. A register in the same form as the
statement should be opened the figures for each village entered in penci as
soon as the statement is received and inked in when the areas have been finally
accepted by the Settlement Officer.
C-DISTRIBUTION OF PARCHA BOOKS.
(see para 294 of Manual).
27. Distribution
of the parcha when new jamabandi is prepared :- When a sew jamabandi has been prepared, based on
ther entries in the khataunis, and the new reve-nue of each holding has been
entered in it the patwari will give to each owner mortgage with possession and
occupancy tenant, a parcha book containing a copy of the entries in such
jamahandi relating to the land held by him, and printed receipt forms for 20
yers. The directions governing the distribution of khataunis where there
several sharers in a bolding [paragraph (2)] will obtain in this case also. No
charge shall be made for these parcha books.
Appendix VIII
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL,
PARAGRAPH 290)
Documents
including in Standing Records
A-SHAJRA NASAB OR GENEALOGICAL TREE OF OWNERS.
Statement of proprietary tenure of village.
Pargana (or Tahsil)
District.)
|
STATEMENT OF THE PROPERIETORS
|
DETAILED OF COPARGENARY SHARES ABSTRACTED FROM THE KHEWAT
|
GENEALOGCAL THREE OF PROPRIETORS
|
|
Concerning the previous history of the village
|
Concerning the constitution of the main divisions of the
village
|
Remarks
|
Area of hokding
|
Share or measure of right
|
Reference to khewat
holdings
|
Name and descent
|
Tribe
|
|
            
|
|
|
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
|
.1
2
3
4
Total of Taraf
5
6
7
Total of
Taraf..
Total of village
|
A.
B
C
D
... Y
E
F X
G
H
I Z
J
K
Village
Common
|
|
1. The shajra-nasb should be drawn on one continuous sheet not on
separate leaves-on strong paper’ similar to that used for the Khasara
girdawari. For strength one inch slips of thin cloth should be pasted in the
back of the folds.
2. Share or measure of right. –The
share or measure of right entered should be taht which governs the relation of
the holding to the whole village or taraf:
and according to which the khewat is
made. In a bhaichara village the
entry will be “possession”.The word
“Kabza” should be written only once and not repeated under each holding. If
shares prevail; they should be described by the term current among the owners;
artificial symbols not so current should never be used. All employees and officers
will take great care that the shares are not complicated artificially.
3. Area and Revenue. –When holdings are owned jointly by several
owners whose names do not come together in the shajra nasb; the land of these
holdings should not be artificially divided in the shajra-nasb. The whole
should be shown against the first name with the word “minjumla” prefixed; and against the second name in the column land there should be a reference to the
previous entry “entered under holding No.”
The revenue entries should agree with the jamabandi.
These two columns should not be filled up untill the end of measurements. Give
the totals of each patti or taraf; and if a patti
or taraf has common land enter it
berfore those totals. The khewat number should be entered in pencil when the shajar-nasb is first drawn up; and be
inked in at teh end of measurements at the revenue officer’s final attestation.
4. In villages in which a
genealogical tree of the owners has been prepared at a previous settlement: (a)
if the table is a small one and can be easily copied: as in the case of small
villages or villages of recent foundation: it should be copied out in full and
brought up to date so as to becmplete in itself: (b) if it is too large to be
easily copied it, will be enough to file with the new standing record a table
showing the last three generations brought up to date. Where no genealogical
table should be prepared going back to the common ancestor in village where the
labour, involved in its preparation would be small; but (2) where this would
involve great labour the table should be prepared as follows the owners of each
taraf or patti should be brought together, and inside these divisions the
men of each trible or got. . The
ancestors of each existing landowner should be shown for at least three
generations back. And if the family has land in the village for a longer period
than this, then te ancestors should be shown for as far back as the memory of
the present owners goes and there is no dispute, but usually or genealogical
table should be prepared going back to the common.
5. The statements of the proprietors concerning
each patti or taraf and concerning the whole village
should be written briefly, and doubtful tales should be excluded. The statement
of the proprietors concerming the previous history of the village should be
arranged under the following heads:-
(a)
(a)
Origin of rights and primary division of the land:
(b)
(b)
The foundation of the village; and how named:
(c)
(c)
Method of collection of the revenue under former Governments and under British
rule.
6. The names of persons who have left no male
issue and of widows and daughters should not be entered except for some special
reasons. Under the names of agnates still living but not in possession; should
be entered the words “ out of possession” and a brief note of where they now
live. Mortgages names will not be entered.
7. In cases in which a father and a son both own
land in separate holdings enter the son’s name in the genealogical tree in red
ink.
8. If an owner has lost his land (whether by
sale or by diluvion) but he claims a share in the shamilat, not this under his name in the genealogical tree but no
soch holding will be shown in the Khatauni
or jamabandi.
9. If property is divided by
wells, add a column showing the “name of well” before the “area” column.
10. An owner by purchase should be entered on the
left of the sb-division; taraf or patti
in which he has purchased; a note should be added below his name; showing from
whom he has purchased; and if the purchaser has no share in the shamilat; this should be stated.
11. When an amended copy of genealogical tree is
drawn up (see Standing Order No. 23; paragraph 43) the columns for “Area and
“Revenue” should be note omitted. The Statement of the Proporietors should not
be re-written but a reference made to the statement recorded at last settlement
and a note added of any alterations made since constitution of the village.
Note: in ay
estate or part of an estate situated in the Lahore urban assessment circle for
which Khasra imparti has been
prepared it shall not be necessary to include in the shajra-nasb the names of any of the owners recorded in the sharja
imarti who are not descendants of the original owners of estate or who do not
possess a share in the shamilat.
B and C – JAMABANDI
AND LIST OF REVENUE ASSIGNMENTS.
(See Standing Order
No. 23)
Note:- In the jamabandi
which forms part of the standing record. Column 7 (field numbers) should be divided
into two columns headed respecively “present number” and “former number”.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
|
Sr. No. of well
|
No. in map
|
Khatani No.
|
Name of well
|
To water Of where
|
Where as work of
|
Water single or double Pakka or
Kacha, in use or out of use.
|
Whetheat work at last
settlement or made subsequently and in the latter case, in what year it began
to be used.
|
Name, father's name and
grandfather's name of owner, with shares in of ownership of well.
|
Name, father's name and grand
father's name of person, who use the well with share of water enjoyed by
each.
|
Remarks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. STATEMENT OF
RIGHTS IN WELLS.
(1) Ordinary
drinking wells need not be entered in this statement but care is needed that
wells which are likely to be used for agriculture are not omitted.
(2) Draw a red circle round
the name of every well made since last settlement.
(3) In column No. 11 enter for each well:-
(a)
(a) History of well and when
built or repaired; and when the present rights in it were acquired.
(b)
(b) Method of working the
well; will other irrigation arrangements not in force.
(c)
(c) Mode of distributing the
revenue.
(d)
(d) Particulars of exemption
from irrigated rates ; if any
E.- WAJIB-UL-ARZ
OR VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION PAPERS.
1. The statement of customs respecting rights
and liabilities on the estate shall be in narrative form; it shall be as brief
as the nature of the subject admits, and shall not be argumentative, but shall
be confined to a simple statement of the customs which are ascertained to
exist. The statement shall be divided into paragraph numbered consecutively,
each paragraph describing as nearly as may be separate custom.
2. The
statement shall not contain entries relating to matters regulated by law; nor
shall customs contrary to justice; equity or good conscience; or which have
been declared to be void by any competent authority, be entered in it. Subject
to these restrictions the statement should contain information on so many of
the folowing matters as are pertinent to the estate:
(a)
(a)
Common land; its cultivation and management; and the enjoyment of the proceeds
thereof.
(b)
(b)
Rights of grazing on common land.
(c)
(c)
Rights to the enjoyment of sayer produce.
(d)
(d)
Usages relating to village expenses (malba).
(e)
(e)
Customs relating to the irrigation of land.
(f)
(f)
Customs relating to mills, tasks, streams or natural drainages.
(g)
(g)
Customs of alluvion and dilluvion.
(h)
(h)
The rights of cultivators of all classes not expressly provided for by law (for
in stance, rights to trees or manure, and right to plant trees) and their
customary liabilities other than rent.
(i)
(i)
Customary dues payable to village servants and the customary service to be
rendered by them.
(j)
(j)
The rights of Government to any nazul property,
forests, unclaimed, unoccupied deserted or waste lands, quarries; ruins or
objects of antiquarin interest, spontaneous products, and other accessory
interest; in land included with in the boundaries of the estate.
(k)
(k)
The rights of Government in respect of fish and fisheries in streams, rivers,
etc.
(l)
(l)
Any other important usage affecting the rights of land owners, cultivators or
other persons interested in the estate, not being a usage relating to
succession and transfer of landed property .
3. Where the
record of rights is being made for the first time, if the persons interested
are not agreed qas to the existence of any alleged customs the Collector, or an
Assistant Colector of the Ist grade shall decide the dispute in the manner
provided in section 36 of the land Revenue Act. Where the records of rights is
being revised the collector or Assistance Collector of the Ist grade shall
similarly decided disputed entries; but in doing so he shall have regard to the
provisions of section 37 of the land Revenue Act.
Tehsildars and authorized finally to attest all undisputed
entries in a Wajib-ul-arz prepared in
accoudance with the instructions contained in paragraph 1 and 2 above, but all
decision to the Collector or to an Assistant Collector of the first. Grade.
4. When the
statement is complete, the revenue officer aforeasaid shall fix a date for its
final approval and shall summons the person interested to appear on that date
at a place in or in the immediate vicinity of the estate to which the statement
relates. And on the date and at the place appointed the statement shall be read
over in presence of such of the persons as are in the attendance, and after
such further correction as may then found necordery declaring that it has been
duly attested.
APPENDIX –IX
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL,
PARAGRAPH 307)
Village Lists of Rents Mortgages and Sales.
A. A.
LIST OF RENTS.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
|
Number in this list
|
Khatani No.
|
Names of owner and tenant written short
|
Land with detail of soil
|
Rent with rate and amount Date when rent was fixed
|
Date when rent was fixed
|
Crops grown
|
Remarks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.
1.
The tenants should be entered in this list in seven group, viz.
(a)
(a)
Tenants with right of occupancy paying at revenue rates with or without moli-malikana.
(b)
(b)
Tenants without right of occupancy paying at revenue rates with or without
malikana.
(c)
(c)
Tenants with right of occupancy paying cash rents whether by lump sums or by
rent fixed per bigha, kana, or ghumao.
(d)
(d)
Tenants with right of occupancy paying cash rents whether by lump sums or by
rents fixed per by bigha, kanal or
ghumao.
(e)
(e)
Tenants with right of occupancy paying by a share of the produce, or by
appraisement, or by cash rates(zabtil)
on crops.
(f)
(f)
Tenants without right of occupancy paying by a share of the produce or by
appraisement, or by cash rates (zabti) or crops.
(g)
(g)
Mortgaged land on which the mortgagor has agreed to pay cash rents to the
mortgage.
2. Enter cash
rents with care, so as to make it clear whether the rent is paid on the crop or
per harvest, or per annum.
3. So also as
regards grain rents take care to show any deductions allowed before the owner’
share is divided and any cesses taken by the owner in addition to his share,
and whether the owner takes a share of the
staw.
4. In column
4 do not detail the field: only enter the land of each holding with detail of
soil
B.- LIST OF
MORTGAGES WITH POSSESSION NOW EXISTING
|
Serial No.
|
Khatauni No.
|
Mortagagor and morgagee written short
|
Land with detail of soil
|
Amunt mortgage debt
|
Date of mortgage
|
Remarks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Enter the mortgages in two groups:
(a)
(a)
Mortgages to members of any agricultural tribe. The settlement Officer may
order that any real agricultural tribe not scheduled under the Punjab
Alienation of Land Act., XIII of 1900, shall be included in (a) for the
purposes of this statement.
(b)
(b)
Mortgages to others.
Figures for increases in mortgage money on previous
mortgages will be found in the village diary (roznamcha) and should bhe take
into consideration in calculating the total mortgage debt.
C. LISTS OF
SLAES SINCE LAST SETTLEMENT.
(Form and
arrangement same as above prescribed for list of mortgages)
APPENDIX X
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL,
PARAGRAPH 324)
Crop Experiments
1. Director’s returns not
sufficient.- The Director’s Circular no. 14, dated 29th
September. 1893. Contans instructions for ascertaining the average yield of the
principal crops in certain selected districts. The results obtained from
inquiries conducted in accordance with these instructions are valuable so far
as they go; but they do not give information for every district, nor can
experiments made on such small areas as are contemplated in the Circular giv e
very reliable date until they have lasted for some years As it is most
important that we should obtain accurate a knowledge as possible of the average
produce of the principal crops in a district the following directions are
issued on the subject for the guidance of Settlement Officers.
2. The
main principles to be observed will be as follows: Main principles.
(1)
(1)
Produce experiments must be made every harvest while a settlement in in
progress in a district.
(2)
(2)
The experiments should be made so that the outturn of the main staples of the district may be
ascertained in each class of soil in every assessment circle.
(3)
(3)
The field observed should not ordinary be of less than acre; if observations
can be made on larger areas, so much the better.
(4)
(4)
The observations should be made only be officers who can be trusted to make the
inqui9ry and the report the result in an intelligent manner, and without
harassing the owner of the crop observed.
(5)
(5)
The result of the experiments should be reported without delay.
3. Selection of principal
crops.- Soon after the commencement of Settlement operations the Settlement
Officer should send the Commissioner a statement showing the crops grown in
each by each tahsil of the district
and the average area occupied by each; and he should state which crops he
considers to be the principal staples, the outturn of which it is important to
ascertain. It is unnecessary to have experiments for crops which only occupy a
small area; all that is needed is to find out the average outturn of the
principal crops.
4. Selection of fields.-
Some little time before the crops o each harvest are ripe the Settlement
Officer should determine the localities where the crop experiments are to be
made. Care should be taken that the fields chosen for the experiments are
representative of the average of theat harvest of each class of soil. To ensure
this the Settlement Officer and Extra Assistant Settlement Officer should
personally inspect most of the fields selected, the remainder being seen by the
Setlement Tahsildar or other senior officer, who can be trusted to see that the
crops to be observed and really average ones.
5. Removal of produce. - In making the experiments the general
instructions contained in the Director’s Circular above referred to may be
observed; but it will obviously be impossible to ascertain the outturn of large
areas in one day. The operations will necessarily be extended over some days.
But therer is no objection to this, provided that steps taken to prevent any of
the crop being carried away before its outturn has been ascertained. At the
same time everything should be done to make to make the proceedings as easy as
possible to the owners of the crops, and they should be allowed to carry off
their produce immediately the results have been recorded.
6. Register ‘A’ P{rescribed.
Each experiment should be entrusted to a selected officer. The Settlement
Officer should, if possible , keep one experiment for himself, and the Extra
Assistant Settlement Officer and other gazetted officers, if any, should also
be associated in the work. The report of each experiment should be made in the
form annexed. A, which all reports have been received they should be brought
together in English registers to be kept by Tahsil in the same form. The
experiments should be entered in in the registers according to (a) assessment
circles, (b)crops, (c) classes of land.Thus all chahi crops in Bangar.
Assessment Circles will be grouped together the Settlement Officer should go
over them carefully and note in the last coulmn if he considers them
trustworthy or not. If the experiments have been vitiated radical mistake, or
if the crop is such as the patwari
ought to describe in whole or part as kharaba
they should be cancelled by a large cross in red ink being drawn over them, the
reason for the rejection being recorded. The total of all accepted expedriments
for each crop on each class of land will be shown in colcalculated not from the
averages of individual experiments, but from the total outturn of all experiments
with that crop on each soil. The register shuld then be sent to the
Commissioner for persual with a brief report of the character of the harvest
and the results of the experiments. The report for the rabi harvest should be submitted by the end of the June and from
the Kharif harvest not later than
January. The Commissioner will forward them with his remarks to the Director of
Land Records. The register will be returned after inspection.
7. Register B.- The
results of each harvest’s accepted experiments should be written up in a
general Register for the District in From B annexed. Separate pages will be
kept for each crop to be experimented on. The form annexed is a specimen for
the wheat experiments. The entries in Register B for each harvest will correspond
with the red ink entries in Register A for the same harvest.
A.-
STATEMENT OF RESULTS OF CROP EXPERIMENTS FOR-SEASON 19.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
|
Serial No.
|
Assessment Village Circle
|
Village
|
Kind of
crop
|
Class of soil and irrigation
|
Status and resource of
cultivator
|
Detail of cultivation in three
preceding seasons
|
Detail of village manuring and
watering for present crop.
|
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
Name and rank of officer and
date of marking the experiment
|
Are cut
|
Weight of produce
|
Producer acre
|
Remarks
|
Note: In column 5 enter the class of irrigation of the crop
experimented upon according to gridawari In column 6 state whether the
cultivator is a man of good, average or insufficient resources as regard
cattle, labour etc exten of his holdings, whether Indebted or not, also his
caste if considered relevant.
In
column 7 enter a crops according to gridawari, specifying class irrigation and
whether matured or failed
In
column 8, if a preceding crop was manured, as for instance when wheat follows
manure maize, mention this give number of ploughings, weddings, & c, also
in case of rabi crop whether ploughed
before or after rainy season; if only one watering was given, emntion whether
it was before or after sowing.
In
the columns 11 and 13 enter in seers the weight of the main produce in its
marketable from. In the case of cotton enter weight of uncleaned cotton. In
case of sugarcane enter weight of gur or
rob. In case of maize enter weight of grain removed from cob.
In
column 12 and 14 enter in seers the weight of other marketable products, giving
their names. In case of cotton these columns will be blank. In case of jawar
enter weight of straw dried.
In
column 15 state the reasons for the selection of the site of the experiment,
mention any other circumstances affecting the value of the result, and give
probable reason for any especially good and bad yield, as for instance, whether
the crop was sown late or early nature of soil, whether light or heavy, high or
low, whether the seasson suited such soil, whether any damages occured from
hail, wind, frost, vermin or other causes.
If
more the one experiment has been made in any class of crop enter each
separately; it is not necessary to give any average for the whole.
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
|
Tehsil
|
Assisment Circle
|
Soil
|
1898
|
1899
|
|
Total outturn on area observed
|
Total outturn on area observed
|
Average per Acre
|
Total area observed
|
Total outturn on area observed
|
A verage per acre
|
|
Straw
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
Grain
|
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contd.1
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|
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|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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14
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15
|
16
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17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
|
1990
|
Total
area observed
|
1901
|
|
Total
area observed
|
Total
outturn on area observed
|
Average
per acre
|
Total
outturn on acre observed
|
Average
per acre
|
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
Grain
|
Straw
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
APPENDIX XI
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL, PARAGRAPH 333)
Instructions issued by Colonel E.G. Wace,
when Settlement
Commissioner, as to inquiry into prices.
Settlement Commissioner’s Circular 74 of
1879, paragraph 2. – The inquiry should be based on three different sources of
information.
(a) the prices reported fortnightly in the Gazette;
(b) the trade prices of the principal
marts in the district;
(c) the prices at which the agriculturist
make over their produce at harvest
time
to the village banias.
3. The duty of ascertaining the trade prices of teh principal
marks for the past twenty years should be made over to the Extra Assistant
Settlement Officer. He should select with your approval the largest trading
towns or towns in each tahsil, and
ascertain the prices on twelve dates in each year by personal inspection of the
books of the principal dealers ....... The prices recorded should be those at
which the trader sold the produce to other traders, not those at which they
purchased from agriculturist’s.
4. The third division of the inquiry viz the prices realized by
agriculturist should be entrusted to the Superintendents Three or four large
villages should be selected in each tahsil by the Superintendent in
consultation with yourself in the districts in which I have worked there were
two dates on which the agriculturist accounts were usually settled, viz after
the rabi harvests, and after the kharif harvest.
If accounts were not settled on that date nevertheless the produce of the past
harvest was usually credited at the prices prevailing on those dates. The
superintendent inquiry should be directed to ascertain the prices at which in
each year the village traders took over the produce from the agriculturist after each harvest, and if any
customary dates.... are observed in the adjustment of such accounts, they will
be a useful guide. The superintendent should be warned not to assume the
harvest prices hurriedly, but in each instance to compare a number of accounts.
5. The superintendent should be directed at the same time to
ascertain and report the rate of interest usually charged by the village
traders against agriculturists in their current accounts, and also the terms on
which advances for seed are made, and whether the majority of the
agriculturists usually require such advances or not.
6. With the result of these enquiries for each tahsil before you, you can form an opinion
(1) as to the extent to which prices generally differ in the various parts of
the districts (2) the extent to which the prices realized by agriculturists
fall short of the trade prices and of the average annual prices, (3) the extent
of which the prices realized by agriculturists have improved during the past 30
years, (4) the prices which can properly be assumed you produce estimates.
7. As far as may experience goes it is not convenient to consider
these prices separately for each tahsil,
a fairer and sounder view of the subject is obtained by considering at one time
the results for the whole district.....
(Accordingly a preliminary report on prices
for the whole district was ordered)
9. It is not intended that our enquiries should be limited
strictly to 20 years. On the contrary it is most necessary that they should
extend back to the period at which the expired settlement was made, and that we
should compare teh average prices that we now propose to assume with the
average prices of that period.
Appendix XII
(Settlement Manual Paragraph 315)
Form for one forth net asset estimate based
on batai zabti rents
|
Assessment Circle
|
Class of land or soil
|
CROPS
OF WHICH THE PRODUCE IS DIVIDED
|
|
Detail
|
Kharif
harvest
|
Rabi
harvest
|
Total
of both harvests
|
|
Maize
|
|
|
Total
crops
|
Wheat
|
|
|
Total
crops
|
|
Banjar
|
Chahi
|
Acres Yield per acre in seers
Total yield in maunds
Price in annas per mound
Value of total grain produce,
Rs.
Value of straw value of total
gross produce, Rs.
Government share at-percent
Rate per acre harvested
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ZABTI
CROPS
|
TOTAL
CROPS
|
|
Detail
|
Kharif
harvest
|
Rabi
harvest
|
Total of
both harvests
|
Detail
|
Kharif
|
Rabi
|
Total of both harvest
|
|
Cane
|
|
Total crops
|
|
|
Total crops
|
|
Acres Rent rate
Total rent Government
one-fourth share Rate per acre harvested
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Acres Government
Rate per acre harvested
|
|
|
|
APPENDIX XIII
(SETTLEMENT
MANUAL, PARAGRAPH 413)
Heads for a Comparative Survey of the
Resources of different tracts.
1.
1.
Areas cultivated and uncultivated-
(a)
(a)
Percentage cultivated to total area.
(b)
(b)
Percentage uncultivated to total area.
(c)
(c)
Increase per cent in cultivation since previous settlement.
2.
2.
irrigation .
(a)
(a)
percentage cultivated land irrigated from wells.
(b)
(b)
Increase per cent of wells sine last settlement.
(c)
(c)
Average depth of wells to water, in feet.
(d)
(d)
Average chahi areas per well.
(e)
(e)
Average acres of chahi crops per
well.
3.
3.
Crops-
(a)
(a)
Average crop harvested, per cent of cultivated area.
(b)
(b)
Percentage of wheat and other crops in such detail as may appear necessary.
(c)
(c)
Percentage of area failed to area sown (with detail of irrigated and
unirrigated if necessary).
4.
4.
Population, owners, and tenants-
(a)
(a)
population per square mile of cultivation.
(b)
(b)
Average number of cultivated acres per owner.
(c)
(c)
Prevailing tribes of landowners.
(d)
(d)
Percentage of area tilled by owners.
(e)
(e)
Percentage of area tilled by occupancy tenants.
(f)
(f)
Percentage of area tilled by tenant-at-will on kind rents
(g)
(g)
Percentage of area tilled by tenants-at-will on cash rents.
5.
5.
Transfers-
(a)
(a)
Percentage of total area sold since previous settlement.
(b)
(b)
Percentage of above sold to money-lenders.
(c)
(c)
Average price per cultivated acre of land sold from 18 to 19.
(d)
(d)
Percentage of cultivated area now under mortgagee.
(e)
(e)
Percentage of above-mortgaged to money-lenders.
(f)
(f)
Average mortgage money per cultivated acre of land mortgage money per
cultivated acre of land mortgaged from
18 to 19.
6.
6.
One fourth net assets-
(a) one-fourth net assets share of gross
pro-(1) Irrigated.
(2)
Unirrigated.
(b) One fourth
net assets rate (1)
Chahi
(2)
Barani.
7.
7.
Assessment-
(a)
Assessment rates (1) chahi
(2)
Barani.
(b)
Resulting assessment (1)
Percentage of value of gross produce.
(2)
Percentage of one-fourth net assets.
(c) Increase per cent as compared
with previous assessment.
APPENDIX XIV
(Settlement Manual, Paragraph 232)
Killabandi
1. What
kilabandi means. - The procedure
known as killabandi may be defined as the substitution of rectangular fields of
the uniform size of one killa each for the irregular fields, some minutes, some
minutes, other inconveniently large and all of haphazard shape into which the
lands of a village are ordinarily found to be divided.The actual size of the
killa is of minor importance, and it differs according to the size of the
square or rectangle of which it is always the twenty-fifth part.
An account of the early
history of killabandi, as supplied to areas of Government waste on the
introduction of canal irrigation, will be ofund in paragraphs 303-314 of the
Colony Manual. As originally devised, killabandi was to be applied to waste
areas only. It was soon perceived however that it might, with advantage, be
extended to cultivated lands where canal irrigation was beginning. The
Irrigation Department found that the division of the irrigated into rectangular
plots of uniform size made the distribution of water easier, fairer and more
economical. It was accordingly decided to introduce the system into old
proprietary villages wherever possible, and the success attained by the
introduction of killabandi into these villages had led Government to make its
adoption a condition of irrigation from a perennial canal.
2. It is obvious that killabandi in Crown waste is
entirely different from killabandi in proprietary villages. In Crown waste it
simply means drawing lines of demarcation on a tabula rasa and thus dividing
large areas into suitable units of allotment and cultivation. The method in
this case is to divide each side of a square or rectangle inot five equal
lengths and join the points thus fixed by lines parallel to the sides of
rectangle.
In proprietary estates
killabandi involves a complete repartition of the estate. It is with this form
of killabandi that the present appendix is concerned.
3. The square aooped in the Cnennnab Colony measures
27.7 acres and was divided by Lieutenant-Colonel F. Propham Young into 25 killas
of 8 kanals 18 marlas each. (The rectengle at present prescribed measures
1,100+990 feet,and is sub-divided into 25 killas of exactly one acre a piece
measurong 220 feet from east to west and 198 feet from north to south. The
superiority of this ractengle over the square is obvious.
4. The
advantges of killabamdi.- The
great value of killabandi lies in its economic advantges. with straight
watercourses and even-shaped fields there is much greater convenience and much
less waste in the use of water.There is great saving of time in the girdawari,
and the same staff of supervising officer can in the same time enforce a
far-better supervision of the work than under the old system. But above all the
expense and worry of subsequent settlements is greatly reduced. There is no
reason at all why a ches-board map should not be kept up-to-date with perfect
case. The map once made is practically permant, and revision of the map, with
all its attendant inconvenience; and expense, should disappear as an incident
of reassessment operations.
There are other
advantages in killabandi which are numerous and soon patent even to the most
conservative of zamindars. In the first place, once the chess-board is laid out
there is an end to all disputes as to the boundaries between fields.
Encroachments beyond the line of the adjacent killas, are immediately detected
and proclaim their own condemnation. Similarly the scope for boundary disputes
between adjacent estates is narrowed down, and even where the boundary runs
from point to point instead of along the sides of killas, the correct alignment
is very easily ascertained from the map and understood by all parties
concerned. In the next place it becomes very much easier for the people to
manage their own affairs without reference to the revenue officials and the
opportunity for extortion on the part of corrupt members of the staff is very
greatly diminished. For example, once the land is divided into rectangular
fields of a uniform size the people can easily manage their own partitions. All
that is needed is a piece of string to measure with and an arrangement as to
the quality of the land under partition. Similary the adjustment of cash rents
is greatly facilitated while the widow and the absentee can readily understand
the management of their estates and need no longer be defrauded by their
tenants. In the same way where land revenue and occupiers rates are recovered
under a fluctuating system the assessee can at once check the charges demanded
from him, however deficient his education, and cannot be imposed upon by a
corrupt official
5. Limitation
of killabandi.- AT the start it
was a difficult matter to persuade the owners of old established proprietary
estates to change their hereditary holdings and system of cultivation. This has,
however, been completed with success in Shahpur, throughout the Gujranwala
District in the canal irrigated areas of Sialkot, Gujrat and Montgomery and is
(1929) being carried out in certain parts of the Ferozepore and Lahore
Districts. Where irrigation is being extended for the first time it is now the
policy of Government to insist on Killabandi as a condition of irrigation, and
this policy is justified by the success of killabandi in Gujranwala and by the
satisfaction with which the people have accepted it. Elsewhere it is not
possible to insist upon the change, nor if possible would it ordinarily be
desirable. Where for example the population is heavy, land valuable and
holdings small, the amount of dislocation caused by the change would outweigh
its ultimate advantages int he eyes of the people. For this reason the attempt
to introduce the system by consent in Karnal had to be abandoned. It is,
however, possible that even in unirrigated estates, where holdings are large
and land less valuable, owners will in time becomes so convinced of its
advantages as to adopt the changes voluntarily.
6. How
killabandi is done. - The first
step is to assemble all the owners and in the case of absentees to give them a
date, by personal service or the issue of a proclamation, within which their
objections to the proposed change will be heard. The advantages of killabandi
are explained to them, and if there is a question of extending canal
irrigation, the results of a refusal are pointed out. If they agree to killabandi
mutation is involved by which the whole lands of the village are declared to be
shamlat, and the method by which the repartition is to be carried out is
discussed and recorded for the orders of the officer-in-charge of the
operations. Provision should be made fror straightening the roads and
boundaries for dealing with trees that my be standing on the land in the event
of its transfer to another holding and for the treatment of wells and valuable
land near the abadi. The people may decide to exclude the former from
killabandi altogether and they may wish to divide the latter into smaller units
than a whole killa. There is no objection in such a case to the use of the 1/2,
1/4 and 1/8 killa, and the same sub-divisions may have to be employed at the
end of the process in order to adjust the total holding of individuals to the
amount of land they originally held. It should also be ascertained whether the
owners of joint holdings wish to take the opportunity of dividing their lands
or to remain joint. Efforts should be made to cause the least disturbance of
existing holdings possible, and unless the people especially desire it, no
attempt should be made to amalgamate holdings scattered in different parts of
the estate. These often owe their origin to inequalities of soil, and provision
should always be made for owners to receive not only the amount of land they
originally held, but the same of each important class of lands.
7. Thesam.
- As aoon as the owners have
agreed to killabandi and the method thereof, a mutation should be written up
and decided to declare all the lands of the estate to be 'shamilat'. In this
mutation it is sufficient in column 4 (ownership) and 5 (cultivation) to enter
"see detailed jamabandi of (latest) year" and in column 6 (details of
fields) to write the total number of fields and total area. In column 9 (new
ownership) will be entered "shamlat deh" accordin gmeasure of
possession.
To Shares entered in the
last jamabandi.
The Naib-tahsilar's
order will refer to the agreement of the owners to make the whole area shamlat
onthe killabandi file and will sanction the mutation. The class iwll be
"ishtimal for killabandi," and under the Financial Commissioner's
orders no fee will be charged. The method of partition must be sanctioned by an
Assistant Collector of the Ist grade, – (vide section 126 of the Land Revenue
Act).
8. Detailed
instructions. - Killas need not
be made on any unclturable land or in-culturable land which the owners do not
yet intend to bring under the plough. In the former case the rectangles need
not be sub-divied ont he map ; in the latter it should be sub-divided on the
map by broken lines treated as broken up for the purpose of partition if the
land is not to remain shamilat ; though the actual demarcation will only be done
when it comes under the plough.
Masavis are provided
ready ruled into killas ; but except for plotting ont hem those natural
features such as roads, village sites, ponds, wells and other such things whose
boundaries do not conform to the killas plots made on the ground, these maps
are left untouched until partition is effected. As killabandi proceeds,
however, each rectangle corner must be carefully plotted on the old map. If the
old map was made on the square system it will be sufficient to show the killas
by first drawing the rectangle and then sub-dividing it into 25 equal parts by
means of the scale, care being taken to distribute any ineqalities brought out
by the scale on the map in the same way as is, done with errors found on the
ground by the chain. If, however, the old map was made by any other system of
measurement, correct results will not be attained by mere scale-work. In this
case each corner of each killa must be plotted on the map and lines then drawn
between them. The result will be a most irregular series of rhomboids and
polygons, but will give a correct indication of what existing fields or parts
thereof are included in each kills. As the object of this work on the old map
is simple to facilitate partition it may be omitted in cases where the village
is owned by a single person or by several joint-holders, provided there are no
mortgages, occupancy tenants or subordinate owners whose individual holdings
have to be considered in partition. Where there are several individual owners
or subordinate tenures but the land is held in large blocks, it will often be
found possible to limit this part of the work to the boundary line where these
several blocks meet, or to that part of the village in which such complications
exist.
8-A. Killas will be
shown in green on the parat tahsil maps of the xpiring settlement, and onthe
basis of these three killa bandi maps will be prepared - two on mapping sheets
and one on latha cloth. One of the two copies on mapping sheets will be kept in
the Sadar Revenue Record Room and the second will be kept in the tahsil. The
copy on latha cloth will be given to the patwari for use during the girdawari.
The old settlement map with the killas marked in green will remain inthe
tahsil.
8-B. the
colonization or killabandi Officer should fix a standard of outturn per chain
per diem in killabandi or tarmin killabandi measurement according to the
circumstances and nature of the tract and communicate the same after approval
by the Commissioner to the Financial Commissioners through the Director of Land
Records.
This standard will be
used in checking the quarterly business returns.
9. Errors.
- It frequently happens that the
sides of a rectangle are not exactly the prescribed length. Where the error is
of 2 karams or less, four of the five sections should be of the usual area, the
deficiency being all the fifth. Where the error is more than 2 karams it should
be distributed evenly over the five sections. The points are then joined by
lines drawn parallel to the sides of the rectangle and pegs fixed into the
ground wherever these lines intersect. The process of marking out the killas
onthe ground is then complete.
10. Roads
and boundaries. - When killabandi has been completed ont he ground,
the first step is to straighten out as far as possible roads and village
boundaries. The question of roads is for early decision, as they will of course
affect the areas of the killas they pass through. No attempt should be made to
force along the angle of a killa or rectangle. Roads should be as direct as it
is possible to make them, through when straight it is advantage to have them
along killa boundaries.
11. Repartitions.
- The killas will now be shown
onthe old map and the work of redistribution will begin. The rectangles are
numbered serially and the killas in each rectangle should be numbered
separately from 1 to 25 as directed in parahraph 304 of the Colony Manual.
12. Principles
to be observed. - The guiding
principle of the partition is that the least disturbance possible should be
caused to owners and tenants, and for this reason the killa is give to the man
who hitherto owned the most land in it. This expleins the importance of showing
the kills on the old map. It is, however necessary in some cases to depart from
this rule in order to make the various owner's shares correct, and for the same
reason half or smaller fractions or a killa have at times to be employed in
destribution.
It is unnecessary to
show the karams on the map except where the side of a killa is broken up or
where any number (such as a tank, etc.) canform to the killa, and similarly it
is unncecssary to caloulate the area of any whole killa in the field book. It
is sufficient to write the word 'salim' and the already known area of one
killa. The corner stones of the rectangles should be clearly shown on the
map.The girdawar must show each shareholedr the killas allotted to him on the
ground. and so far as possible this should be done by the Naib-Tahsildar at his
attestation also.
14. The
second mutation. - When the
records and final attestation are all complete and objections disposed of, the
killabandi partition mutation will be writtan up and sanctioned. This is a most
important document. In column 4 the entry will be "shamilat deh"
followed by the names and shares of all the owners of each holding in the last
jamabandi. In this column the total of each old holding will be shown with
details of kind of soil but without field numbers. Entries in column 5 are only
required in case of occupancy tenants or mortgagees and purchasers of special
fields out of holding. In column 6 should be entered the total number of fields
and area of the holding from the last jamabandi. The entries in columns 8 to 12
are copies of the killabandi khataunis.
Necessary alterations of
any kind must be made in red ink and new words or figures clearly written and
initialed by attesting officer.
14. Village
boundaries. - Any alteration in
area that is caused by straightening the boundaries is dealt within a separate
mutation order, one sufficing for all, the boundary lines adjusted in each
estate. The area lost and tained is shown in separate coluran, details being
given of the estates at whose expense each gain has occurred or to which any
area has been surrendered. No fees are charged.
15. Attestation
order. - The attestation order
will be in detail and will recount all the objections raised before the
Naib-Tahsildar and the method of dealing with each. All increase or decrease of
area exceeding a quarter of killa or 2 kanals in any khata should be noticed
and it would be specified that the attention of the parties were called to
them, and either that no objection was raised or in what be carefully recorded
and their thumb-marks taken. The mutation will be designated a partition based
on killabandi and no fees will be recovered. At the end of the mutation order a
statement of loss and gain will be entered in the following form :-
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
|
No. of holding last Jama-bandi
|
Names of owners abbre-viated
|
Total area
|
Share in Khata
|
Area accor-ding to share
|
To be added (on account of de-crease in area of village)
|
To be redu-ced (on account of incr-eses in area of village or divi-sion
of waste)
|
Area due
|
Num-ber of present holding
|
Area
|
+
|
-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If any exchanges have
taken place between notified and non-notified tribes through the re-arrangement
of boldinges, attention must be called to the fact in a final note and the
mutation forwarded for sanction of the Deprty Commissioner under the Alienation
of Land Act XIII of 1900. For this purpose it is convenient to give the
Collector in charge of killabandi operations the powers of a Deputy
Commissioner under the Act.
16. Trijunction
pillars. - When the killabandi
of the whole number of villages to be repartitioned is cornplete the
trijunction pillars should be examined and, where necessary moved to their new
positions of an index map showing accurately the former and new positions of
all pillars so moved being forwarded for information to the Superintendent,
Northern Indis Survey.
APPENDIX
XV
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL PARAGRAFH 461)
Instructions regarding assessment of urban
lands and of lands
which may become urban
1. All lands in military
cantonment and all village sites of ancient stading will be exempt from
assessment in the absence of special orders and if exempt heretofore.
2. Land in a civil station
will not ordinarily be exempt[212][1]
but application for exemption on special grounds or in the interest of a
municipality may be subnlitted through the Settlement Officers for the ordres
of Government.
3. Lands, such as roads and
sites of hospitals/dispensaties and schools and the like which yield no return
to private individuals or local bodies and are devoted to public purposes may
so long as they are utilized for the purposes of the character indieated be
exempted from assessment of land revenue whatever the amount of the land
revenue assessed or assessable on those lands may be2. All cases in
which it is intended to exempt land for assessment under this ruling should be
referred for the orders of the Financial Commissioner.
4. Lands taken up by a
municipality for markets, cart-stands and similar objects from which an income
is raised should contribute their share of land revenue3.
5. Munmcipalities have no
claim to the assignment of the land revenue assessed upon lands within their
limits which like the all alnd revenue is a Govrment asset. No such alienation
of this revenue to municipalities should be made4.
6. In assessing lands in a
civil station, Settlement Officres will be guided by the following rules :-
(a) Land cultivated with a view to sale of
produce such as market gardens, cornfields is to be assessed in the ordinary
way on a share of the produce.
(b) Lands attached to dwelling houses or
shops in which is included compound or garden land not of the nature of market
gardens to be assessed according to the usual rate, for the description of soil
of the land in question provided, first that if such rate gives a smaller sum
than that hitherto paid the old assessment shall be maintained, and secondly
that the assessment shall always be payable by the proprietor of the land and
where the amount demandable on one property is less than one rupee it may be
remitted at the discretion of the Settlement Officer.
The same rule and
examptions to apply to the assessment of land occupied by public gardens or
public buildings, not the property of Government.
(c) Lands owned by the State
e.g. reserved plots of waste land attached to Government building etc. to be
exempt from assessment. Where however under the practice of the province town
lands are assessed to land revenue Government property in any town or station
consisting merely of isolated plots the area of which is inconsiderable should
ordinarily form no exception even though sold outright by Government.
7. With reference to the
Land Revenue Act land under buildings may be divided into three main classes -
I. Village sites of ancient standing
which have always been revenue free.
II. Land assessed to land revenue as being
arable or pastoral which has been -
(a) absorbed in an old revenue-free village
site ; or
(b) bu It over though lying at a distance
from any village.
III. Land which has been sold by Government
for the express purpose of being made use of for a town or village or a factory
or other building.
No assessment will
imposed on land of the first class (paragraph I)[213][2]
8. As regards land of the
second class the mere conversion of arable into building land at the will of
its owner and probably to his advantage is no reason for remitting its land
revenue. Where the land merely absorbed in the village site the revenue may
fairly continue to be realized and may at the next settlement be raised to the
same pitch as the assessment of arable land in the neighbourhood. Where it has
been sold at a profit e.g. to be a factory site whether adjoining the village
site or at a distance from it, then the revenue may justifiably be raised at
the next settlement to an amount equal to 2,3 or 4 percent on the price paid
for the land and at subsequent settlements the revenue may be further raised in
proportion to the rise ascertained in the price of land generally. But it will
not, be justifiable to take into account under the Land Revenue Act the profits
made by the factory-owners which are due not to the land to the use of his
capital and his machinery. Ont he other hand the considerations which
ordinarily operate to prevent the impossible of a full land revenue such as
small holdings and the objection to a large per sattum increase are not
applicable in such cases and it will be right to take the equivalent of the
highest assessment rates of arable land or even the full one-fourth asset rates
arrived at in the produce estimate. In small villages where land in the village
site is of little value it is scareely may be maintained of remitting the
revenue and measuring the whole village site in one khasra number.
9. With land of class III
Government has a free hand and may stipulate at the time of sale that the
purchaser and his representatives in interest shall be liable to make an annual
payment to the State whether it is called land revenue or ground rent or
anything else matters little which shall be liable to revision from time to
time. The letting value of a sale, apart from the buildings is hard to
determine but the definition in Punjab Government letter No. 448 dated 24th
march, 1869 may be followed i.e. "that portion of the net rent which
exceeds a fair remuneration for the capital invested in building the
house." Or it may be simpler to take 2, 3, or 4 per cent on the original price to shart with
and to judge the increase in the value of the site from time to time by
comparison with the selling price of land arable or urban in the neighbourhood
and to enhance the ground rent to 2, 3, or 4 per cent on the increased value so
gauged. In the case of new towns the first reassessment of ground rent may be
fixed for five years after sale and subsequent reassessments may be at
intervals of ten years.
No. 10. The redemption
of land revenue assessed on lands taken up by a municipality for a public or
quasi-public purpose is contrary to the policy of the Government of India ; and
is no permitted.2 If however a Settlement Officer thinks that owners
of urban land of the second and third classess described above are likely to
welcome redemption of the revenue ; he may include proposals to that and in his
assessment report.
11. When estates are essessed
purely to fluctuating crop rates and there is no fixed assessment a clause is
to be added at settlement providing for the irriposition of a fixed assessment
on any area converted during the currency of sttlement into a building site ;
the fixed assessment to be leviable at the highest rate per harvest sanctioned
for the assessment circle to which it belongs.
APPENDIX
XV (A)
THE PUNJBA LAND REVENUE (SPECIAL ASSESSMENT)
RULES 1958 FRAMED UNDER SECTION 60 OF
PUNJAB LAND REVENUE ACT.
PART A
Preliminary
1. Short
title.- These Rules may be
called the Punjab Land Revenue (Special Assessment) Rule, 1958.
2. Definitions.- In these rules unless the context otherwise
requires -
(i) Act means the Punjab Land Revenue Act,
1887.
(ii) 'from' means a form appended to these
rules ;
(iii) 'site' means a piece of land, whether
built upon or not, liable to special assessment under the Act ;
(iv) 'block' means a sub-division of an
assessment circle ;
(v) 'potential bulding site' means a site
lying vacant and out of use.
3. Units
of assessment. - (1) The unit of special assessment shall be
either assessment circle or a block.
(2) the Revenue Officer in
charge of assessment may divide assessment circles into blocks having regard to
the followign factors, -
(i) importance of situation ;
(ii) extent of development ;
(iii) categories of land : and
(iv) density of population.
PART B
Method of Special Assessment
4. Division
of site into categories . - For
the purpose of assessment of land revenue site in a block or assessment circle
shall be divided into the following categories --
(1) Land that has been put to a use different
from that for which an assessment is in force (Section 3 (18-A).
(2) Land that has been put to the following
non-agricultural uses whether already assessed to land revenue or not :-
(a) Cinemas ;
(b) Hotels or Restaurants ;
(c) Petrol Pumps ;
(d) Factories ;
(e) Shops ;
(f) Shops-cum-residence ;
(g) Residential houses ;
(h) Residential bungalows ;
(i) Cart, Tonga, Motor or other stands or
land grounds ;
(j) Brick-kilns land from which earth is
taken for bricks ;
(k) Other non-agricultural uses.
(3) Potential building sites.
5. Categories
of site to be grouped into classes.l - (1) All site under each category in a block or assessment circle may be
classified as follows :-
Section 3(18-A) Class I.
- Sites situated in good exceptionally localities and fetching exceptionally
high rent.
Calss II. - Site situated in ordinary localities and fetching good rent.
Class III. - Site situated in ordinary localities and fetching medium
rent.
Class IV. - Site situated in bad localities and fetching low rent.
Class V. - Sites situated in exceptionally backward localities and
fetching exceptionally low rent.
(2). Sites of various
categories wholly under the possession of the owners or of which the alleged
rent is found to be collusive or otherwise not reliable, shall be classified
under sub-rule (1) according to the localities and their own importance.
(3). The Tahsildar or
Naib-Tahsildar incharge of the block or assessment circle, as the case may be,
will be responsible for the preliminary classification of sites. The Revenue
Officer in charge of assessment will finalize this classification and in doing
so will personally verify at least five per cent sites of each class.
6. Net
letting value to be calculated on the basis of rejected representative site
[Section 3 (18-A).] - (1) Not
more than six representative sites of each class of a category in the blcok or
assessment circle as the case may be, may be selected by the Officer-in-charge
of assessment and the not letting value of every such shall be calculated in
the manner hereinafter described.
(2) The average net letting
value of the representation shall be applied to all the sites of the class of
the category in the block or assessment circle, as the case may be.
7. Factors
to be considered in calculating net letting value. - (1) In calculating the net letting value of
representative site, regard shall be had to the following factors:
(a) the present annual rent of the site ;
(b) the nature of the use to which the site
has been put ; [Section 3(18-A)]
(c) the capital in investment on buildins,
machinery, other structures on the site.
(2) The data required for the
purpose referred to in sub-rule (1) may be collected in Forms I, III and VII.
8. Furnishing
of information Section 3(18-A). -
(1) Every owner and lessee of a selected representative site shall, when
required by the Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment or a Tahsildar or a
Naib-Tahsildar, furnish information in Forms V and VI in order to enable such
officer to determine the net letting value thereof.
(2) The Revenue
Officer-in-charge of assessment shall, by himself or through the Tahsildar or
Naib-Tahsildar verify the information received in Forms V and VI in such a
manner as he deems fit mand may also tally such information with the following
documents :
(a) land records ;
(b) shopkeepers' books ;
(c) rent accounts of owners, lessees and
tenants ;
(d) rents realized by the Court of Wars,
official Receivers, local Authorities and other large proprietors ;
(e) figures accepted for similar localities
in other blocks, assessment circle or towns ;
(f) property tax and house tax registers.
(3) If after verification as
required by sub-rule (2), the Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment is
satisfied that the information furnished in Forms V and VI is not reliable, he
shall cause such information or such part of its as has been verified by him to
be incorporated in Form VII.
(4) It is respect of any
selected representative site the information furnished in Forms V and VI is
found to be not reliable by the Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment or such
information is not furnished at all he shall exclude such site from the list of
representative sites.
9. Calculation
of net letting value . - The net
value of selected representative sites shall be the amount derived after making
the following deductions from the present annual rent of such sites :-
(i) fair remuneration at six
percent for the capital invested on building or machinery or both after
deducting the depreciation on their value ; Section 3(18-A).
(ii) house tax ;
(iii) property tax,
(iv) maintenance charges not
exceeding one month's gross rent.
Explanation. - Where no reliable data regarding the cost of building and
machinery on a site is forthcoming or is otherwise not available, valuation and
depreciation shall be based on the standards of Public Works Department of the
Punjab State.
10. Determination
of average of market value of sites. - For purposes of sub-clause (ii) of clause (b) of section 48-A the Act,
the average market value of sites in each class of a category shall be -
(a) Where data regarding the sale price of
sites is available in a class, the average per marla, biswa, biswasi or
sarsahi, according to the measure in force for the time being in the locality
of the sale price of such sites during the ten years immediately preceding the
assessment.
(b) Where no data regarding the sale price
of sites in available in a class, the average per marla, biswa, biswasi or
sarsahi, according to the measure in force for the time being in the locality,
of the sale price of sites in a similar class category and locality in the
nearest block or assessment circle during the ten years immediately preceding
the assessment, and
(c) Where no data regarding the sale price
of sites in a similar class, category and locality in the nearest block or
assessment circle is avilable, the average per marla, biswa, biswasi or
sarsahi, according to the measure in force for the time being in the locality,
of the sale price of sites inthe same class, in all the categories of the same
block or assessment circle in which the sites are situated, during the ten
years immediately preceding the assessment.
11. Scale
of special assessment. - The
Revenue Officer-in-charge of special assessment or subsequent revision thereof
will then work out the scale of levy of special assessment for each class in
the block or assessment circle according to the scale laid down in section 48B
of the Act.
12. Area
to be assessted. - (1) Where a
part of a khasra number is liable to special assessment the area for special
assessment shall be the area of that part during the harvest in which the
special assessment is made. [Section 6-B].
(2) The total area to be
specially assessed in a block or assessment circle, as the case may be, shall
be the area that is liable to special assessment during the harvest in which
the special assessment is made.
13. Inspection
of certain estates. - Before
making his proposals for special assessment the Revenue Officer-in-charge of
assessment shall make a special inspection of very estate in which more than 25
khasra numbers are liable to special assessment and record a note of such
inspection.
14. preparation
of special assessment reports. - (1)
A special assessment report shall be prepared and submitted to the Financial
Commissioner through the Commi8ssioner for preliminary approval separately for
each assessment circle as soon as the necessary data has been collected.
(2) The report shall, amongst
other matters, state in respect of each block or assessment circle. -
(i) the average net letting value of sites
for each class under various categories,
(ii) in the case of sites the net letting
value of which cannot be determined, the average market value of such sites for
each class under various categories,
(iii) the scale of special assessment proposed
for each block in the assessment circle for each class under various
categories.
(3) The information referred
to sub-rule (2) shall also be given in Form IX.
15. Abstract
of assessment report to be published after its preliminary approval by
Financial Commissioner. - (F) On
receipt of the preliminary approval of the Financial Commissioner to his
proposal contained in the special assessment report, the Revenue
officer-in-charge of assessment shall prepare brief abstract, in the language
prevailing in the locality, of the report as approved or modified by the
Financial Commissioner, incorporating - [Section 60-(B)]
(i) the basic data on which the net letting
value of sites has been calculated, ded actions allowed and the value of land
under various categories and belonging to different classes, as disclosed by
sales.
(ii) the total assessment and the average
revenue rates proposed for each class under various categories with such brief
explanation as may be ncessary including the clear proviso that the rates
proposed for any particular estate are liable to be varied before the special
assessment is finalised,
(iii) the general consideration on which the
pitch and amount of the total actual assessment proposed are based, nakely,
rise in prices, new development and greter return from the land.
(2) Copies of this abstract
shall be supplied by post to all sarpanches, lambardars, organization of
landowners of the area concerned, Members of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Vidhan
Sabha, State Legislative Council and Local Bodies representing the said area,
with the intimation that representations against, or objections to objections
to, the propose assessment should be sent to the Revenue Officer-in-charge of
assessment within 15 days fromt he date of posting.
(3) All such representations
and objections will be considered by the Revenue officer-in-charge of
assessment who shall forward them with his views and the final report to the
Financial Commissioner.
16. Deviation
allowed. - The special
assessment Finally Confirmed by the Financial Commissioner for each class and
category in a block or assessment circle, as the case may be, shall be imposed
by the Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment within a margin of 5 percent
either way. [Section 60-(B)].
17. Distribution
of special assessment over holdings. - (1) Before making the distribution of fixed special assessment as finally
sanctioned by the Financial Commissioner over the several holdings of a class
in particular category in a block or assessment circle, as the case may be the,
Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment shall, in deciding the method of new
distribution, enquire into the usage and the wishes of the landowners concerned
and shall have regard to that usage and wishes of the landowners so far as may
be particable and equitable. The Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment shall,
for each estate, draw up an order setting forth the method of distribution
holding-wise of the special assessment and shall direct that a record of the
distribution of special assessment be prepared in Form VIII.
(2) The record thus prepared
shall be published by delivering a copy thereof to the headman of the estate
and by posting another copy at a conspicuous place in the block or assessment
circle, as the case may be, and as close to the estate as is feasible. A copy
shall also be supplied to the Patwari.
PART C.
The manner in which special
assessment shall be announced
18. Formal
announcement of special assessment, Section 60-(d). - (1) After the action taken under rule 17(2), a
formal announcement of the special assessment imposed on each block or estate
shall be made by the Revenue Officer-in-charge of assessment at an appointed
place and on a date specified to which the headman and other persons interested
of the estate shall be summoned.
(2) The headman of each estate shall also be
given memorandum, showing the future spcial assessment of the block or estate
and any additional particulars deemed necessary.
(3) Duration of special
assessment. - The harvest from which the new special assessment shall take
effect shall be announced to the headman and other persons interested and this
fact shall be used in the memorium delivered in the headman.
PART D.
Miscellaneous
19. Power
of Settlement Officer to incorpate additional information in the prescribed
forms. [Section 60 (b)] - Unless
otherwise directed by the Financial Commissioner in any specific case, the
special assessment in a district shall ordinarily last for a period of ten
years and shall remain in force till a new one is made.
20. The information required
for special assessment shall be collected in forms I to IX but the Revenue
Officer-in-charge of assessment will be entitled to incorporate in these forms
any additional information that he deems necessary.
21. Area
to be measured in case of doubt. [Section
60-(B)] - In case of doubt the area under special assessment inany khasra
number shall be properly measured and then recorded.
22. Scales
of special assessment to be applied to new land put to non agricultural use
during the currency of the spcial assessment. [Section 60-(B)] - During the period for which
the special assessment remains in force, the new sites of land or potential
building sites put to non-agricultural uses mentioned in rule 4(2)(a) to (k)
from harvest to harvest shall be classified by the Collector into the classes
of each category in the block or assessment circle, as the case may be, and the
scale of special assessment of the class in that category shall be enforced on
those sites in lieu of the land revenue payable at that time.
FORM I
(See rule 20)
Statement No. I showing details of Land
to specially assessed, which has been put to non-agricultural use or to a use
different from that for which a general assessment is in force.
Town or
village____________Hadbast No.________Abadi________ Tehsil_______________
Assessment Circle_____________District________ for the year 19____________
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
|
Khasra number in seriatim, which has been put to non
agricultural use or a use different from that for which a general assessment
is in force
|
Number of house or building already given at the spot
for house or property tax
|
Number of present Khataunin
the latest Jamabandi
|
Number of present Khewat in the latest jamabandi
|
AREA
|
Owner with description
|
Cultivator, tenant, or person in possession with
description. In case of more than one tenant, etc. kind and extent of area
under possession of each
|
Annual rent or ground rent
|
|
Total
|
That part which is liable to special assessment
with kind of non-agriculture use
|
Remaining area with kind of soil
|
FORM I – (Continued)
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
Amount of Annual Taxes Already Being Paid
|
Amount of ordinary land revenue already assessed
|
Openion of Circle Revenue Officer with regard to
reliability of recorded figures and class in which in site should be put with signatures
|
Remarks1
|
|
House-Tax
|
Proper tax
|
Total
|
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
|
FORM II
(See Rule 20)
Statement No. II showing details of the
transactions of sale/lease of land to be specially assessed which has been put
to non-agricultural use or to a use different from that for which general
assessment is in force.
Town or village____________Hadbast
No.________Abadi________ Tehsil_______________ Assessment
Circle_____________District________ for the year 19____________ to 19_______
|
Sr.No
|
Mutation Number
|
Alienor and alience written short
|
Khasra, No. and kind of soil or use to which it has
been put
|
CONSIDERATIONS MONEY
|
Dae of transaction
|
Remarks
|
|
For sales
|
For leases
|
|
For land
|
For building
|
Total
|
For land
|
For building
|
Total
|
Per annum
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
|
Note: All the transactions of sale should be entered
first and then of leases. Internally the transactions pertaining to assessable
area should be entered first.
FORM III
(See Rule 20)
Total of area and
annual rent for special assessment in year 19....
Block..................Town.....................Assessment
Circle................Teshil.............. District.....................
|
Kind of non-Agri-coltural use
|
Cinemas
|
Hotels, Restaurants
|
Petrol pumps
|
Factories
|
Shop
|
Shop cum-house
|
Houses
|
Bungalows
|
Carts, tonga or moter stands and landing grounds
|
Brick-kilns
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other non-agricultural use
|
Potential building sites
|
Religious places
|
Other public places
|
Hospitals and recognised educational institutions
|
Government buildings including Cantonmend
|
Public roads, irrigation and drainage channels
|
Small-scale cottage industries
|
Ancient village sites which have always been revenue
free have always been revenue free
|
Cremation gound and graveyard
|
Total
|
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART A – TOTAL
ASSESSABLE AND OTHER AREA
|
Assessable area
Other area
(Total in acres, kanals and marlas)
Held by Government Departments
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Area owned by Govern-ment
|
Held by local bodies
|
For charitable and public purposes For other purposes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Held by others for assessable purposes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
|
PART A-TOTAL ASSABLE AND OTHER AREA – concld.
|
|
Area owned by local bodies
|
Reserved for charitable and public
purposes Used for other purposes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Area owned by private persons or bodies
|
Reserved for charitable purposes Used
for non-agricultural or assessable purposes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART B- CLASS-WISE ASSESSABLE AREA
|
Class I
Class II
Class IV
ClassV
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART C – GROUND RENT
|
Area carrying ground rent
|
Class I
Class II
ClassIV
Class V
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total annual ground rent
|
Class I
Class II
Class III
Class IV
Class V
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average ground rent per marla or biswa
|
Class I
Class II
Class III
Class IV
Class V
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART D – COMPOSITE RENT
|
Area carrying composite rent of both
site and building etc.
|
Class I
Class II
Class III
Class IV
Class V
|
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|
|
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|
|
|
|
|
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|
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|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
Total annual composite rent
|
Class I
Class II
Class III
Class IV
Class V
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average annual composite rent per marla
or biswa
|
Class I
Class II
Class III
Class IV
Class V
|
|
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|
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|
|
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|
FORM IV
(See rule 20)
Statement No. IV showing average sale
or lease money for the year 19-to 19 – class
_______________Block_________Town_______Assessment Circle_______________
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
|
Kind of use
|
Total area under transaction
|
TOTAL CONSIDERATION
|
Total
|
AVERAGE OF LAND ONLY
|
Remarks
|
|
For sales
|
For building
|
Per acre
|
Per marla
|
|
|
SALES
Cinemas
Hotel and Restaurant Petrol-pump
Factories
Shop
Shop-cum-residence
Residential houses
Residential bungalow
Cart tonga, motor or other
Stand or landing ground.
Brick-kiln and land from
Which earth is taken for bricks
Other non-agricultural uses Petential
building sites
LEASES
Cinemas
Hotel and Restaurant
Petro-pump
Factories
Shop
Shop-cu-residence
Residential houses
Residential bungalows
Cart, tonga, motor or other
Stand or landing grounds
Brick-kiln and land form
Which earth is taken for bricks Other
non-agricultural uses Potential building sites
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note: The average
consideration money in the case of leases will be annual.
FORM
V
(See Rule 20)
Questionnaire to
be answered by the owner of the land
1.
1.
Name and address of owner
Name and address of lessee, if any
Name and address of tenants, if any
2.
2.
Area of the site to be assessed with Khasra number.
3.
3.
Present assessment
4.
4.
When was this site put to its present use?
5.
5. If any
buildings, structures and machinery have been constructed or installed on the
site, when were they constructed or installed by whom and at what cost? Also
give details of such buildings, machinery etc. on the side. Have you any
documentary proof of the amount spent on buildings etc. and if so give details?
If you have no documentary proof what other evidence have you?
6.
6. What taxes are
you paying in respect of this property to
(a)
(a)
Government:
(b)
(b)
Municipal Committee;
(c)
(c)
District Board;
(d)
(d)
Cantonment Board, or
(e)
(e)
Any other authority
Have you in
respect of any of these taxes, amde a declaration of the value of this
property? If so give details.
7.
7.
What was the value of this site before it was put to the present use?
8.
8.
What do you consider the present market value of-
(a)
(a)
the site alone
(b)
(b)
the site and all building etc. on it.
9. If you have leased this site to another party give his name
and address and the following particulars:-
(1)
(1)
Whether an agreement has been executed between you and the lessee?
(2)
(2)
The anual rent paid by the lessee
(3)
(3)
The period of lease
(4)
(4)
Whether the rent is for the site only or for the site with buildings etc.
(5)
(5)
Copy of the lease deed.
10. If you have not leased the site and buildings to another party
please give the information required below:-
(1)
(1)
The gross annual rent from the property
(2)
(2)
The annual expenses incurred by you on maintenance of buildings.
(3)
(3)
The net annual return from this property
11. If there are buildings or machinery or you consider a fair
annual rent for the site buildings and machinery, on the site, what do alone?
FORM VI
Questionnaire to
be answered by the lessee or tenant of the site or structure on the site.
1.
1.
Name and address of lessee or tenant
2.
2.
Name and address of owner
3.
3.
Total area of Khasra numbers comprising the site
4.
4.
Area of the site taken on lease with Khasra numbers
5.
5.
Have you taken on lease both the land and structures on it, or the land only or
the structures only. Give details of the site and structures taken on lease or
rent by you.
6.
6.
If you have executed a lease deed attach a copy or produce it.
7.
7.
What annual rent are you paying and have receipts of payment?
8.
8.
If you have only leased the site and put up your buildings and machinery, what
was the cost of these buildings and machinery?
9.
9.
Are you in respect of the property taken on lease paying any taxed in addition
to the lease money to-
(a)
(a)
Government
(b)
(b)
Any Local authority
If so give full particulars
FORM VII
(See Rule 20)
Block.................Estate...................Town..................Tehsil................Assessment
Circle ..........................District......................
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
|
Sr.No.
|
Kind of use with class
|
Khasra No. with area under special assessment
|
Amount of land revenue paid at present
|
Total amount of annual rent or ground rent (if available)
|
Year in which building constructed or machinery installed
|
Covered area of the building with kind of construction
|
Total original cost of building or capital invested
excluding the value of site
|
Depreciation
|
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
|
Present value of building or capital invested
|
Annual remuneration for the present capital value of
building and machinery
|
Maintenance charges, if any
|
House tax
|
Property tax
|
Net annual letting value, i.e. column No.5 minus column
Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14
|
Net annual letting value per marla or biswa
|
Average annual ground rent or lease money of land in the
block or estate according to statement No. IV
|
Average sale value of land under the particular class of
use in the block or estate for the last ten years according to statement No.
IV per marla or biswa
|
FORM VIII
(See Rule 20)
Name and Hadbast
No. of estate, town/abadi_________________________
Name and number of
block_________________________________________
Tahsil_____________________________District_______________________
|
Number in
serial order of holding affected by special assessment
|
Name and description of land owner
|
Khasra number liable to special assessment
|
Area of the Khasra No. or part of Khasra No. brought under
special assessment with brief description of the use
|
Rate or measure by which the special assessment has been
made
|
Amount of land revenue charged by former distribution
|
Amount charged by the new distribution
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FORM
IX
Abstract
statement showing scales of special assessment for Block No._____ Assessment
Circle__________Tehsil_______Distt. __________
Sr.No
|
Category of use
|
Class
|
Range of Gross rent per marla or biswa for each class of sites
|
Gross rent per marla or biswa of representative sites
selected ro calculating the net letting value
|
Avereage net letting value per marla or biswa according to
the experiments
|
|
More than Rs.
|
Not more than Rs.
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
|
AVERAGE MARKET
VALUE PER MARLA OR BISWA (ACCORDING TO STATEMENT NO.IV)
|
Scale of special assessment
proposed
|
Area
|
Total special assessment
proposed
|
Remarks
|
|
For the class in the category
|
For the class in all the categories of the block or
assessment circle
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the same block or assessment circle
|
In the neares or block assessment circle
|
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
[Punjab Government, Revenue Department
notification No. 2068-SM (1)-59, dated the Ist June, 1959]
APPENDIX XVI
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL PARAGRAPH 517)
Scheme for Contents of Assessment Reports
An
outline of the contents of an assessment report is given below. It is
impossibly to fix a limit of length but it may be observed that a clear and
good report has on occasion been comprised within 30 pages of print, and it
should rarely be necessary materially to exceed 40 pages :-
1. PHYSICAL FEATURES -
(a)
(a)
Brief general description of the tract.
(b)
(b)
Account of the amount and monthly distribution of the rainfall.
(c)
(c)
Reference to the orders passed regarding the division of the tahsil into
assessment circles and the classification of soils.
2. FINAL HISTORY -
(a)
(a)
Physical history may be noticed in the briefest possible way, nothing being
inserted what is required to make the fiscal history intelligible.
(b)
(b)
Fiscal arrangements of the rulers who immediately preceded us and the
settlements before that under revision may be dealt with very shortly.
(c)
(c)
The expiring settlement will need fuller treatment. It will be requisite to
notice the manner in which the rates were framed the general pitch of the
assessment, the fiarness or otherwise of its distribution over estates and the
care of difficulty with which it has been collected. A table should be given
showing under proper heads the alterations in the demand which have occurred
since its introduction. The causes of any importance revisions or reductions
found necessary during the currency of the settlement should be specially noted.
3. GENERAL STATISTICS -
The amount of information to be given under this head will
vary much in different districts. The following are among the more important
subjects to be noticed –
(a)
(a)
Cultivated area at different periods with details of classes of land and means
of irrigation. Where the area under report includes lands leased from
Government the statistics regarding such lands should be either entirely
excluded from the assessment report or should be kept separate in the returns
from the statistics relating to proprietary lands. The character of the new
cultivation as compared with the old should be stated.
(b)
(b)
Changes in the prices of agricultural produce and in the cost of production
since last settlement. The cost of well-irrigation should be noticed.
(c)
(c)
Communication and markets.
(d)
(d)
Cattle used in agriculture and kept for dairy purposes.
(e)
(e)
Population especially rural population at different periods with its incidence
on the cultivated area.
(f)
(f)
Tribal distribution of the rural population and especially of the landowners
with a note of the character as agriculturists of the principal classes of landlords
and tenants.
(g)
(g)
Prevailing tenures and normal size of proprietary holdings in different circles
and tribes.
(h)
(h)
Statistics of transfers at various periods (1) as throwing light on the value
of agricultural land (2) as evidence of the extent of indebtedness especially
to money-lenders. If many of the land-owners derive an income from sources
unconnected with agriculture this would be stated.
4. CROPS -
(a)
(a)
The crop statistics should be examined with special reference to the
fluctuations in the sowings and in the proportion of crops harvested to crops
sown from year to year.
(b)
(b)
The general system of cultivation followed in the case of different classes of
land should be noted.
(c)
(c)
Tables showing chief crops which were harvested in each circle and the area of
failure without crop details may be given. The areas should be the average
areas of a series of years, and they can most conveniently be exhibited in
percentage of the total area harvested.
(d)
(d)
The figures given in these tables may be briefly compared with those for
neighbouring tracts of the same character so as to afford some test of the
comparative incidence of the assessment.
(e)
(e)
Important changes in cropping since the previous settlement should be noticed.
5.
5.
TENANCIES AND RENTS –
(a)
(a)
Area Cultivated by owners, occupancy tenants and tenants-at-will.
(b)
(b)
Batai and zabti rents paid by tenants-at-will.
(c)
(c)
Chakota rents paid by tenants-at-will.
(d)
(d)
Cash rents paid by tenant-at-will.
6.
6.
ONE-FOURTH ASSETS ESTIMATES AND DEDUCED STANDARD RATES –
(a)
(a)
One-fourth assets estimates based on batai and zabti rents –
(1)
(1)
Average area of crop.
(2)
(2)
Yield of crops assumed, with notice of means adopted to arrive at a fair
estimate.
(3)
(3)
Princes assumed. A very brief summary may be given of the information furnished
in the report on prices and of the orders passed upon it.
(4)
(4)
Calculation of owner's true share of produce after deduction of dues paid to
menials etc. and of the one-fourth assets share.
(5)
(5)
Standard one-fourth assets rates based on batai and zabti rents.
(b)
(b)
One-fourth assets estimate based on chakota rents. An estimate may be framed if
fixed grain rents are sufficiently numerous to make it worthwhile to do so.
(1)
(1)
The method by which this estimate is framed should be noticed the measures, if
any taken to eliminate abnormal rents being carefully explained. A comparison
should be made of the incidences of the old and new assessments in the manner
laid down in rule 31 of the rules framed under section 60 of the Land Revenue
Act to see that the increase does not exceed the limit laid down in section
51(3) of that Act.
(2)
(2)
The standard one-fourth assets rates deduced from cash rent data should be
compared with those based on batai as possible and zabti rents and large
discrepancies explained as far.
(3)
(3)
True one-fourth net assets arrived at by comparison of (a), (b) and (c) and on
general considerations.
7. REVENUE RATES AND FINANCIAL RESULTS -
(a)
(a)
The existing revenue rates and demand should be stated and compared with the
standard one-fourth assets rates deducted from rents and the demand obtained by
their application to the cultivated area of each class of land.
(b)
(b)
The general reasons bearing on the question of the enhancement to be taken or
the relief to be given should be noticed and if it is not proposed to assess up
to one-fourth net assets the grounds for deviating from that standard should be
fully explained.
(c)
(c)
The rates proposed for each circle, and the reasons by which they are justified
should be stated. It is generally convenient to discuss the assessment of each
circle separately.
(d)
(d)
Cesses old and new should be mentioned.
(e)
(e)
A table should be given comparing the original demand of the expiring
settlement the demand for the last year of its currency and the new demand. The
percentage of increase taken should be stated.
8. OTHER MATTERS -
(a)
(a)
If it is proposed to resort to deferred assessments, the extent to which they
will be adopted should be noticed.
(b)
(b)
The term of settlement which is considered suitable should be noted. This will
not be finally decided till orders are passed on the settlement report. But it
is necessary that a provisional decision should be made as the amount of
enhancement to be taken may partly depend on the period during which the State
will debar itself from claiming any further increase.
APPENDIX XVII
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL, PARAGRAPH 522)
Detailed village assessment Statement of fluctuating land revenue
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
|
As-sessment Circles
|
Khalsa or Jagir
|
Serial No.
|
Estate or chak
|
AVERAGE ASSESSED
AREA OF SELECTED YEARS, BY CLASSES
|
OLD DEMAND BY SOILD
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chahi
|
Nahri
|
Barani
|
Total
|
Chahi
|
Nahri
|
Barani
|
Total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Acres
|
Acres
|
Acres
|
Acres
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
|
Chahi
|
Barani
|
Nahri
|
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
|
NEW DEMAND, BY
CLASSES
|
|
|
Remarks
|
|
Chahi
|
Nahri
|
Barani
|
Total
|
Decrease
|
Increase
|
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
Rs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note:- Columns 3-4 Villages should be arranged by
assessment circles, and inside those circles topogrphically.
5-26.-These may be altered as
necessary to suit the circumstances of different districts.
9.12 and 23-26.-
The revenue in each case will be the gross assessment, including assignments of
all kinds.
29.- Exlaining reasons in all
cases in which existing assessment is reduced or in which the new demand
differs by more than 20 per cent from the demand by sanctioned rates.
APPENDIX XVIII
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL,
PARAGRAPH 546)
Incorporation
of New Assessments into District
Land Revenue Roll.
The Settlement Officer must prepare
the following statements, for which forms are given below. They are forwarded
by the Settlement Officer to the Commissioner who affter checking them in his
office with detailed village assessment statement, forwards them to teh
Financial Commissioner for record in his officer. The Financial Commissioner
will not sanction the new land revenue roll till they are received.
(a)
(a)
comparative demand statement showing the fixed assessment of each estate for
the last year of the expired settlement, and for the first year of the new
settlement;
(b)
(b)
Progressive and deferred assessments claimable in future years:
(c)
(c)
Comparative abstract of the fixed
revenue roll of the district for the last year of the expiring and the
first year of the new assessment; and
(d)
(d)
Abstract statement showing the demand on account of fixed land revenue for each
month of the first financial year under the new assessment.
Statements C and D are
ephemeral, and are only intended of facilitate correct accounts on the
introduction of the new assessments. Statements A and B are vey important both
for purposes of permanent record in the district and tahsil officer and for
purposes of comparison and check in the officer of the Commissioner and the
Financial Commissioner. The points which A is specially decides to bring out
are-
(a)
(a)
the provisions complete assessment of each estate, the deductions allowed out
of that assessment, and the amount that was borne on the rent roll;
(b)
(b)
the like particulars in respect of the new assessment; and
(c)
(c)
the increase or decrease of demand resulting in each estate and in the whole
number of estates assessed.
Special care
will be necessary to see that the details of this statement agree with the
gross village assessments already sanctioned; and in particular jagir and inam deductions should be
thoroughly checked. Complete vernacular copies statement A and B will be filed
in the tahsil and district offices. The
English copies will be retained in the officer of the Financial Commissioner.
A. – COMPARATIVE
DEM NEW AND STATEMENT SHOWING THE FIXED ASSESSMENT OF EACH ESTATE UNDER THE
EXPIRED SETTLEMENT AND FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF THE SETTLEMENT, WITH DETAILS OF
PROGRESSIVE AND DEFERRED ASSESSMENTS CLAIMABLE IN FUTURE YEARS
(Vernacular copies to
be filed in District and Tahsil Officer and English copy to be submitted to
Financial Commissioner).
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
|
Tahsil and Assessment Circle
|
Serial No.
|
FIXED ASSESSMENT AS
IT STOOD WHEN THE OLD ASSESSMENT EXPIRED AND ON WHICH THE LAST ABSTRACT RENT
ROLL SANCTIONED BY THE FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER WAS BASED
|
|
Lan revenue and
fixed assessment for grazing sajji, dates, etc
|
Add Service communication payable by revenue assignees
|
|
Assigned
|
|
Jagirs and marfis
|
Inams
|
Zaildars allowances
|
Other assignment
|
Total
|
Due to Government
|
Total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
|
ASSESSMENT FOR THE
FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT, viz.. Kharif 19...AND
Rabi, 19....
|
|
Land revenue fixed
assessment, for grazing sajji dates, etc.
|
|
Assigned
|
|
Jagirs and mafis
|
Inams
|
Zaildari allowance
|
Other assignments
|
Total
|
Due to Government
|
Total assessment
|
Add service communication payable by cevenue assignment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
|
New assessment sanctioned by the Communicationin Detailed
Village Assess ment Statement
|
Increasc in Government demand by new assessment (columns 9
and 17)
|
Decrease in Government demand by new assessment (columns 9
and 17)
|
RATE OF INSTALMENTS PAID AT EACH HARVEST
|
Remarks viz.
|
|
|
|
|
Rabi
|
Karif
|
(1) Explain any difference between columns 18 and 20
ordinarily the entries in these columns will be identical.
(2) Note amount of deferred accrue, assessments
subsequently distinguishing sum deferred under protective leases of wells and
sums deferred on account of progressive assessments.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note.- Columns 4
to 10 and 12 to 18.- the great majority of the entries will be for land revenue
proper. The occasional on account of other items of fixed revenue should be
indicated in these columns separately, so far as they may be necessary for the
purposes of the abstract revenue roll
“4 and 12.- If some of the jagirs
and mafis pay nazarance (commutation. See columns land 19) and others do not,
enter separately the revenue one which commutation i9s due, and that on which
it is not due, and explain in columns 25.
“7 and 15. – In some districts these columns will be
blank. In others it may be necessary to amplify them. These columns are
inserted in order to render the form readily adaptable to varying local
circumstances.
“ 9 and 11.- The totals of these
columns should agree with the last
abstract revenue roll sanctioned by the Finance Commissioner, and will be
compared therewith.
“14.- Nothing should be shown in
this column on account of zaildari allowances, except in the case of the one
village in each zail out of which the income is assigned. In the case of other
villages whether khaisa jagir or
shared. 11/4 per cent total revenue, or such pther percentage as has been
sanctioned, should be included on account of zaildari and sufedposhi or
inamdari column 17.
“ 17 and 19.- The total of these columns will
agree with the new abstract revenue roll prepared after announcement of the new
assessment and submitted with this statement.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
|
SrNo
|
Estate
|
Total assessment of 1st
years of new settlement column 18 of above statement
|
YEARS AND AMOUNTS OF FUTURE INCREMENTS
(INCREMENTS ONLY TO BE STATED, AND NOT THE CROSS ASSESSMENT FOR EACH YEAR)
|
|
Total ultimate assesment of
village (column 20 of statement A)
|
Remarks
|
|
1929-30
|
1930-31
|
And so on for each year in
which any increment will accrue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note: Details of
khalsa and assigned revenue should be given throughout in this appendix.
C. Comparative abstract of the
fixed land revenue roll of the district for the last year of the expiring, and
the first year of the new assessment.
(To be submitted to
Commissioner and Financial Commissioner simultaneously with statements A and B)
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1
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2
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3
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4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
|
Tahsil
|
Year Kharif Rabi
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Land revenue
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Grazing tax on Government grass lands, the demand on which
is fixed
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Service commutation
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Total fixed income
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Remarks
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A.
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1929-30
1930-31
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|
|
|
|
|
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B.
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1929-30
1930-31
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|
|
|
|
|
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C.
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1929-30
1930-31
|
|
|
|
|
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Explanation of increase and decrease
of demand for the year 1929-30
(a)
(a)
Demand for 1929-30-Rs
(b)
(b)
Add increase during 1929-30, as follows:-
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Nature of increase
|
REFERENCE TO FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER’S SANCTIONING LETTER
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Amount of increase
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Remark
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Office
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No.
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Date
|
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Total
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|
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D
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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(c)
(c)
Deduct Decrease during 1929-30, as follows:-
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Nature of increase
|
REFERENCE TO FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER’S SANCTIONING LETTER
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Amount of increase
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Remark
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|
Office
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No.
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Date
|
|
Total
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|
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D
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|
|
|
|
|
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(d)
(d)
Demand for 1929-30.
(B).- ABSTRACT SHOWING STATEMENT THE DEMAND ON ACCOUNT OF
FIXED LAND REVENUE FOR EACH MONTH OF THE FIRST YEAR UNDER THE NEW ASSESSMENT.
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Tahsil
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April
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September
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October
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November
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December
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January
|
February
|
March
|
Total demand
|
Remarks
|
|
 Total
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|
|
|
|
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|
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APPENDIX
XIX
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL, paragraph 547)
Recovery of Cost of assessment from
jagirdars.
1.
1.
Every jagir, the annual value of which is nor increased re-assessment by a sum
exceeding Rs. 100, exempted form contributing to the cost of assessment. A
similar exemption is allowed in the case of all jagirs of annual value (after
re-assessment) of less than Rs. 2,000. In all other cases a fixed change
amounting to 12-1/2 per cent of the annual value (after re-assessment of the jagir will be made. For the purposes of
this the annual value of jagir before
and after reassessment will be its net value after excluding commutation fees,
etc. for the last year of the old and for the first year of the new, assessment
whether the jagir is under fixed or
fluctuating, or partly fixed and partly fluctuating assessment.
2.
2.
No fixed rule is laid down as to the account or number of installments in which
the cost of assessment should, under section 148(2) of the Punjab Land Revenue
Act, XVII of 1887, be recovered. The orders of the Financial Commissioner
should be sought in each case.
3.
3.
For the recovery of the sums due under these orders the sanction of the
Financial Commissioner will be required in every case. The Settlement Officer
will report at the conclusion of his settlement the amount due from each
jagirdar. The report should be accompanied by a statement in the form appended,
and should furnish reasons for any partial or total remissions of the amount
due, where, in the opinion of the Settlement Officer, the exaction of the full
amount would entail hardships. But exemptions will only be granted in
exceptional cases.2
STATEMENT TO
ACCOMPANY REPORT ON THE RECOVERY OF COST OF RE-ASSESSMENT FROM ASSIGNEES OF
LAND REVENUE
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1
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2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
|
Tahsil
|
Name of Jagir
|
Old revenue of jagir for last year of old assessment
(net)
|
New revenue of jagir for first year of new assessment
(net)
|
Amount proposed to be levied
from the assignee on account of re-assessment at 12-1/2 per cent in column 4.
|
Remarks, including proposed
instalments, if any, for recoveryy of the amount in column.
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|
|
|
|
|
|
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APPENDIX XX
Instructions for Settlement Officer
in drawing up Assessment Report
Circular letter No. 9, dated
Lahore, the 8th March, 1909.
From. - E.R. ABBOT. Esq. II. C.S. Senior
Secretary to the Financial Commissioner, Punjab.
To - The Settlement Commissioner and all
Settlement Officers inthe Punjab.
The Financial
Commissioner has recently reviewed the assessment reports of nine tahsils int
he districts of Rohtak, Gurgaon and Karnal and thinks it desirable to issue the
following general instructions, with the view of simplifying the work for
Settlement Officers in drawing up assessment reports, and of enabling them to
put their calculations and conclusions more clearly. The marginal references
are to those passages int he Finanaical Commissiner's review, where the reasons
for these instructions are given.
2. Gohana's
paragraph 5. - In framing
assessment proposals, the Settlement Officer should always bear in mind that
his main object should be to distribute the toal assessment fixed by government
for the tahsil or assessment circle equitably over the difference estates in
proporation to the "net assets" or proprietary profits of each. The
"net assets" or proprietary profits are in the case of land held by
tenants-at-will paying a full fair rent whether in cash or kind, the actual
acreage net receipts of the landlord in the form of rent after allowing on the
one hand, for any realisatins made by the landlord in addition to the nominal
rent, and on the other, for any portion of the nominal rent, an, on the other,
any portion of the nominal rent which he ordinarily fails to collect, for any
expenses be may share with the tenant towards the cost of cultivation and for a
reasonable return on his captial expenditure on the improvement and alteration
of the land so far as that has not been already recovered by him. Int he case
of protected or privileged tenants who pay less than a full fair rent, and in
the case of land cultivated by the owner himself, they mean what would be the
average not form of rent if the land were let at a full fair rent. Thus an
estimate of the net assets or proprietary profits of a circle will represent
what would be the average net receipts in the form of rent if the whole circle
wer owned by a single landlord, and were let by him to tenants paying not a
rack-rent or a privileged rent, but a full fair rent according to the
circumstances of the time and the existing standard of living of unprivileged
tenant class, If fairly distributed over the holdings of the circle, it will
represent for each hodling what would be the average not receipts in the from
of rent, if the holding were let at a full fair rent ; that is to say, I will
represent the present renting value of each holding.
3. Gohana,
paragraph 12. - The present
assessment instructions, as sanctioned by the Government, of India required
that the assessment of a circle or estate shall not exceed half. The net
assets, or propriety profits, or renting value, and that any proposal, to fix
the land revenue at less than half the proprietary profits must be explained.
In drawing up his Assessment Report, therefore, the Settlement Officer's first
object should be to present to governments accurate an estimate as he can frame
of what would be a fair full assessment at half the proprietary profits under
present circumstances for the circle as a whole, and for each important class
of land for which he proposes a separate revenue rate. In framing such an
estimate, he must endeavor to hold the banace even between the general taxpayer
and the land-revenue payer and, while being careful not to exaggerate the true
proprietary profits of the circle, and making all reasonable allowances, he
should see that he does not go too far on the side of caution, and that he
presents a just estimate of the true renting value of the land of the circle.
It will be for Government to decide how far the actual assessment to be imposed
shall fail short of half that renting value.
4. Panipat
paragraph 6. Gohana paragraph 5. -
Where a sufficiently large proportion of the cultivated area of a cirlce is
held on cash rents, which can be considered to be true competition rents,
neither rack-rents nor privileged rents, these form the best possible basis for
an estimate of the proprietary profits or renting value of the land of the
circle, representing as, they do, the result of the practical experience of
tenants and landlord as to what rent in cash the different classes of land
fairly pay, year in year out after making lal allowances, so far as their
experience goes, for out turn varying prices and varying cost of production -
all factors which have to be roughly estimated by Settlement Officer in framing
a produce estimate based on rents in kind. In stuyding the cash rent
statistics, he should eliminate rents paid in terms of the land revenue, unless
there is a practice of paying a rent expressed as a multiple of the land
revenue, rents ; which are obviously low or obviously high for special reasons
; rents on exceptionally valuable lands, rack-rents, and rents paid by
mortgagors to mortgages, which are often compliated by interest calculations or
unduly high owing to the reluctance of the mortgagor to give up the cultivation
of his ancestral land. He should not, however, eliminate rents voluntarily paid
by tenants to mortgages as these ordinary are true fair competition rents. The
remaining rent static will form the basis of his estimate of normal cash rent
for the different classes of soil. He will then have to make allowance where
his inquiries show it to be necessary for rents which, though agreed upon fail
to be collected in full, and for lands which, owing to their sometimes
remaining fallow, fail to pay the full, normal rent every year. The result will
show what are the actual average receipts in the form of rent obtained by a
landlord from ordinary land let on normal cash rents. No allowances should be
made for expenses of management and collection (Government does not approve of
the recommendations on this subject made in paragraph 7 of Financial
Commissioner is Palwal review.). The Settlement Officer should them consider
whether it is fair to assurae that the renting value of the other land the
circle, and especially of that cultivated by the owners themselves, is similar
to that shown by the cash rents to be the renting value for proprietary
profits) of the land actually so rented, i.e., whether the proprietor of an
average holding of ordinary land ; which he cultivates himself, could, if he
chose to let in on cash rent, readily obtain a similar rent for it. If the land
held under their own cultivation by the proprietors is distinctly better or
distinctly worse than the held on normal cash rents by tenants, he should raise
or lower his estimate of its renting value accordingly. He will then be in a
position to frame a cash rent estimate of the proprietary profits or renting
value of the whole of the cultivated area of the circle by applying to the
areas of the different classes of soil the corrected normal cash rents for
those classes.
5. palwal,
paragraph 14, Painpat paragraph 8 and 9. - The question arises as to what areas should be adopted for this
calculation. In the case of land irrigated from wells, the general rule now is
that in the classification of soils all land should be recorded as chahi which
has been actually irrigated in two or more harvests during the four years
preceding settlement, and for which permanent means of irrigation still exist.
This will ordinarily give, as the total area of chahi for the circle, a larger
area than has been irrigated in any one year, or than is irrgated on an average
of years. In some pats of the province the area irrigated from wells does not
vary very much from year to year, while in others, it varies greatly, the wells
being little used in years of good rainfall, while ; in years of drought,
nearly every well is worked to its full capacity, especially in the latter
tracts, it would be usage to assume that the normal rents, paid by tenants on
land commanded by wells, even if they are paid in years in which the well is
not used, could always be obtained even on all the land record as shahi which
is cultivated by the owners themselves. If on inquiry there appears to be any
resonable doubt on this point, the normal chahi cash rent rate may be applied
not to be recorded chahiu area, nor to any assumed area, not to the area
irrigated in any one year, but to the area actually irrigated from wells one
the average of a typical series of years (all owances being made, where
necessary, for recent changes in the means of irrigation.).
6. Panipat,
paragraph 8., Panipat, paragraph 9-11., Palwal paragraph 15., Panipat paragraph
9. - There is not the same risk
of an overestimate of rent in the case of canal-irrigated land, but if
circumstances render it desirable that the rents paid on such land should be
specially tested, the normal each rent rate for such land may also be applied,
not only to the recorded nahri area, but also to the area actually irrigated by
the canal on the average of a typical series of years. The case of canal
irrigated land is somewhat complicated by the fact that the charges for canal
water are on some canals deivided in the accounts into occupier's rate, water-advantage
rate and ceases on the latter, but we find almost everywhere that landlords and
tenants lump these charges together ; and that where the land is let on cash
rent, the whole of these canal charges together ; and that where the land is
let on cash rent, the whole of these canal charges are paid by the tenant, and,
as a matter of fact, where the actual charges made by Government to the
cultivator who irrigates his field consists of these three items, they do,
taken together , represent the actual cost to him of the water, that is to say,
if he takes the water, he has to pay Government the sum of these charges, and
if he does not take the water, he pays none of them. In such a tract whatever
may have been the theoretical origin the water-advantage rate, it must be
treated, in accordance with facts, as now performing part of the cost of the
water, and the cash rent estimate be framed so as to show what are the
propriety profits of irrigated land after the whole of the fluctuating charges
made by Government for canal water have been defrayed, but before payment of
land revenue and ceases thereon. Careful inquiry should be made as to the
actual custom regarding the payment of the fluctuating charges by landlords or
tenant when land is leased on cash rent. The Settlement Officer should always
state what have been the actual realisations of occupier's rate,
water-advantage rate and ceases thereon for a typical series of years, and the
average incidence of the total realizations on the average area actually irrigated.
The area recorded at ghahi or nahri, which is in excess of the average area
actually irrigated ; should in the cash rent estimate be treated as
unirrigated.
7. Palwal
paragraph 10. - So much for the
cash rent estimate the Settlement Officer should also frame a quite independent
produce estimate, based on the rents in kind found to exist, on the areas
actually cropped on the average, on the estimates out-turn ; and on average
prices. There is little to add to the existing instructions on this subject, except
that the prices assumed should not be based on those of a long series of years,
the object being to estimate the normal prices under present circumstances at
which an average cultivator in a village at an average distance from markets
may fairly expect to seel his produce in the village on an average of years ;
and that, as in the case of the cash rent estimate, the Settlement Officer
should calculate what would be the average renting value of the whole of the
land of the circle it were let at the prevalent rates of rent in kind, and the
tenant paid the whole of the fluctuating canal charges and none of the land
revenue and ceases thereon. No estimate should be made of one-sixth of the
gross produce ; but a calculation should be framed of the proportions borne by
the renting value of the land to the value of the gross produce.
8. Panipat
paragraph 10. & Panipat paragraph 11. - The Settlement Officer should then compare these results of the tow
mutually independent estimates, and arrive at a definite estimate of what are
the true net assets of propriety profits of the circle. As already said, where
the area on which normal cash rents are paid is sufficient to form a
trustworthy basis for an estimate of the renting value of all the land of the
circle, the cash rent estimate is a much surer guide than the kind rent
estimate, but the Settlement officer should take both into account and state
definitely ; with justice both to the general tax-payer and the lanowners of
the circle ; his final conclusion as to what would be a full fair half of nets
assessment for the circle if it were fixed at half the actual renting value of
the land under present circumstances after payment of all existing fluctuating
canal charges ; but before payment of the land revenue and ceases thereon. In
framing this estimate ; no regard should be paid to the existing land revenue
demand. It will be an estimate for a "wet" assessment on the basis
that the fluctuating canal charges remain as at present and that the land
revenue should absorb half the proprietary profits remaining after these
charges have been defrayed. As the estimate can only be an approximate one, it.
Should be state in round numbers, usually in ever thousands. The Settlement
Officer should at the same time ; propose the rates which he would ; after
comparing the rates given respectively by the cash rent and the kind rent
calculations consider suitable to use if the full fair half-net assets of
propriety, profits of the circle were spread over the villages of the circles (treating
as irrigated only the area actually irrigated on an average of years) with the
object of taking from each village a full half of the renting value of its
land. As the rates can be only approximate they should usually in even annas.
9. Panipat
paragraph 12. Gohana paragraphs 9, 10 and 15. - He should then check this estimate and his rates
with the corresponding half-net assets estimates for adjoining or similar
assessment circles. He should also check it by assuming for the moment that the
assessment imposed at the previous settlement was a full fair half-net assets
assessment in the circumstances of the time, and calulating what an assessment
at similar pitch would be if allowance were made for changes that have occurred
since, such as increase or decrease of cultivationor irrigation, rise or fall
in prices or rents. Etc. But as it is well know that as a matter of fact, the
pitch of former assessments varied considerably in different tahsils, little
stress should be laid on this check. Where sufficient statistics are available,
a further rough check can be applied by a comparison of the selling and
mortgaging value of land as shown by statics of recent transfers as these show
the estimate framed by purchasers and mortgages of the average net profits to
be expected from the cultivation of land after defraying not only the
fluctuating canal charges and all costs of cultivation but also the land
revenue and cesses.
10. Gohana,
pragraph 5. Gohana, pragraph 18. Panipat, paragraph 14. Gohana, pragraph 25. Palwal,
paragraph 14. Panipat, paragraph, 17. and 19. Palwal, paragraph 16. - Having thus arrived at a definite opinion as to
what would a full fiar half-net assets assessment for the circle, the
settlement officer should then after consideration of all that affects the
assessment and especially of the amount of the existing assessment and the
enhancement that it will be advisable to take make his proposal as to what, the
future assessment of the circle should be, and should remember that the
assessment instructions require him to explain any proposal to take less than
the full half-net assets, Apart from other considerations, it will usually be
advisable to go nearer the full half-net assets the smaller the percentage of
enhancement indicated by the estimate, is. In the case of canal-irrigated, land
the proposed assessment at this stage will be a wet" assessment, i.e. the
proposed revenue demand which the settlement officer, would fix for the circle
of the fluctuating canal charges remained as at present and the fixed land
revenue were to absorb half the proprietary profits remaining after those canal
charges, which represent the actual cost of the water, have been defrayed. The
asessment he proposes for the circle should usually be stated in even thousands
of rupees. He should at the same time, propose the rates he would employ in
distributing this assessment over the different villages (treating as irrigated
only the area actually irrigated on the average of a typical series of years
modified where necessary, to allow for recent changes in the means of
irrigation) with the object of spreading the total assessment proposed for the
circle over the different villages, composting it in the same proportion to the
proprietary profits of each. His rates should usually be stated in even annas,
and it is not necessary that, when applied to the areas of different soils,
they should give exactly the amount proposed by him for the assessment of the
circle, though they should give approximately the same result. These rates will
be applicable to the areas as recorded at his reclassification of soils,
modified by the figures for the actual average irrigation of each village. He
should propose comparatively low rates for inferior calsses of soil near the
margin of profitable cultivation. He should also utilize the rent statistics
given by the produce estimate, and propose a separate set of rates which, when
applied to the average matured area of each class of cropping in the circle,
will give approximately the assessment he has proposed for the circle.
11. Gohana,
pragraphs 22-35. Palwal, paragraph 12-19. Panipat, paragraphs. 2, 4, 14-18,
Gohana, pragraph 20. Gohana, pragraph 25. Panipat paragraph 17. Gohana,
pragraph 35. Gohana, pragraph 43 V. - In the case of canal-irrigated land, the settlement officer should
then consider whether (1) the fluctuating canal charges should be maintained at
their present pitch and the fixed ladn revenue be assessed as "wet"
land revenue on the proprietary profits remaining after defraying those
charges, or (2) whether the charges for the water should remain practically as
at present, and the fixed land revenue be assessed as a "dry" land
revenue on the land in its unirrigated aspect, the assessment on the enhanced
proprietary profits due to canal irrigation being taken in the form of a
fluctuating canal advantage land revenue rate assessed on the same areas as are
assessed to occupier's rates, or (3) Where the occupier's rates are liable to
be revised at settlement, whether the fixed land revenue should be a
"dry" assessment the whole of the remaining charges due to canal
irrigation being taken in the form of enhanced occupiers rates. All rates for a
fluctuating demand should be so fixed that they may be easily calcuated by the
patwaris and by the cultivators themselves ont he local measures of area. He
should frame a definite estimate of what the average total realizations by
Government from the land, whether in the form of fixed land revenue fluctuating
land revenue, or fluctuating canal charges, are likely to be under either
system, on the assumption that the average irrigation will continue to be much
the same as it has been during a typical series of years, and compare that
estimate with the acutal sums collected under each head during that series of
years, and should bear in mind that the enhancement, as it is felt by the
people, will not be that given by the fixed land revenue alone, but that given
by the total realizations from the crops under all these heads. In proposing
rates for the distribution of the fixed "dry" land revenue over the
villages of a circle, he should ordinarily, and especially where the renting
value of canal-irrigated land is considerably higher than that of unirrigated
land propose a higher rate for canal irrigated land (average area actually
irrigated) than for unirrigated land because the crops of well-commanded will
village are more secure than those of an ill-commanded village are ore secure
than those of an ill-commanded village and because however high the fluctuating
charges on canal-irrigated land may be raised, the average net proprietary
profits of a well-commanded village will still be considerably higher than
those of an ill commanded village, so that the former should pay a
proportionately higher share of the total fixed assessment of the circle than
the latter. In proposing a fluctuating canal advantage land revenue, or the
latter. In proposing a fluctuating canal advantage land revenue rate has should
bear inmind that fluctuating rates which leave it largely to the landowner's
option what he shall actually pay Government at each harvest may safely be
raised nearer to full half assets rate than a fixed assessment regarding the
amount of which the revenue payer have no option. And, in proposing a new
schedule of enhanced occupier's rates he should bear inmind not only this
consideration but the fact that in deciding what price to charge for its canal
water Government is no bound by any rule of limitation to half-net assets but
is entitled in theory to charge for it rates approximating to the value of the
water to the irrigator as shown by the higher rents realised on canal-irrigated
than on unirrigated land while leaving him a good margin of profits so as to
make it well worth his while to utilize the available irrigation from the
canal.
12. Palwal
paragraph 29. - Should the
Settlement Officer think it advisable to introduce into any portion of the
tract under assessment a system of fluctuating land revenue he should before
making his proposals consider the system which has been gradually evolved after
long experience in the West Punjab. If he thinks it necessary in the case of a
fixed assessment to propose rule for the reduction of assessment in the case of
the spread of reh or waterlogging or submersion of land he will find suggested
rules in paragraph 32 of the Palwal Review and paragraph 33 of the Nuh -
Ferozepore Review.
13. Gohana,
pragraph 40. - Nuh Ferozepore
paragaph 36. Panipat paragraph 25. - At the end of his assessment report the
Settlement Officer should be give a statement showing clearly the results of
his proposals for each circle and for the whol tashsil for both fixed and
fluctuating charges (including all canal charges) and how they compare with
present realizations and with his half net assets estimate. He should also
estimate what proportion of the value of the gross produce his proposed
assessment will absorb and how it compares with the fraction absorbed by the
assessment at the preveous settlement.
14. When the Settlement
Officer receives orders on his assessment report and proceeds to distribute the
fixed assessment sanctioned by the Government over the vilages using as his
guide the rates-sanctioned by Government he should aim at making the total
assessment of the circle i.e. the sum of the village assessments as nearly as
possible equal to the sanctioned figure and although he will have the usual
margin of 3 percent he must not deliberately assesses the circle above or below
the amount fixed by Government. He should endeavour to make every village pay
approximately its fair share of the total demand for the circle but where that
share gives small enhancement he should remember that the sanctioned rates are
below the true half-renting value, and that he may fairly go well above the new
assessment of the village gives a smaller enchancement than is being taken from
the circle as a whole. He should not reduce the existing assessment of a
village should usually be fixed in a multiple of Rs, 25 Rs. 50 or in the case
of large sums, Rs. 100. In making his distribution over villages he should use
not only the sanctioned soil rates but the rates on average harvested area
mentioned in paragraph 10 above as they automatically call attention to the
extant to which the cropping are very great they really give a more trustworthy
guide to the distribution on the assessment over villages than soil ; rates
do., Even where no rates has been sanctioned for the culturable waste the
Settlement Officer should allow for any large areas as it is only fair that a
village which has a considerable area of good land under grass and trees should
pay more than one that has none. All through in main this distribution he
should remember that it is now a case between one village and another and that
if, he makes one village pay less than its fair share of the total assessment
fixed for the circle the other village will have to make up the difference.
15. Palwal,
paragraph 24. - As regard
deferring a portion of the enhancement in villages in which it would be unduly
sudden to impose the full assessment at once, the Settlement Officer should
bear in mind that in canal-irrigated villages the enchancement as it will be
felt by the people will be enchancement in the total realizations made by
Government including the canal charges. And that so far as the canal charges
are fluctuating it is at the option of the cultivators to determine what the
enhancement in canal realizations will actually be. Usually except where there
has been any extraordinary change in the condition of a circle such as the
opening of a new canal which has let to a great extension of cultivation or
where a large proportion of the new assessment will be deferred on protective
leases when the enhancement of the fixed demand on any village exceeds 33
percent by any considerable amount the amount exceeding that percentage should
be deferred for five years. If it much exceeds 66 percent a further sum should
be deferred for another five years. The final demand should be announced and
distributed over the holdings and the five years' reduction be given by
temporarily reducing the demand on each holding by so many annas in the rupee.
The Settlement Officer should use this power so as to ensure that after five or
ten years each village will be paying approximately its fair share of the total
assessment sanctioned for the circle.
Note - It must be remembered that one-quarter and nopt one half of the
net assets is the maximum land revenue that can be taken under the Land Revenue
Amendment Act of 1928.
APPENDIX
XXI
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL PARAGRAPH 222)
Instructions for bringing up to
dateat resettlement the field map of the previous settlement without recourse
to remeasurement.
PREPARATORY
All districts inthe
Punjab have now been repeatedly settled and have been furnished with village
field maps which in many districts have been prepared on the square system of
survey (Chapter VI and VII of the Mesuration manual) and in some others have
been found not to be inferior in accuracy even to the maps of the square
system. The records of rights based on these maps have been maintained since
1887 onthe system then introduced alongwith the Land Revenue Act. The first
thing a Settlement Officer now has to consider therefoire is to what extent he
can for his special revision of the records of rights. Utilize the existing
maps and records without resorting to resurveyed. in deciding that question he
should remember that what is required is to give the people a map and record
sufficiently accurate for their needs. These needs may be summed up as (1)
avoidance of disputes and a means of deciding them promplty when they do arise
and (2) a fair distribution of the land revenue over the holdings of each
village.
THE CHOICE BETWEEN REMEASUREMENT
AND REVISWION
2. The settlement must begin
with an examination of the existing maps i.e. the map of each estate forming
part of the record of rights under section 31 (2) (c). Land Revenue Act to
enable the Settlement Officer to decide whether by revision that can be made
sufficient for these purposes. This examination should be directed to the
points enumerated below. It should be made by the patwari in the first instance
and carefully checked by the kanungo and naib-tahsildar within the village
concerned :-
(1) Whether the exiting map suffices for an
accurate girdawari to be made or whether owing to its general inaccuracy or to
nautor new numbers partitions and the like such a girdawari is difficult and
unsatisfactory.
(2) Whether the fiedls of the old shajra
agree fairly well in shape and in position with existing circumsatnces. This
can best be tested by lines (farzi water) being chained between fixed
recognizable points such as trijunctions wells, boundary pillars, and angles or
roads. In a small village one of about 200 karams in length will suffice but in
large villages possibly as many as six may be necessary unless the first once
the old map to the quite unreliable. Discrepancies up to 2 percent may be
neglected. A few fields too should be checked by their sides being measured.
The correctness of a map is much more certainly determined by means of checking
corners of fields and other fixed recognizable points than by merely seeing
whether the cuttings of the diagonals are at the same distances as at
settlement. If the cuttings have changes this probably only means that fields
have been divided up or combined and these give little trouble to correct but
if the position of permanent corners or other features which existed at
settlement when what it is by scale on the map, this means that the old map is
incorrect and correction will be very dificult. It is very important that when
the tests prescribed in this sub-paragraph are being applied (they will usually
be unnecessary if the field map was made ont he square system of survey) the
map which is being tested should be referred to on the spot.
(3) A special classification
should be made of the fields of the village. Each field which on the ground is
apparently of the same size and shape as at settlement, and which has
recognizable permanent boundaries will be marked either A or B in the khasra
girdawari according as it will be necessary (A) to leave the field as it is or
(b) to include it with other adjacent fields in one new khasra number. Each filed which will have to be divided
into several fields owing to nautor or partition or in which there has been any
obvious change will be marked (c) if the original boundaries of the field are
clearly traceable and continue to be in part of whole the boundaries of the new
field and (d) if the original boundaries are now unrecognizable or if the new
boundaries differ so much from the old that the latter will have to be erased
inthe map. The number of fields coming under each head will be totalled and
ordinarily remeasurement should not be necessary if class (D) does not contain
more than 20 percent of the whole, and, even if it contains more than 20
percent, remeasurement may not necessary see paragraph 6 below. This
classification can generally be made by means of an examination in the patwaris
map of the fields shown as in and Bata in the khasra girdawari and in the last
jamabandi but if a more minute examintion is found to be necessary in any
village it can be combined with the kharif or rabi girdawari.
3. - The patwari if he has
previous knowledge of the village and if not the kanungo will record a note
which he will submit to the naib-tahsildar showing the result of the
application of the above tests and giving his reasons for considering that
correction of the map is or is not sufficient. In this note he will mention the
condition of the tahsil copy of the field map see paragraph 9 below. The
patwari or kanungo's work must be closely supervised by the kanungo or
naib-tahsildar and must be checked or the spot to an extent that should not
ordinarily cover less than 20 percent of the work. The headman and leading
villagers should be consulted. As to whether they have found the map of any
part of the village inaccurate and especially whether there are any disputes
regarding the boundaries of fields and their cause. Great care must be taken
that no mistake is made as to the possibility of correction for on the one hand
there is no greater waste of time than to discover after several weeks work at
correction that remeasurement is after all necessary and on the other it involves
unnecessary expense and delay and trouble to the people to remeasure where
correction whould have been sufficient. The naib-tahsildar will after checking
the kanungo's work sent on his report with his own opinion to the Tahsildar.
4. The file on reaching the
tahsildar will be examined by him and if he is satisfied that map revision will
suffice he will issue an order at once to the naib-tahsildar to that effect and
he will send the file through the Extra Assitant Settlemtn Officer to the
Settlement Officer who will either confirm the decision or if he diagrees will
issue orders for remeasurement.
5. If the tahsildar is of
opinion that a village should be remeasured, he should submit the reports of
the naib-thasildar and kanungo, through the Extra Assistant Settlement Officer,
to the Settlement Officer, without whose previous sanction remeasurement should
not be commenced. Remeasurement should generally be recommended.
(a) fi the fields placed in class D
constitute more than 15 percent of the total number, or
(b) if the internal measurement alone are so
very far wrong as to make correction difficult.
It is not generally
necessary to remeasure a village simply because the boundaries shown inthe map
do not tally with the boundaries as shown in the maps of adjacent villages.
Also there are case in which remeasurement may be dispensed with, even if the
fields in class D number more than 15 percent of the whole, e.g., if they are
all within a ring fence, and have been formed by partition or by the breaking
up of the waste, it may be possible to show them the revised field map by
correction without remeasurement. All such matters should be noticed by the
kanungos and by the naib-tahsildar in their reports.
6. - The general rule for
deciding which course should be followed is that the map of last settlement
should be accepted if possible. If the scale on which the map for a particular
village was made was inconveniently small, the old map can be brough up to date
on the old scale and a copy of it enlarged by scale or pamlagraph for the
patwari's use in girdwari. This enlarged map will be sufficiently accurate for
gidwari purposes, and the patwari can be given for other purposes on exact
copyof the revised small-sclae map. it is not necessary to remap a whole
village because in part of it land had been broken up for cultivation or a
partition had taken place. In such cases, such remaping as is necessary should
be confined to the part of the village affected and should be incorporated in
the amended field map of the village by inclusion in it os the new sheets in
original, if possible, bu totherwise by coping. Similarly, if the internal
details of the old map are wrong only in respect of a distinct portion of the
estate, that portion alone need be remeasured.
7. The files of these
inquiries willbe kept in the tahsil officer and will be destroyed after the
final attestation by the tahsildar at the village, the tahsildar will keep a
register of these, showing -
(1) Name of assessment circle ;
(2) Name of village ;
(3) Note of method of survey adopted (tarika
paimash), and
(4) Date of Settlement Officer's order.
8. It is usual to draft
gradually to a district, furring the six months before, it is placed under
settlement, the settlement officials who become available from settlement
nearing completion in order that the Settlement Officer may find establihsment
ready to start work with immediately the settlement beings. The examination of
maps prescribed in the preceding paragraphs will be commenced by this
establishment in order to expedite the commencement of field work after the
Settlement Officer has joined his appoinement. They should also attest as many
old jamabandis as possible in order to bring mutations to light, and they
should ascertain what trijunction pillars and other survey marks require to be
replaced or repaired.
METHOD OF REVISION
9. In the villages in which
remeasurment is necessary (and in riverain tracts remeasurement will often be
necessary), the survey will be carried out on which ever of the systems prescribed
in Chapters VI and X of the Menstruction Manual is the more suitable. For the
other villages, which will generallly be the majority, the nest thing to
settlement map shall be utilized for work in the field, or whether a copy shall
be especially made for this purpose. Exisitng copies which have in some
settlement been utilized are -
(1) the tahsil copy (part tahsil) of the
settlement shajra ; and
(2) the copy of cloth (latha) used by the
patwari in the gridwari.
The former is sometimes
on cloth, sometimes on paper and sometimes on mapping sheets, and it is
generally soiled, scratched or torn to such a degree as to be unsuitable for
such use. The second man, i.e., the patwari's gridwari latha copy, is as a
rule, even more unsuitable, and the use of either for the purpose of map
correction is open to the objection that all amendments have to be made by
crossing out blackline ups with red ink and drawing new lines with the same,
and that consequently a fresh copy of the map has to be prepared to be the
revised field map. The Financial Commissioner, therefore, has forbidden the use
of such copies for the purpose of map correction, and has directed that a
special copy should be made for the purpose ; and it will expedite and simplify
work to have the special copies for field use made at the same time and by the
same process at headquarters for all the villages in the district. An
establishment of the naib-tahsildar, two kanungos and 20 patwaris or temporary
hands to do the actual tracing will probably be found sufficient.
10. The copies of the
settlement maps made of rifled use may be either :-
(1) traced on tracing cloth, which may be
either (a) in one large roll or sheet, compromising the whole map, or (b)
divided into portions of convenient size for placing on a drawing-board or
plane-table e.g., square sheets each containing 4 or 16 survey squares ;
(2) traced on clothes (latha) ;
(3) traced on mapping sheets by means of a
frame placed in the doorway of a dark room ;
(4) transferred to mapping sheets by black
or blue carbon paper ; or
(5) transferred to mapping sheets by means
of an intermediate tracing on transparent paper.
Of these processes, that
which in the shortest time gives the most accurate copy of the settlment map,
and at the same time, the most suitable for work in the field, is the fourth,
and it is accordingly prescribed for general use, and no other process may be
made use of without the special sanction of the Financial Commissioner. Cloth
maps are liable to stretch are easily blotted, and do not readily take pencil
lines. Large rolls of tracing cloth are too unwieldy for use in the field. And
tracing cloth is liable to stretch in damp weather, and is not so suitable as
mapping paper for pencil work. Tracing by means of carbon paper is easier than
through a frame, and gives equally reliable results. Where the old field maps
are unbacked paper, or are worn or faced, it is advisable to lay oiled paper
over them while the trace is being taken as otherwise the bone tracing pens is
liable to tear themap.
11. In the special copy of the
map of last settlement which is made for field work all the field boundaries,
fields numbers, karkun and other entries should be in pencil and it will be
convenient to use English figures for the field numbers and Arabic numbers for
the karkum. When corrections are made, the altered boundaries can then be
rubbed out while the new boundaries should be inked in after the kanungo's
inspection as is done in measurment on the square system. When work in the
field is finished, the map is fit to be filled as the part sirkar of the new
settlement field map, and all that is necessary is to make from it a copy for
the tahsil (par tahsil). This copy may be on mapping sheets or on tracing cloth
in the discretion of the Settlement Officer.
12. ORdinarily, when the copy
of the map for use in the filed has been made, or while it is being traced at
the sadr work should begin with the preparation of the khataunis and shajra
nasb in the manner prescibed paragraphs 1 and 2 of Appendix VII. But in small
estates or in estates in which the proportion of the fields that have undergone
change is small (e.g., if the number of fields placed in classes B, C and D is
under 10 percent), the Settlement Officer may dispense with the preparations of
khataunis. In that case, the new jamabandi will, after completion of the filed
work described in the following paragraphs, be prepared from the old in the
same manner as a quadrennial jamabandi is prepared from the previous jamabandi,
that is to say, the patwari will draft his new khata entries in pencil either
on the old jamabanid or an intermediate rough note. It is important that the
pencil draft, or whatever the Settlement Officer may prescribe in its plane
should be preserved until the new jamabandi has been checked by the supervising
officers, so that they may be able to refer to it if necessary. When this
system is adopted, parchas (paragraph 2, Appendix VII) should be distributed as
the patwari has written out the jhamabandi so that objection may hve an
opportunity of addressing the kanungo, naib tahsildar before final alteration
takes, place. (Although discretion is thus allowed to Settlement Officers to
dispense with the preparation of khataunis in certain classes of villages, the
system so far as it has been tried has not found favour with most of the
officers who have tested it).
12-A. - After the khataunis have
been prepared, or if they are dispensed with as soon he is supplied with a trce
of the settlement filled map, the patwari will proceed to the work of
correction. He will have with him (1) the copy of the former map which has been
supplied to him for field work, (2) a bard on which he can place the map when
he makes the necessary alterations in it., (3) his gridawari map also, (4) the
villages papers, including the khasra gridawari in which at the preliminary
examintion of the maps the fields were classified A, B, C and D [(Paragraph
2(4) above and (5)], his cross-staff, chain and flags. He will commence work at
the point from which the old numbering of the fields commences, whether it is
the north-west corner of the village or not and he will, except in the cases
indicated below, take the fields in the order of that numbering. But in his own
work he will give a new series of numbers to the fields, each of the fields
shown in the field book being given a separate number, and none being shows as
"shikast" of a certain old number, i.e., the procedure of the note to
column 1 of the khasra girdawari in Standing Order No. 22 will nto be followed.
13. The order of the field
numbers should be that which it is most convenient for the patwari to follow at
his girdawari, and in most cases it will generally be found best to follow the
order of the old numbers. When an old number is broken up ihnto two or more,
care should be taken to number the parts of the old field in such a way that
the sequence of the fields on the ground shall conform to the above principle
and be as regular as possible, and that two consecutive field numbers shall not
be at a distance from one another. Again, it is very necessary to
ascertain when measuring one field
whether the adjoining field is owned and cultivated by the same persons as the
field under measurement, for if it is so, then both fields should probably be
measured in one number. Whatever the old khasra numbers were, the fact that the
sequence of the fields will be spoiled is no reason against clubbing fields
which ought to be clubbed. When a new canal distributary, or railway, or road
has been made thorough a village since settlement, it is usually best to
measure all the fields on one side of the canal, etc. first, and then cross
over to the other side. When this is done, care must be taken not to omit any
field in the process of correction, and fields watered from the same well
should generally have consecutive numbers, even when they are separated by a
road.
14. The patwari will work
through the fields of the village in the above order, and in regard to each
field as he comes to it, will first see how it has been classified inthe
preliminary examination - paragraph 2(4) above. If it has been classed. As A,
and he is satisfied by his eye that no alterations have occurred since
settlement, he will not measure the sides unless the owner for special reasons
asks him to do so, but will repeat in the map the previous karukan, and will
enter in the field book the old area, with the word badastur, in place of the
details of area calculation. If the field has been classed as B, i.e., has to
be clubbed with others, but is otherwise unchanged, he will similarly repeat in
the map the previons karukan (eliminating fractions, if any, by taking the
nearest whole number), without recharing, while inthe area column he will show
the old area of each old field number, treating it as if it were a gosha of the
new one, though it will not be marked by a dotted line as a gosha in the maps,
and he will total these areas in order to get the area of the new field number.
In special cases, e.g., where the extraction of areas at the previous settlment
is known to have been seriously defective, though the maps are accurate, the
Settlement Officer may direct that the areas of the A and B fields shall be
taken out afresh. If the fields is classified as C or D, i.e., has been divided
up or has its boundaries altered and it is necessary to remeasure it or a
portion of it, the patwari should proceed as directed in the Measurement Manual
; that is, he should find two or three fixed points on the boundary of the
fields or of the neighbouring fields which are correctly shown in the old map,
chain the distances between them, fix the corner of the new field with the help
of the cross staff, if necessary and draw them in the map by scale with pencil.
The new karukan will be entered in the map and the area will be taken out by
patwari in the field book on the system (lampet or diagonal and perpendicular)
on which area were taken out when the original map was made. When the area is
calculated by diagonal and perpendicular, these should be chained on the spot ;
this is particularly necessary in the case of maps which were not prepared on
the square system. Where the area to be measured is large, it may be necessary
to lay one or two squares or to fix one or two triangles, but his should not be
done without the sanction of the naib-tahsildar, who should report to the
Tahsildar that he has given this sanction.
15. The procedure for
measuring the fields classed as C may sometimes have to be adopted, in regard
to those classed as A or B e.g., where over large areas of waste or fallow
there are no permanent field boundaries, and the zamindars wish their
boundaries to be pointed out.
16. In each case, whether the
fields is A, or B, or C, or D, new class of soil has to be entered in the field
book. If the new class differs from the class entered inthe last settlement
record (misl hanquiyat), then the new soil should be entered in red ink, and
the kanungo should initial the entry, or any alteration he may make on it as a
sign, that he has checked it on the spot. Any superior officer, naib-tahsildar.
Extra Assistant Settlement Officer, or Settlement Office who checks or alters
the entry should also initial the entry or alteration. This procedure enables
the fard tabdil iksam arasi to be diupensed with. In the khataunis and parchas
the soil entries should be made in black ink.
17. In each case also the
patwari will enter up the new field number in pencil in the map, and enter the
field in the khatauni and the zamindar's parcha, nothing in each its area and
class of soil.
18. If in checking a field the
patwari finds that an old field boundary no longer exists on the ground, and is
not longer a division between plots held in different rights, he will draw a
wavy pencil line through it, and it will then, after the kanungos' inspection,
be erased with India-rubber.
19. When there as been any
small alteration of field boundaries, and there is a permanent boundary on the
ground, the patwari will show, that as the boundary in his map, and, if there
is no permanent boundary, then he will measure by the old map unless the owners
agree to his showing the boundary of possession as the true one.
20. If however, there is a
discrepancy between present possession and the old map, and there is a real
dispute, between two parties and the area in dispute exceeds one pacca biswa
(or 2 marlas) in irrigated land or 3 pacca (or 6 marlas) in other land, then
the patwari must measure the disputed area as a separate member.
21. It will often be found
that parts of large waste fields have been brought under cultivation since
settlement. The cultivated portion will then have to be measured separately
from the banjar need not be worked out separately unless the fields has been
classified as C or D. If it has been classified as A or B, the cultivated area
as ascertained by measurement should be decducted from the recorded total area
and the balance should be shown as the remaining waste.
22. To guide the colourist who
will have to colour the map at headquarters, the patwari will, in the case of
such a field, draw a fine in line dividing the waste from the cultivation, and
will in addition, make a rough hand-sketch in the last column of the field
book. Also for the guidance of the colourist, he will, as field work goes on,
prepare the fard rangsazi, or list of field, or colouring purposes. The form
explains itself in a great measure.
Fard Ranqsazi
|
Cultivated
|
Banjar jadid
|
Banjar Kadim
|
Rastah
|
Nala or paro Johar
|
Graveyard
|
|
|
|
Musvi
|
A/1
|
|
|
|
|
|
74-78
|
81-86
|
73
|
64-69
|
107
|
90
|
|
|
89
|
70-72
|
79
|
87
|
108
|
|
|
|
91-105
|
106
|
80
|
88
|
|
|
|
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|
|
Musvi
|
A/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
120
|
121-135
|
181 min.
|
181
|
|
181 min.
|
|
|
126-180
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
The heading of colum
should be first filled up to correspond with the list of conventional signs
(naksha alamat) : for instance -
(1) Cultivated,
(2) 'Banjar Jadid,
(3) Banjar kadim, etc., etc.
Then across the first
page will be written "Musavi A/1", after which the fields on that
musavi will be entered in their proper columns. The fields on A/2 will be
treated in the same way ; after the A musavis are finsihed, the B musavis will
be begun, and so on, From this form it will be easy for the rangsaz to do the
colouring, as he will colour each class in turn on the musavis, and he will
have no excuse for making mistakes, and each colur will be of the same shade
throughout. The kanungo should note that, if a field is partly on one musavi
and partly on another, it will be entered twice in the fard rangazi, and, where
a khasra number comprises two or more classes, its number will be entered as "min"
in each column applicable, The fard rangazi can be dispensed with entirely if
the patwari preparing the map and field book can be entrusted with the
colouring, and, if he is instructed to enter all fields ; including class A, in
the field book. Int hat case it is sufficient to have an extra column in the
field book in whcih when making the other entries relating to the field the
patwari can enter the colour to be given to it. Before field work commences it
should be ascertained for each circle whether the patwari is neat enought to be
entrusted with his own coluring and to be relieved of the task of preparing the
fard rangsai.
23. When any new water-course
has been made since last settlement and is not shown in the old map, it should
be marked by the patwari, but need not be given a separate number unless it is
the property of someone other than the owner of the field through which it
passes. If it does not irrigate the field, this fact should be noted in the
khatahni. If a new band, or minor, or railway or road has been made, it should
be given a separate number for its entrie length within the estate.
24. In clubbing fields
together, and in deciding, what fields should be classed as B [see paragraph 2
(4) above], the guiding principle is that, if several adjacent fields owned and
cultivated by the same person or persons can be combined into the field, which
will be of a fairly regular shape, and will not be too large for girdawari
purposes, they should be combined into one field, even if they are separated
from one another by permanent dauls. But irrigated land, should not be combined
with any other kind of land, and, usually, irrigated fields - unless they are
of less area then one kacha bigha or 2 karnals - should not be combined
together, except when they are usually sown with similar crops inthe same
harvest.
25. Ordinarily
an irrigated khasra number should not be more than three kacha bighas in area
or 5 kanals ; and a barani khasra number should not be greater than 10 kacha
bighas or 2 ghumaons. But imaginary boundaries should not be drawn in order to
give effect to this instruction, and, if the area enclosed by the permanent
field boundaries is larger than the above, the khasra number should include the
whole area enclosed with these boundaries. The area of waste land under one
number is to be limited to one square of the map. Patwaries must not make
useless numbers merely to increase their karguzari returns.
26. the field kanungo, who
will ordinarily have not more than four patwaris under him when all the engaged
in map correction, should see each patwari in his circle at least once in ten
days, i.e., three times a month. At each visit he will go through all the work
done by the patwari since his last visit. Of every field classed as C. Part at
least should be chained by him. He will check all the soil entries, ownership
and tenancy entries and the rents. At his check he must see that mistakes are
corrected and finally he himself should ink in the shajra the line up to which
he has checked, nothing at the same time in the field book, after the number up
to which he has checked th work, that all fields up to that number are complete
in every respect. If there are any exceptions, they should be specified in the
note. The Patwari can than ink in the fields within that line ; and the numbers
and measurement figures, unless the kanungo finds that the patwari cannot do
such work properly, in which case the kanungo must do it himself. If any
correction is made after the fields have been inked in a note drawin attention
to it should be made inthe margin by the naib-tahsildar or other officer
responsible for it.
27. The naib-tahsildar should
inspect each of his patwaris, at least one a month, and at his inspection
should make a sufficient check of all branches of the work to satisfy himself
that kanungo's work is accurate. He should pay special attention to entries of
ownership, cultivation, rents, and soils. He should check every case in which
the soil classification of a field has been altered. if a kanungo has been
unable to keep pace with his patwaris in his inpsections, the naib-tahsildar
must arrange to give such assitance as may be required, referring to the
tahsildar if necessary. The outturn of work in map correction is larger than in
remeasurement, and consequently a large supervising staff is necessary, and
ordinarily a naib-tahsildar will have not more than four kanungos under him.
28. The duty of the Tahsildar
is to satisfy himself that the check applied by the naib-tahsildar has been
sufficient, and that the work in general is progressing properly.
29. To enable him to judge of
the progress made in field work, every Settlement Officer must decide what
average outturn should be expected from a workign party. The standard must vary
from district to district with physical features, size of fields, nature of
irrigation, and the like. It may be noted, however, that so far it has been
found that a patwari after working for three months on map correction is able
to turn out from 50 to 75 numbers per working day. The number of course vary
with the proportion of C and D fields.
The standard of outturn
per patwari per diem in map-correction fixed by the Settlement Office should,
after approval by the Commissioner, be communicated to the Finaicial
Commissioner through the Director of Land Records. This standard willbe used as
a guide in checking the quarterly business returns.
30. The instructions in
paragraphs 291-4 of the Settlement Manual apply to map correction as well as to
remeasurement. Survey land record work should be carried out simultaneously and
a patwari should not be allowed to commence field work in a second village
until he has completed the jamabandi of the first. The inspections, held while
field work is in progress should be sufficient to bring all errors to light ;
and there is no need to have at the end a minute investigation of finished work
for the purpose of detecting errors or to collect the patwaris in one place for
that purpose. In each tahsil the whole work ; including fields survey and the preparation
of jambandis ; should be complete in two years at most and the Settlement
Officer should indicate from the first what villages should be finished inthe
first year, and what villages inthe second, and which of them are so large that
they must be commenced in the first year in order to be finsihed by the end of
the second. The work of map correction is best and quickest done by the patwari
of the circle, with his previous knowledge of his villages, and the patwari
staff should, therefore, be supplemented by temporary establishement only to
the extent necessary to ensure the tahsil being finished within two years from
the commencement of work.
31. The instructions contained
in the note to paragraph 8 of Appendix VII apply also to corrections of the field
map carried out under this appendix.
REPORT SHOWING WHETHER A CERTAIN
VILLAGE CAN BE MASURED ON THE tarmim SYSTEM OR NOT
Partal showing whether
Mauza Bhana inthe Sonepat tahsil can be measured onthe tarmin system or jadid.
The farzi water has been
measured by the chain and scale, with the following result :-
A. - Data of farzi water.
|
Sr. No. of
perpendicular
|
PLACE WHEN BE WATER DRAWN
|
PLACE WHERE THE WATER ENDS
|
CUTTINGS BY FIELD
|
REMARKS
|
|
|
Field No.
|
Angle
|
Field No
|
Angle
|
Field No.
|
Dist-ance by scale accor-ding to settle-ment map
|
Dis-tance by chain
|
Diffe-rence
|
|
|
1
|
1845
|
From south-western corner
|
1925
|
To north-western corner
|
1845
|
14
|
12
|
2
|
Difference in the cuttings amounts only to a karam or two. The
difference in the whole kutr is only 3 karams
which is significant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1846
|
30
|
28
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1861
|
38
|
37
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1862
|
50
|
49
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1874
|
53
|
52
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1875
|
73
|
73
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1894
|
100
|
102
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1916
|
115
|
116
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1920
|
128
|
129
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1919
|
136
|
137
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1921
|
153
|
154
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1925
|
170
|
173
|
2
|
|
B. – Data of the ehomenda by fields
|
Sr.
|
Field
|
ACCORDING TO SHAJ A
|
ACCORDING TO CHAIN
|
DIFFERENCE
|
|
|
No.
|
No.
|
East
|
West
|
South
|
North
|
East
|
West
|
South
|
North
|
East
|
West
|
South
|
North
|
|
1
|
1909
|
19
|
16
|
16
|
15
|
19½
|
15
|
15
|
15
|
½
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
2
|
1910
|
21
|
19
|
15
|
16
|
22½
|
19½
|
16
|
16½
|
1½
|
½
|
½
|
1
|
|
3
|
1911
|
19
|
19
|
14
|
14
|
20
|
19
|
14
|
16
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
|
4
|
1912
|
19
|
17
|
14
|
14
|
19
|
19
|
15
|
15
|
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
|
5
|
1925
|
24
|
22
|
10
|
12
|
25
|
24
|
10
|
11
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. The fields on the spot
are generally as they are shown in the settlement map ; and there appears to be
no difference in their shape.
2. The differences inthe
details of the cultivated and uncultivated areas and the number of the khasra
numbers of the village according to the last settlement and the last jamabandi
are shown as below :-
|
Detail
|
AREA IN BIGHAS KARAM
|
Total
|
Khasra No.
|
Remarks
|
|
|
Cultivated
|
Uncultivated
|
|
|
|
|
According to last settlement
|
2,977
|
753
|
3,730
|
2,209
|
|
|
According to jamabandi of
last year
|
2,993
|
738
|
3,731
|
2,276
|
|
|
Difference Excess
Deficiency
|
16
|
15
|
1
|
67
|
|
3. At last settlement the
calculation of the areas was generally made by the method of taking averages of
the opposite side (lampet), and, as far as possible many-sided figures were
made into various rectangles and their areas were calculated by the
perpendicular system, and the whole area of the figure was totalled up.
4. the Lambardars and
leading villagers say that they have found the map generally accurate, but in
the south-west corner (fields Nos. 289-376), where the soil is sandy, they
woulld like the field boundaries laid down afresh, and that they are not sure
about the field boundaries resulting from the partition of shamlat patti Awanan
made in 1899.
APPENDIX
XXII
Revised Rules to be observed int he
printing, binding and distribution of Assessment and Settlement Reports.
Circular letter No. 2138-R51/1853, dated Simla, the 20th April, 1951.
From
Under-Secretary to the Financial Commissioners, Punjab.
To
The Commissioners, Jallundur and Ambala Divisions.
In supersession of the
rules contained in this office circular letter No. 185-191-R, dated the 16th
january, 1935. I am directed to forward, for your information and guidance the
following revised rules to be observed in the printing and distribution of
assessment and settlement reports :-
(1) In order to avoid delays due to (a)
imperfect manuscript and (h) alterations in proof, all manuscripts intended for
the press should be well considered so that the author may have few, if any,
alterations to make in the proof copy. The manuscript should be either typed or
in clear legible writing, properly paged and complete with any instructions the
author may wish to give for the guidance of the press.
(2) Manuscripts of assessment reports and of
settlement reports should be sent direct to the Controller, Printing and
Stationery, Punjab, by Settlement Officers and the fact reported to the Under -
Secretary to the Financial Commissioners. A correct record should be maintained
by the Officer concerned of the dates (1) on which manuscripts are sent and (2)
on which first and (when necessary) second or third proofs are obtained and (3)
on which they are returned to the press after correction. It is for the
Settlement Officer concerned to say, when returning the first proof to the
press, whether or not the requires a second proof. Any delay on the part of the
press should be immediately reported by the Settlement Officer to the Under
Secretary to the Financial Commissioners. A spare copy of each proof of the
assessment report and statements should also be forwarded by the Government
Press to the Financial Commissioner's Officer simultaneously with its
submission to the Settlement officer, for the purpose of checking the produce
estimate, the calculation of the maximum legal demand under section 51 of the
Land Revenue Act, calculation of the index figure or figures for the purposes
of the sliding scale system of remissions and the crop ands soil rates. Any
mistakes discovered wil be communicated by that office to the Settlement
Officer to enable him to carry out the necessary corrections in the final
proof.
(3) When a manuscript, likely to extend to,
say 30 pages of print or over, is sent to press, a special letter should
accompany it to the Controller, Printing and Stationery, Punjab, drawing
attention to the job, and requesting that it may not be delayed. If the printed
copy is not received within six weeks after date of the manuscript being sent
to press an urgent reminder should be sent, especially as regards assessment
reports and other cases where action has to be taken.
(4) The map or maps intended to illustrate
the reports should be sent to the Under-Secretary to the Financial Commissioner
and not to the press. They should be limited to foolscap size, unless there is
special reason for adopting a larger size in any particular case. Care should
be taken that the maps are correct and complete, so that no alterations (as
opposed to corrections) may have to be made in the proof later.
(5) The Financial Commissioners' Officer
will forward the maps to the Controller Printing and Stationery, Punjab, who
will arrange for their printing. But before the final print, proofs of the maps
should be forwarded direct by the press to the Settlement Officer concerned for
approval. On receipt of the final proof, the press should print the required
number of copies and paste them at the end of the reports.
(6) To avoid delay in the printing of the
report and the preparation of maps, it is necessary that whenever a report is sent
by the Settlement Officer to the press for proof or whenever a proof of a
report or a map is submitted by the press to the Settlement Officer a copy of
the forwarding letter should be endorsed to the Under-Secretary to the
Financial Commissioner for information. This will enable the Financial
Commissioner's Office to see at any time where a report or a map is and since
when. When the final proofs are passed, the fact should be intimated by the
Settlement Officer to the Under-Secretary to the Financial Commissioners.
(7) The text and the statements in the case
of assessment reports should be printed and bound in separate volumes and all
concerned should see that this point is not overlooked.
(8) As so as an intimation from the
Settlement Officer about the Despatch of the manuscript of an assessment or
settlement report to the press is received, the Financial Commissioner's Office
will arrange to ascertain the exact number of copies of an assessment or
settlement report required in the case of items 7, 8 and 9 of the distribution
list of the former and in the case of items 9 and 28 of the distribution list
of the latter that are appended to rule (10) infra. The Press should then be
informed by the Financial Commissioners Office, of the total number of copies
of the reports to be rpinted. The number of copies of the maps to be printed
will of course follow the number of copies of their respective reports.
(9) The Government Press will send to the
Financial Commissioners' Office 6 advance copies of all assessment and
settlement reports which will be distributed as under :-
(1) Settlement Officer concerned ;
(2) Deputy Commissioner concerned ;
(3) Commissioner of the Division ;
(4) Financial Commissioner concerned ;
(5) Under-Secretary to the Financial Commissioner
'
(6) Superintendent, Settlment Branch.
(10) Assessment and Settlement
Reports will be distributed complete according to the distribution lists
appended. No copies other than the authorised advance copies will be issued in
advance of Government orders. Copies of government orders, when published,
together with the reviews by the Commissioner and the Financial Commissioner
should be bound up with the reports. The assessment reports will be distributed
by the Financial commissioner's Office and the Settlement reports by the
Controller, Printing and Stationery, Punjab.
Endorsement No. 2138-R 51/1854.
A copy forwarded to the
Controller, Printing and Stationery, Punjab, Chandigarh, for information and
guidance.
Distribution list of copies of
Assessment Reports
|
Serial No
|
Name of recipient
|
Number of copies required
|
Remarks
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
|
1
|
Commissioner of division in which the district is situated
|
3
|
|
|
2
|
Other Commissioner (1 copy each)
|
2
|
|
|
3
|
Deputy Commissioner of the District
|
5
|
|
|
4
|
Settlement Officer concerned
|
5
|
|
|
5
|
Director of Land Records, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
6
|
Director of Agriculture, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
7
|
Deputy Commissioner of adjoining districts
|
Number of copies to be determined under rule 8
|
|
|
8
|
Other Settlement Officers
|
Ditto
|
|
|
9
|
Irrigation Branch
|
Ditto
|
|
|
10
|
Financial Commissioner's Office use
|
10
|
|
|
11
|
Financial Commissioner's Office
|
6
|
Advance copies – 1 for Deputy concerned, 1 for
Commissioner concerned, 3 for Financial Commissioner's Office use
|
|
12
|
For proceedings etc.
|
21
|
|
The distribution list of Final Settlement
Reports
|
Serial No
|
Name of recipient
|
Number of copies required
|
Remarks
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
|
1
|
The Librarian, Imperial Library,
Calcutta
|
1
|
|
|
2
|
The Librarian, Harding Public Library, Delhi
|
1
|
|
|
3
|
The Librarian, Bihar and Orissa Secretariat Patna
|
1
|
|
|
4
|
The Librarian, Shrimati Radhika Sinha
|
1
|
|
|
5
|
The Editor, `The Tribune' Ambala Cantt
|
1
|
|
|
6
|
The Editor, Associate Press of India, Punjab Branch
|
1
|
|
|
7
|
The Registrar, Punjab University, Chandigarh
|
1
|
|
|
8
|
The Director of Land Records, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
9
|
The Chief Engineer, Public works Department, Irrigation Branch
|
Number of copies to be determined under rule 8.
|
|
|
10
|
The Secretary to Government, Punjab Public Works Department, Buildings
and Roads Branch
|
1
|
|
|
11
|
The Registrar, High Court, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
12
|
The Advocate-General, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
13
|
The Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
14
|
The Director of Agriculture, Punjab
|
2
|
|
|
15
|
The Principal, Punjab Agricultural College, Ludhiana
|
1
|
|
|
16
|
The Chief Conservator of Forests, Punjab
|
1
|
|
|
17
|
The Director, Veterinary Services, Punjab
|
2
|
|
|
18
|
The Secretary, Punjab State Legislature
|
10
|
|
|
19
|
The Librarian, Punjab State Library, Chandigarh
|
8
|
|
|
20
|
The Financial Commissioner's office
|
5
|
|
|
21
|
The Financial Commissioner's office
|
6
|
(Advance copies – 1 for Deputy Commissioner concerned, 1 for settlement
officer concerned for commissioner concerned and 3 for Financial
Commissioner's office use.
|
|
22
|
The Financial Commissioner's office
|
21
|
For proceedings
|
|
23
|
Deputy Commissioner of the District
|
7
|
|
|
24
|
All other Deputy Commissioner's in the Punjab (one copy each)
|
18
|
|
|
25
|
Commissioner of Division in which district lies
|
3
|
|
|
26
|
Other Commissioners
|
2
|
|
|
27
|
Settlement officer concerned
|
1
|
|
|
28
|
Other Settlement officers
|
Number of copies to be determined under rule 8
|
|
|
29
|
The Librarian, Servants of India Society, Poona
|
1
|
|
APPENDIX
XXIII
(SETTLEMENT MANUAL, PARAGRAPH 450)
Rules regarding the asessment and
collection of owner's rates in
Canal Irrigated Jagir and Muafi
Lands.
GENERAL RULES FOR ALL NEW Jagir or
muafi GA\RANTS AND FOR OLD GRANTS TO WHICH CANAL IRRIGATION HAS NOT HERETOFORE
EXTENDED.
1. In the case of (a) all
new grants which may be made hereafter, or (b) or lapsing grants continued to
heirs by review of former orders, or (c) of old grants to which canal
irrigation has not heretofore extended, the grantees shall not get the woner's
rate. The rule in respect to grants of class (c( shall be subject to the
following proviso :-
Proviso - If owing to
supersession of irrigation from wells or other private works by irrigation from
a Government canal, particular fields forming part of a jagir or muafi grant
and assessed with land revenue at irrigation rates shall at a setlement
subsequent to the grant, be assessed at dry rates and made liable to a separate
chage of the nature of owner's rate, then the grantee (if not also the
proprietor or cultivator of the land) shall be entitled to compensation for the
loss of the irrigated rate of land revenue which he formerly received on such
fields. The compensation may take the form of an assignemtn of the whole of
part of the owner's rate on such fields or of a lump sum cash payment or of a
separate additional assignment of land revenue, as may seem most advisable each
case.
GENERAL RULES FOR ALL ODL (i.e.)
PREVIOUSLY MADE) jagir or muafi GRANTS TO WHICH CANAL IRRIGATION HAS BEEN
HERETOFORE EXTENDED
1. If the grant was
irrigated from a Government canal, either when the grant was first made or
before the first regular settlement, and the guarantee has hitherto enjoyed,
either in the way of assignement or remission, the owner's rate or a laond
revenue assessed by the old procedure at canal - irrigated rates, he shall get
owner's rate in future.
2. If the grant was not
irrigated by the canal, either when the grant was first made or before the first
regular settlement, the grantee shall not get owner's rate ;' but this rule
shall be subject to the following :-
Proviso I. If on the
Upper Bari Doab and Upper Sutlej Innundation Canals the Government has
heretofore surrendered to the grantee the charge equivalent to owner's rate,
viz., the water-advantrage rate on the Upper Bari Doab Canal and on the Upper
Sutlej Innundation Canals in the Laore District, and half the fluctuation
revenue on the Upper Sutlej innundation Canals int he Montgomery District, the
grantee shall enjoy the owner's rate for his life.
Explation. - In the case of grants held by instructions the surrender or
owner rate will be contined only during the life of the present head of the
institution if there is ----- nd if there is no such head, the term of
settlement will be substituted for the life of the holder in applying his
proviso.
Proviso II. If, owing to
supersession of irrigation from wells for other private works by irrigation
from a Government canal, particular fields forming part of a jagir or muafi
grant and assessed with land revenue at irrigation rates shall at a settlement
subsequent to the grant be assessed at dry rates and made liable to a separate
charge of the nature of owner's rate, then the grantee (if not also the
proprietor or cultivator of the land) shall be entitled ot compensation for the
loss of the irrigated rate of land revenue which he formerly received on such
fields. This compensation may take the form of an assignemtn of the whole or
part of the owner rate on such field or of --------sum cash payment, or of a
separate additional assignment of land revenue, as --------- most advisable in
each case.
Proviso III - This rule will not apply to the cases of such assignees, if
any, who are exsressly entitled to owner's rate under the terms of the grants.
General Explanation I. - For the purpose of the above rules, the term
"owner's Rate" includes water-advabtage revenue, and half of the
fluctating canal revenue on the Upper Sutlej Innuncation Canals in Montgomery,
which represents the revenue demand at prigated rate under the former system of
assessment ; and also the canal advantage revenue rate assessable in the
districts of Multan, Muzaffargah and Dera Ghazi Kahn on land nor assessed with
land revenue at canal-irrigated rates of the late settlement which may ------
be supplied with canal water.
General Explanation II.--- The term “grant” means
each separate village or muafi plot; not a grant comprising several separate
villages or several separate plots.
