Administrative Procedures Land

THE LAND ADMINISTRATION MANUAL   THE LAND ADMINISTRATION MANUAL (a) PATWARIS AND KANUNGOS (PARAS, 264-304, PUNJAB LAND ADMINISTRATION MANUAL) 264. Patwari and Kanungo staff before 1885:-The term village officer as used in the land Revenue Act, means a headman, a chief headman, and a patwari. In this chapter we are only concerned with the patwari or village registrar and accountant, and with his immediate superior, the Kanungo. No efficient revenue administration of a district is possible unless the patwari staff is strong, properly trained, and strictly supervised by the Kanungos, Tehsildars, Revenue Assistant, and Deputy Commissioner.   (a)        PATWARIS AND KANUNGOS (PARAS, 264-304, PUNJAB LAND ADMINISTRATION MANUAL)   Patwari and Kanungo staff before 1885:-The term village officer as used in the land Revenue Act, means a headman, a chief headman, and a patwari. In this chapter we are only concerned with the patwari or village registrar and accountant, and with his immediate superior, the Kanungo. No efficient revenue administration of a district is possible unless the patwari staff is strong, properly trained, and strictly supervised by the Kanungos, Tehsildars, Revenue Assistant, and Deputy Commissioner.   Object of reforms initiated in 1885:- In the Course of years effective measures have been taken to secure the proper performance by the patwari of his three chief duties.– (1)        the maintenance of the crops grown at every harvest; (2)        the keeping of the record-of-right up-to-date by the punctual record of mutations; and (3)        the accurate preparation of statistical returns embodying the information derived from the harvest inspections, register of mutations, and record-of-rights. These duties will be fully described in the 9th, 10th, and 11th Chapter of this work.   Principles of revenue policy, sound, but machinery for carrying them out wanting:- The revenue policy of the Punjab from the beginning was founded on the principles laid down in Thomason’s valuable treatise, the “Direction for Settlement Officers” and the “Directions for Collectors”. But the official machinery was too weak to secure effective compliance.   267 To 270.    Cancelled.   Indian Finance Commission of 1880 Proposed: (1) Formation of Agricultural Department in each province:- Inspite of efforts to secure improvement, the revenue statistics of the province remained incomplete and unreliable until late into last century. But the lessons learned in the famine of 1877-1878 made it impossible to leave things where they were. In the report of the Indian Famine Commission, which was presented to presented to Parliament in 1880, great stress was laid on the necessity of creating in each province a special agricultural Department. The Commissioner remarked:- “Such an office in each province would have charge of all the records of post famines, and take note of all that is being usefully done or learnt in neighbouring provinces, so that the gathered results of past experience might be collected and made accessible, which has hitherto been hardly possible. Through this office should be brought together the more comprehensive and exact record of the agricultural withal, and economic condition of the people to the urgent necessity of which we have already drawn attention. Especially, when a famine is thought to be impending such an office would become important, as it would supply the Government with all statistics bearing on this subject, and would be responsible for working out from them the conclusion on which the decision as to future action would mainly rest. When a famine is in progress all the information relating to relief measures, their extent, their results, would  be collected in it and presented in a uniform and intelligible manner, and through it all orders of the local Government to famine administration would be issued.   Reform of patwari and Kanungo agency:- (2) “ The efficiency of such a special department , as we have proposed, will depend mainly on the completeness and accuracy with which the agricultural, vital and economic statistics with which it has to deal are collected in each village and compiled in each sub-division and district throughout the country ****** “The revenue system in the greater part of British-India is such as to present unrivalled means of ascertaining, in the fullest manner, all necessary facts relating to agriculture, and to the different incidents of landed tenures in every village; but those means have nowhere been completely utilized and made as efficient as they might be. We recommend that, the body of village accountants should everywhere be put on a sound and satisfactory footing as responsible public officers, with a clearly defined set of duties, but with due consideration to the importance of their permanent connection with their own village.”****** “Over the village accountants there should be a staff of active sub-officers employed in keeping them to their duty, inspecting their work, visiting each village in turn, and checking the accuracy of all the items recorded concerning it.”   Appointment of Revenue Assistant in each district:– (3) “Above these there should be a special officer in every district who would be, as a rule, of the rank of Deputy Collector, and whose main or only duty should be to take charge of all matters connected with the economic condition and well-being of the people. He would test and compile the agricultural returns and examine the market prices and ascertain form these and other data the relative value of each year’s crop, according as it is below or above the average. Form such a continuous record of the harvests he would obtain date for judging whether the landed classes were in a depressed or a prosperous condition, and how far they were prepared to meet a calamitous season. It would be his object to obtain similar information as to all section of the population, and to learn what are the causes of depression, and what classes would be the first to succumb under the pressure of scarcity and high prices. The accurate regulation of vital statistics and the investigation of causes of any abnormal mortality, would he within his province, and he would be the agent of the health