India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey.

  • John Strachey
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    460/552 page 430
    and its area ; in all questions of transfer, or sale, or rent, or tenure, this knowledge is required, and there are, in the greater part of Bengal, no means of supplying it. In this province, until a few years ago, there were virtually no detailed surveys, no revenue maps, no records of rights ; there was universal ignorance of almost all facts connected with the greatest industry of the country, which it was the most necessary to know. The first steps, however, have been taken to wipe away this disgrace. A cadastral or field survey was begun in 1892 in the province of Behar, accompanied by a record of all existing rights in land, and this is still being carried out under the provisions of the Bengal Tenancy Act. The Government contributes towards the cost of these operations, but the greater portion of it is apportioned between the zemindars and ryots, who directly benefit by the survey. This measure at first met with much opposition from the zemindars. The traditions of administration in Bengal, to which I have referred, had not accustomed them to such an interfer- ence on the part of the Government, although this was no more than has been done in every other province of British India, and they not unnaturally disliked payment of the cost. In other provinces the expenditure on cadastral surveys is defrayed from the Imperial treasury, but they are accompanied by a re-settlement of the land revenue, and the result is usually an enhancement of its amount. In Bengal, the settlement being permanent, the State receives no such advantage, and it would be unreasonable to call on the general Indian taxpayer to provide the means of meeting an expenditure the objects and benefits of which are purely local But as time has passed, the zemindars equally with the tenantry have recognised the value of these operations, and they have
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