DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68025#0079
ROYAL COMMISSION UPON DECENTRALIZATION. 73
about the people than they do, and it is impossible for
a man to get to do that in a whole province, because
the circumstances are so diverse and the languages so
different. Therefore I would make it my main aim to
keep officers in the same district or in the same
division where the circumstances are similar so that
he might feel he was getting acquainted with the
people under his charge.
16140. How long would you keep him there ?—His
whole service so long as he was doing that particular
work.
16141. You would bring an officer, say, to Bihar,
and you would keep him in Bihar until he ceaseddo be
a Commissioner ?—Yes, as a general rule.
16142. Would that not lead to difficulties as regards
healthy and unhealthy districts?—It would lead to
some people having less pleasant lives than others, and
it is possible that in some unhealthy districts you would
have to make special arrangements for officers ; you
might allow them to spend two or three months in the
year on duty up in the Hills ; I would rather have a
man for seven years, nine months in his district and
three months away doing work from Darjeeling, than
have seven different officers in a place in seven years.
16143. How long would you keep him in any one
district?—I would keep an officer in a district until it
became absolutely essential in the interests of some
other district to take him there.
16144. Then you do not think there should be such
a limited period of time as five or six years’ service in
one district ?—No ; I was six years in the Santhal
Parganas, and when I left I believe I was only just
beginning to be really useful.
16145. Are the present leave rules inconvenient, not
to the individual but to the Service ?—I have not
thought over the matter, but I doubt whether it is
necessary to let a man take furlough for two years at
a time.
16146. By going home for such a long time does.he
lose touch with his work, and perhaps his knowledge
of the vernacular ?—I should think that would be
probable.
16147. Would it conduce to ill-health to keep a man
out here for eight years with only one period of
privilege leave ?—I think frequent short leave is very
much the best thing from the point of view of health
and from the point of view of work. I think six
months’ leave sets a man up and the oftener he' takes
leave the better, as long as he has not been too much
run down to begin with. Of course, I do not say that
officers would like it. I have a list here of the Col-
lectors who have served in the district of the 24-
Parganas since its formation, and you will see that at
first they used to stay for five years and over, but
gradually the period decreases, and I think it is im-
possible to conduct business satisfactorily on those
lines.
16148. I see that one officer stayed 13 years, but of
late years the average seems to be four or five months
at the outside ?—Yes. There are three or four who
stayed a couple of years, but until the second year of
their service I do not think their administration could
have been satisfactory.
16149. How long would it take an officer to become
acquainted with an ordinary Bengal district ?—I con-
sider you are no good under a year and you should
know your district in three years. I do not think
under that time one would be in a position to give an
independent opinion on anything relating to his district,
though one might be able to give an intelligent opinion
which anyone could give.
16150. And it is your view that you certainly cannot
get to win the confidence of the people under that
time ?—Yes.
16151. Ought a good deal more care to be taken in
the selection of all officers ?—1 think more ought to be
done in the way of weeding out the admittedly in-
efficient men in all departments.
16152. When does the Government begin to discover
that a man is really inefficient ?—I do not think I can
make any general statement about that ; it depends on
the individual. A case'scame to my notice lately of
two young Deputy Collectors who were in their second
year and had just been confirmed, but everybody knew
they were perfectly useless.
16153. And in spite of that they have been con- Mr. C. H.
firmed.—Yes. They worry through their probationary JBompas.
periods somehow ; they have very little work to do
while on probation, and of course a man is not likely 30 Dec., IM 7.
to do anything while on probation so heinous as to
prevent his confirmation.
16154. Then practically the probationary period is a
mere farce ?—I do not know what the figures are, but
I should be surprised to find that anyone had not been
confirmed after probation ; certainly the number is
infinitesimal.
16155. When ought this weeding out to begin to
take place ?—I would have two pauses in a man’s
service when one might say Is he fit to go on ? ’’—
one after five years’ service and another after fifteen
years’ service. If a man is hopelessly incompetent you
would find it out during the first five years, or after-
wards he might take to drink or something of the
kind.
16156. Or he might become a useful officer?—Yes.
16157. (Sir Frederick Lely ) As a matter of fact,
few men do take two years’ leave at a time?—Well-
18 months is not uncommon—two hot weathers
16158. Is it not also a fact that the majority of men
take leave of some kind or other before their eight
years are up ?—Civilians do, certainly.
16159. Would it be a good thing to try and equalise
matters by granting free quarters, for instance, to men
in bad districts ?—Do you mean as a sort of pecuniary
compensation? I do not think that would make
much difference. I think there are not many stations
in Bengal in which, if you told a man he had to live
his life there, he would not try to improve the con-
ditions, but now he tries to get away as soon as
possible.
16160. But it might possibly facilitate things, if a
man were given a good house to live in ?—Yes. There
are one or two sub-divisions in Bengal where there is
an allowance given because they are so unhealthy.
16161. Does your experience in the Santhal Parganas
indicate any particular line of change which you would
suggest as distinct from any other part of the Presi-
dency ?—I should like to see Chota Nagpur, where the
conditions are very much the same, brought into line.
16162. Are there any particular points in connection
with the administration of the Santhal Parganas which
would bear on the system in the rest of the Presidency ?
—Not for Bengal proper. You cannot switch oil one
rail on to another altogether ; you must continue on
the lines you start on. The whole system is different.
Of course, you might say that you would have a
simpler form for administering justice in small cases as
in the Santhal Parganas, and more arbitration, but
then you would have the legal profession to fight
against, and in the end you would find that you could
not really do anything.
16163. Is not the village system there rather dif-
ferent from that in the rest of the Presidency ; there
is more or less a village constitution ?—There is a
very strong village constitution.
16164 Does that practically lead to self-govern-
ment?—Yes. Each village has a headman who has
police powers, and in a homogeneous village he has
also large social powers by custom. Then in the no-
police tracts the heads of a certain number of villages,
30, 40 or 50 in number, elect for a period of three
years a local man of position who is called a sirdar,
who exercises all the powers of an officer in charge of
a police thana, and who is the representative of the
Government in that area. At the end of the three
years the headmen are called together and asked
whether they like that man, or whether they would
prefer another. They have a most elaborate system
of local self-government.
16165. Are there any artificial creations of govern-
ment in the form of District Boards or municipalities?
There are municipalities and a Road Cess Committee.
16166. Is any attempt made to blend them on to
the indigenous village community?—No, there is no
connection between them.
16167. Would it not be a good thing to do that,
and to bring the village communities into play for the
purposes of spending the local cess?—As far as the
villagers are concerned, the Road Cess Committee
does not exist ; it is the Deputy Commissioner.
33263
K
about the people than they do, and it is impossible for
a man to get to do that in a whole province, because
the circumstances are so diverse and the languages so
different. Therefore I would make it my main aim to
keep officers in the same district or in the same
division where the circumstances are similar so that
he might feel he was getting acquainted with the
people under his charge.
16140. How long would you keep him there ?—His
whole service so long as he was doing that particular
work.
16141. You would bring an officer, say, to Bihar,
and you would keep him in Bihar until he ceaseddo be
a Commissioner ?—Yes, as a general rule.
16142. Would that not lead to difficulties as regards
healthy and unhealthy districts?—It would lead to
some people having less pleasant lives than others, and
it is possible that in some unhealthy districts you would
have to make special arrangements for officers ; you
might allow them to spend two or three months in the
year on duty up in the Hills ; I would rather have a
man for seven years, nine months in his district and
three months away doing work from Darjeeling, than
have seven different officers in a place in seven years.
16143. How long would you keep him in any one
district?—I would keep an officer in a district until it
became absolutely essential in the interests of some
other district to take him there.
16144. Then you do not think there should be such
a limited period of time as five or six years’ service in
one district ?—No ; I was six years in the Santhal
Parganas, and when I left I believe I was only just
beginning to be really useful.
16145. Are the present leave rules inconvenient, not
to the individual but to the Service ?—I have not
thought over the matter, but I doubt whether it is
necessary to let a man take furlough for two years at
a time.
16146. By going home for such a long time does.he
lose touch with his work, and perhaps his knowledge
of the vernacular ?—I should think that would be
probable.
16147. Would it conduce to ill-health to keep a man
out here for eight years with only one period of
privilege leave ?—I think frequent short leave is very
much the best thing from the point of view of health
and from the point of view of work. I think six
months’ leave sets a man up and the oftener he' takes
leave the better, as long as he has not been too much
run down to begin with. Of course, I do not say that
officers would like it. I have a list here of the Col-
lectors who have served in the district of the 24-
Parganas since its formation, and you will see that at
first they used to stay for five years and over, but
gradually the period decreases, and I think it is im-
possible to conduct business satisfactorily on those
lines.
16148. I see that one officer stayed 13 years, but of
late years the average seems to be four or five months
at the outside ?—Yes. There are three or four who
stayed a couple of years, but until the second year of
their service I do not think their administration could
have been satisfactory.
16149. How long would it take an officer to become
acquainted with an ordinary Bengal district ?—I con-
sider you are no good under a year and you should
know your district in three years. I do not think
under that time one would be in a position to give an
independent opinion on anything relating to his district,
though one might be able to give an intelligent opinion
which anyone could give.
16150. And it is your view that you certainly cannot
get to win the confidence of the people under that
time ?—Yes.
16151. Ought a good deal more care to be taken in
the selection of all officers ?—1 think more ought to be
done in the way of weeding out the admittedly in-
efficient men in all departments.
16152. When does the Government begin to discover
that a man is really inefficient ?—I do not think I can
make any general statement about that ; it depends on
the individual. A case'scame to my notice lately of
two young Deputy Collectors who were in their second
year and had just been confirmed, but everybody knew
they were perfectly useless.
16153. And in spite of that they have been con- Mr. C. H.
firmed.—Yes. They worry through their probationary JBompas.
periods somehow ; they have very little work to do
while on probation, and of course a man is not likely 30 Dec., IM 7.
to do anything while on probation so heinous as to
prevent his confirmation.
16154. Then practically the probationary period is a
mere farce ?—I do not know what the figures are, but
I should be surprised to find that anyone had not been
confirmed after probation ; certainly the number is
infinitesimal.
16155. When ought this weeding out to begin to
take place ?—I would have two pauses in a man’s
service when one might say Is he fit to go on ? ’’—
one after five years’ service and another after fifteen
years’ service. If a man is hopelessly incompetent you
would find it out during the first five years, or after-
wards he might take to drink or something of the
kind.
16156. Or he might become a useful officer?—Yes.
16157. (Sir Frederick Lely ) As a matter of fact,
few men do take two years’ leave at a time?—Well-
18 months is not uncommon—two hot weathers
16158. Is it not also a fact that the majority of men
take leave of some kind or other before their eight
years are up ?—Civilians do, certainly.
16159. Would it be a good thing to try and equalise
matters by granting free quarters, for instance, to men
in bad districts ?—Do you mean as a sort of pecuniary
compensation? I do not think that would make
much difference. I think there are not many stations
in Bengal in which, if you told a man he had to live
his life there, he would not try to improve the con-
ditions, but now he tries to get away as soon as
possible.
16160. But it might possibly facilitate things, if a
man were given a good house to live in ?—Yes. There
are one or two sub-divisions in Bengal where there is
an allowance given because they are so unhealthy.
16161. Does your experience in the Santhal Parganas
indicate any particular line of change which you would
suggest as distinct from any other part of the Presi-
dency ?—I should like to see Chota Nagpur, where the
conditions are very much the same, brought into line.
16162. Are there any particular points in connection
with the administration of the Santhal Parganas which
would bear on the system in the rest of the Presidency ?
—Not for Bengal proper. You cannot switch oil one
rail on to another altogether ; you must continue on
the lines you start on. The whole system is different.
Of course, you might say that you would have a
simpler form for administering justice in small cases as
in the Santhal Parganas, and more arbitration, but
then you would have the legal profession to fight
against, and in the end you would find that you could
not really do anything.
16163. Is not the village system there rather dif-
ferent from that in the rest of the Presidency ; there
is more or less a village constitution ?—There is a
very strong village constitution.
16164 Does that practically lead to self-govern-
ment?—Yes. Each village has a headman who has
police powers, and in a homogeneous village he has
also large social powers by custom. Then in the no-
police tracts the heads of a certain number of villages,
30, 40 or 50 in number, elect for a period of three
years a local man of position who is called a sirdar,
who exercises all the powers of an officer in charge of
a police thana, and who is the representative of the
Government in that area. At the end of the three
years the headmen are called together and asked
whether they like that man, or whether they would
prefer another. They have a most elaborate system
of local self-government.
16165. Are there any artificial creations of govern-
ment in the form of District Boards or municipalities?
There are municipalities and a Road Cess Committee.
16166. Is any attempt made to blend them on to
the indigenous village community?—No, there is no
connection between them.
16167. Would it not be a good thing to do that,
and to bring the village communities into play for the
purposes of spending the local cess?—As far as the
villagers are concerned, the Road Cess Committee
does not exist ; it is the Deputy Commissioner.
33263
K