DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68025#0106
100
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE:
Raja Ranajit
Sinha
Bahadur.
2 Jan., 1908.
Rai Sitanath
Roy
Bahadur.
2 Jan., 1908.
16878. Are you of the same opinion with regard to
municipalities ?—Yes.
16879. (Sir Steyning Edgerley.) Have you a dispen-
sary committee in your municipality ?—Yes.
16880. Is the municipality represented on it ?—The
Chairman of the municipality is Chairman of that
committee.
16881. Who is the Chairman of the Local Board?—
He is a non-official gentleman.
16882. Is there more life in the way of local self-
government in your municipality than in your District
Board ?—There is more life in the municipality. The
people do not take so much interest in the District
Board, because the people who are elected on them
come from the interior and they are less advanced in
public matters.
16883. Do you mean that, as a whole, they are more
rustic ?—Yes.
16884. May I take it that you have a very fair
measure of local self-government in your district ?■—
Yes, as regards municipalities.
(The witness withdrew.)
Rai Sitanath Roy Bahadur was called and examined.
16885. (Chairman.) What is your occupation ? —I am
a zamindar, banker and merchant. All loans, whether
intended for imperial or provincial purposes should be
raised by one and the same central authority, i.e., the
Government of India ; otherwise the application of the
Supreme Government and of the provincial Govern-
ments to the market for their respective loans, if made
simultaneously, would unsettle the market : the pro-
vincial Governments would not be able to raise loans
on the same terms as the Government of India, and the
tenders for their loans will always be at a heavy dis-
count. I would allow provincial Governments borrow-
ing powers, provided they had complete control over
their respective finances, and provided such finances
were distinct and separate from the imperial finances.
Delegation of additional powers, whether financial or
administrative, to provincial Governments or to Heads
of Imperial Departments is not necessary, for they
are already invested with powers sufficient for all
necessary purposes, nor are additional powers in the
direction of creating new appointments or of enhancing
salaries desirable.
So far as the people are concerned, the Government
of India is impersonal, for they are not at all in touch
with the representatives of the people. In all matters
relating to the people and the country, when people
want money for public purposes, the Government of
India is too much dominated by considerations of
revenue.
I have no definite knowledge of the respective
functions of Directors and Inspectors-General under
the Government of India, but the general impression is
that these are sinecure and ornamental posts. The
departments which the Directors and Inspectors-
General are supposed to supervise and control could be
better controlled by provincial Directors and Inspectors-
General. But the presence of Imperial Directors and
Inspectors-General with the Government of India is
sometimes necessary in order that the latter may have
the benefit of expert advice from the former on local
and technical matters.
I would not curtail the existing right.of appeal either
to the Imperial or Local Government. Withdrawal or
modification of the right of appeal would lead to abuse
and to arbitrary action and hasty dismissal.
At present all items of expenditure in the provincial
budget are fixed not according to the official require-
ments of the province, but according to the doles of
charity received from the Imperial Government. Con-
stituted as the provincial Governments are, with an
entire absence of popular element in them, I cannot
advocate delegation of further financial powers or the
powers of borrowing money to them.
Opportunities exist, but the Executive Officers do
not take advantage of them, to come into personal
contact with the people, nor do they relish the idea of
coming into contact. The plea that the District Officers
are overworked and have no time to receive people is a
vain excuse, for much of their routine and depart-
mental works are done, and done very well, by the
Deputy Magistrates in charge of the several depart-
ments. They are required by departmental rules to
spend 90 days in a year on tour m the mtjfassal, and
during these tours they have ample opportunities to
mix freely with the people to hear their grievances, to
ascertain their wants and requirements. But this they
seldom do, for portions of their time on tour are
devoted to either visiting and inspecting schools here
and there, or a solitary charitable dispensary, or Ichas
mahals, and portions are devoted to the disposal of
petty criminal cases. It is not overwork, but the pride
of the office, which prevents officials, both European
and Indian, from mixing with the people. As for
mixing freely or on terms of equality, it is out of the
question. Want of sufficient knowledge of the ver-
naculars can be no excuse, for the upper and middle
classes of people can talk English or Hindustani. But
I would insist on a thorough knowledge of the ver-
naculars, and this should be a condition precedent to
promotion.
Midnapore and Mymensingh are the two largest
districts in Bengal and Eastern Bengal respectively, but
even the inhabitants of these districts do not like that
a new district should be carved out of each of them ;
for the creation of a new district or of a sub-division
tends to promote litigation—the nearer a Court the
greater is the incentive to make a complaint. The
present staff of District and Sub - Divisional Officers
would be enough, provided they could be freed and
released from their labours of love in connection with
District and Local Boards and municipalities.
Transfers are too frequent ; before an officer is
sufficiently acquainted with his new duties and with
the people around him, the next Gazette announces
his transfer to another district. The remedy lies in
promoting the next senior or qualified officer on the
spot to fill up the temporary vacancy.
The former constitution of the Calcutta Corporation
should be restored, and the two co-ordinate authorities,
viz., the General Committee and the Chairman, should
cease to exercise functions independent of the Corpo-
ration. The number of elected Commissioners should
be raised to the former number of 50. By reducing
the number of elected Commissioners from 50 to 25
all popular control over the affairs of the town of
Calcutta has been taken away and the whole authority
now vested in the Chairman ; for it is the official
Chairman who now rules the Corporation through the
nominated Commissioners. The General Committee
have, as it seems to me, usurped the functions of the
Corporation by taking on themselves the authority to
sanction, illegally, I should say, expenditures and
estimates up to Rs. 10,000 without any reference to,
or the approval of, the Corporation. What we want
is that the General Committee should cease to exist as
an independent co-ordinate authority, but like the
Town Council of the old Act it should be a Sub-Com-
mittee of the Corporation without an independent
existence of its own, and what we more particularly
want is that the number of elected Commissioners
should be raised as before to 50. The Chairman of
the Corporation who is to preside over the deliberations
of the Corporation should be distinct and separate
from the Executive Head of the Corporation, and all
assessment appeals should be disposed of, as heretofore,
by a special committee of the Corporation.
Though, in name, municipalities are self-governing
bodies, in reality they are not so, they being too much
under the control of the District M agistrates and the
Divisional Commissioners, the latter having the legal
power to upset even the unanimous decision of a
municipality. All undue interference should cease,
and the only controlling authority should be the Local
Government, while the functions of the district authori-
ties should be to guide and advise. Municipalities
should have complete freedom to prepare their own
budgets. Officials should neveft allow themselves to be
elected as Chairmen of municipalities ; with a Magis-
trate acting as Chairman, elected members, however
large their number may be, cannot have free scope and
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE:
Raja Ranajit
Sinha
Bahadur.
2 Jan., 1908.
Rai Sitanath
Roy
Bahadur.
2 Jan., 1908.
16878. Are you of the same opinion with regard to
municipalities ?—Yes.
16879. (Sir Steyning Edgerley.) Have you a dispen-
sary committee in your municipality ?—Yes.
16880. Is the municipality represented on it ?—The
Chairman of the municipality is Chairman of that
committee.
16881. Who is the Chairman of the Local Board?—
He is a non-official gentleman.
16882. Is there more life in the way of local self-
government in your municipality than in your District
Board ?—There is more life in the municipality. The
people do not take so much interest in the District
Board, because the people who are elected on them
come from the interior and they are less advanced in
public matters.
16883. Do you mean that, as a whole, they are more
rustic ?—Yes.
16884. May I take it that you have a very fair
measure of local self-government in your district ?■—
Yes, as regards municipalities.
(The witness withdrew.)
Rai Sitanath Roy Bahadur was called and examined.
16885. (Chairman.) What is your occupation ? —I am
a zamindar, banker and merchant. All loans, whether
intended for imperial or provincial purposes should be
raised by one and the same central authority, i.e., the
Government of India ; otherwise the application of the
Supreme Government and of the provincial Govern-
ments to the market for their respective loans, if made
simultaneously, would unsettle the market : the pro-
vincial Governments would not be able to raise loans
on the same terms as the Government of India, and the
tenders for their loans will always be at a heavy dis-
count. I would allow provincial Governments borrow-
ing powers, provided they had complete control over
their respective finances, and provided such finances
were distinct and separate from the imperial finances.
Delegation of additional powers, whether financial or
administrative, to provincial Governments or to Heads
of Imperial Departments is not necessary, for they
are already invested with powers sufficient for all
necessary purposes, nor are additional powers in the
direction of creating new appointments or of enhancing
salaries desirable.
So far as the people are concerned, the Government
of India is impersonal, for they are not at all in touch
with the representatives of the people. In all matters
relating to the people and the country, when people
want money for public purposes, the Government of
India is too much dominated by considerations of
revenue.
I have no definite knowledge of the respective
functions of Directors and Inspectors-General under
the Government of India, but the general impression is
that these are sinecure and ornamental posts. The
departments which the Directors and Inspectors-
General are supposed to supervise and control could be
better controlled by provincial Directors and Inspectors-
General. But the presence of Imperial Directors and
Inspectors-General with the Government of India is
sometimes necessary in order that the latter may have
the benefit of expert advice from the former on local
and technical matters.
I would not curtail the existing right.of appeal either
to the Imperial or Local Government. Withdrawal or
modification of the right of appeal would lead to abuse
and to arbitrary action and hasty dismissal.
At present all items of expenditure in the provincial
budget are fixed not according to the official require-
ments of the province, but according to the doles of
charity received from the Imperial Government. Con-
stituted as the provincial Governments are, with an
entire absence of popular element in them, I cannot
advocate delegation of further financial powers or the
powers of borrowing money to them.
Opportunities exist, but the Executive Officers do
not take advantage of them, to come into personal
contact with the people, nor do they relish the idea of
coming into contact. The plea that the District Officers
are overworked and have no time to receive people is a
vain excuse, for much of their routine and depart-
mental works are done, and done very well, by the
Deputy Magistrates in charge of the several depart-
ments. They are required by departmental rules to
spend 90 days in a year on tour m the mtjfassal, and
during these tours they have ample opportunities to
mix freely with the people to hear their grievances, to
ascertain their wants and requirements. But this they
seldom do, for portions of their time on tour are
devoted to either visiting and inspecting schools here
and there, or a solitary charitable dispensary, or Ichas
mahals, and portions are devoted to the disposal of
petty criminal cases. It is not overwork, but the pride
of the office, which prevents officials, both European
and Indian, from mixing with the people. As for
mixing freely or on terms of equality, it is out of the
question. Want of sufficient knowledge of the ver-
naculars can be no excuse, for the upper and middle
classes of people can talk English or Hindustani. But
I would insist on a thorough knowledge of the ver-
naculars, and this should be a condition precedent to
promotion.
Midnapore and Mymensingh are the two largest
districts in Bengal and Eastern Bengal respectively, but
even the inhabitants of these districts do not like that
a new district should be carved out of each of them ;
for the creation of a new district or of a sub-division
tends to promote litigation—the nearer a Court the
greater is the incentive to make a complaint. The
present staff of District and Sub - Divisional Officers
would be enough, provided they could be freed and
released from their labours of love in connection with
District and Local Boards and municipalities.
Transfers are too frequent ; before an officer is
sufficiently acquainted with his new duties and with
the people around him, the next Gazette announces
his transfer to another district. The remedy lies in
promoting the next senior or qualified officer on the
spot to fill up the temporary vacancy.
The former constitution of the Calcutta Corporation
should be restored, and the two co-ordinate authorities,
viz., the General Committee and the Chairman, should
cease to exercise functions independent of the Corpo-
ration. The number of elected Commissioners should
be raised to the former number of 50. By reducing
the number of elected Commissioners from 50 to 25
all popular control over the affairs of the town of
Calcutta has been taken away and the whole authority
now vested in the Chairman ; for it is the official
Chairman who now rules the Corporation through the
nominated Commissioners. The General Committee
have, as it seems to me, usurped the functions of the
Corporation by taking on themselves the authority to
sanction, illegally, I should say, expenditures and
estimates up to Rs. 10,000 without any reference to,
or the approval of, the Corporation. What we want
is that the General Committee should cease to exist as
an independent co-ordinate authority, but like the
Town Council of the old Act it should be a Sub-Com-
mittee of the Corporation without an independent
existence of its own, and what we more particularly
want is that the number of elected Commissioners
should be raised as before to 50. The Chairman of
the Corporation who is to preside over the deliberations
of the Corporation should be distinct and separate
from the Executive Head of the Corporation, and all
assessment appeals should be disposed of, as heretofore,
by a special committee of the Corporation.
Though, in name, municipalities are self-governing
bodies, in reality they are not so, they being too much
under the control of the District M agistrates and the
Divisional Commissioners, the latter having the legal
power to upset even the unanimous decision of a
municipality. All undue interference should cease,
and the only controlling authority should be the Local
Government, while the functions of the district authori-
ties should be to guide and advise. Municipalities
should have complete freedom to prepare their own
budgets. Officials should neveft allow themselves to be
elected as Chairmen of municipalities ; with a Magis-
trate acting as Chairman, elected members, however
large their number may be, cannot have free scope and