DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68025#0138
132
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE :
Mr. F. W.
Duke.
3 Jan., 1908.
be on a very different footing, and the omission to
consider it separately implies a rigidity and want of
due consideration in the relation between the Govern-
ments. As an instance of the prejudicial effects of the
want of independent financial power on the part of
the Local Governments, I may instance the way in
which works of many different classes, particularly
agricultural works and those for which local authori-
ties are subsidised by Government, and record and
other grants administered by the Board of Revenue,
are hampered by the Government of India budget
system. All kinds of grants lapse, and work has to
be suspended on the 31st March, that is to say, exactly
at the middle of the season when most important
works of construction are in progress. Not many
years ago it was very rare to get a new allotment until
August, that is, when more than half the working
season of the year had expired. The Board of Revenue
and the Local Government have in recent years exerted
themselves to give provisional grants, and these are
now received a good deal earlier. But financial caution
results in the provisional grants sometimes being very
inadequate, and work is still frequently strangled by
this system.
I think that the Government of India has occa-
sionally imposed policies on the Government of Bengal
in a manner which argues ignorance of local conditions
coupled with unconsciousness of that ignorance, and
disinclination to allow fair weight to the knowledge
and experience of local administrators. The corre-
spondence between the Governments on the subject
of suspensions and remissions of land revenue afforded
strong examples of this temper in the Government of
India. Bengal officers may, in respect of Government
estates and of temporarily-settled tracts, have been
unduly reluctant to adopt a system of suspension or
remission proportionate to the loss of crops, and the,
authority of the Government of India may have been
properly exerted in requiring them to apply a system
which had been found beneficial in other provinces.
The same can hardly be said of the manner in which
the Local Administration was coerced in respect of
permanently - settled tracts. The whole weight of
opinion in Bengal was against the application of the
system to such tracts, and the attitude of the Govern-
ment of India might have been thought to indicate an
indifference to that opinion, coupled with a con-
siderable ignorance of permanent settlement conditions
in Bengal.
I attribute those administrative reforms of recent
years in which I take most interest to the initiative of
the provincial Government, and their initiation was
largely dependent on financial questions. Many
matters of great importance, such as better accommo-
dation for public offices, the housing of officers, im-
provements in local communications, improvements in
salaries, increase of the cadre of different branches of
the service, have long been considered by the pro-
vincial Government, and would have been introduced
much earlier had funds been available, but for funds
it is dependent on the powers or liberality of the
Government of India, and it was only since that
Government has been able to revise the provincial
■contracts in a manner favourable to the Local Govern-
ment that these improvements have been undertaken.
In Bengal during the last three years an enormous
amount of delegation has taken place, and the greater
part of the powers which can be legally delegated by
one authority to another have already been delegated.
Officers are still occupied in accustoming themselves to
the new arrangements, and have hardly had time to
consider what further progress could be made upon
the same lines. No doubt there are still matters on
which further delegation might take place with
advantage. Programmes of works of improvement
have to be sent to the Board of Revenue, even when
these are of small amounts, and little or nothing
can be gained by obtaining a technical opinion upon
them. Under the rules recently enacted the Com-
missioner has power to grant suspensions of revenue,
but only if they occur within the year in which they
are granted. Therefore if an instalment becomes due
within the first few days of the new year, it is necessary
to go to the Board of Revenue for sanction. The
instance will occur in this division next March. It was
probably merely an oversight in framing the rules.
Purely formal abatements of land revenue, e.g., those
connected with land acquisition, might be dealt with
by Commissioners or even by Collectors instead of by
the Board.
The influence and the authority of Divisional Com-
missioners have been much increased of late years by
the delegation of important financial powers. The
proportion of the Public Works Cess which was made
over by the Imperial Local Governments is now distri-
buted to districts through Commissioners. Small'
grants have also been given to Commissioners to aid
local institutions in the removal of obvious defects
and to execute minor public works. Probably both of
these might he increased with advantage. The Public
Works grant was probably based on technical calcula-
tions, but was undoubtedly inadequate, and in Orissa
has had to be increased every year. Almost more
important, however, than increasing the funds at the
disposal of the Commissioner would be to similarly
place some small funds at the disposal of District
Officers. A small fund, subject to no further audit
than the production of voucher and a certificate that
the expenditure was essential, would add very greatly
to the influence and usefulness of the District Officer.
As regards the Court of Wards, all estates with
incomes below one lakh have recently been placed
under the control of the Commissioner, and no further
delegation appears to me to be necessary at present.
In Bengal, owing to the elaborate machinery of the
Court of Wards, it has been customary to accept
charge of only very wealthy estates, and comparatively
few zamindaris with an income of less than, say, half
a lakh are taken under the Court. In the Central
Provinces, where the system is in many respects
simpler, it has been customary to take very small
properties, where the family was respectable and of
some local importance. It would be very desirable to
alter the Bengal system so as to admit of a similar course
of action, and to take more interest in the estates of such
men during their minority. But it could not be done
under the elaborate system requiring everything to
be sanctioned by the Commissioner. If estates of
Rs. 10,000 a year and less were managed by the
Collector, subject only to his making some general
reports and returns, it would be possible for him to
assume charge in many cases with benefit to the land-
owning class.
Local officers might exercise control of expenditure
with advantage—particularly as to Public Works,
Major Works, i.e., those above the sanctioning powers of
the Commissioner, Rs. 2,500 in each case. We have
very little to say as to the works which are to be under-
taken in our divisions. Government must necessarily
decide as between divisions, which works are to have
precedence. Commissioners do supply formal state-
ments of the order of importance of works to be
undertaken. But the principle of divisional allot-
ments might be carried much further than it is.
Only works of really great size and cost need be
reserved for the sanction of Government, and those
of an ordinary character, such as must be supplied in
each district, should be left to divisional sanction and
allotment. If the power of the Commissioner were
increased, I would grant an allotment with power of
sanction of small works, say, up to Rs. 1,000, to
District Officers.
The difficulties occasioned by appeals are more due
to lax procedure by appellate authorities than to any-
thing excessive in the right itself. It appears arbitrary,
and is certainly unpopular, to curtail the right of
appeal, but there is no reason why the officers to
whom appeals lie should not exercise their power with
reasonable discretion. I certainly do not approve of a
certificate from the authority passing the order that
reasonable grounds of appeal exist.
Commissioners have not much to complain of in the
way of adequate weight not being given to their
views, whenever they choose to insist upon their
opinions. It is only occasionally that a Commissioner
has occasion to express special views on questions, say,
of education or public health, but in order that he
may do so effectively it is necessary that he should be
in constant touch with the departments concerned, and
it is rather difficult for touch to be maintained when
the instances in which action is really called for are
infrequent. Generally, it may be said that the
influence of the Commissioner in departments outside
land revenue has been strengthened in recent years.
Executive Officers have sufficient opportunity for
personal contact with the people in districts where
they are not overworked. But in at least a third of the
districts in this province, and, probably in more, they
are chronically overworked. As a rule, the matters in
which they would gain by personal contact with the
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE :
Mr. F. W.
Duke.
3 Jan., 1908.
be on a very different footing, and the omission to
consider it separately implies a rigidity and want of
due consideration in the relation between the Govern-
ments. As an instance of the prejudicial effects of the
want of independent financial power on the part of
the Local Governments, I may instance the way in
which works of many different classes, particularly
agricultural works and those for which local authori-
ties are subsidised by Government, and record and
other grants administered by the Board of Revenue,
are hampered by the Government of India budget
system. All kinds of grants lapse, and work has to
be suspended on the 31st March, that is to say, exactly
at the middle of the season when most important
works of construction are in progress. Not many
years ago it was very rare to get a new allotment until
August, that is, when more than half the working
season of the year had expired. The Board of Revenue
and the Local Government have in recent years exerted
themselves to give provisional grants, and these are
now received a good deal earlier. But financial caution
results in the provisional grants sometimes being very
inadequate, and work is still frequently strangled by
this system.
I think that the Government of India has occa-
sionally imposed policies on the Government of Bengal
in a manner which argues ignorance of local conditions
coupled with unconsciousness of that ignorance, and
disinclination to allow fair weight to the knowledge
and experience of local administrators. The corre-
spondence between the Governments on the subject
of suspensions and remissions of land revenue afforded
strong examples of this temper in the Government of
India. Bengal officers may, in respect of Government
estates and of temporarily-settled tracts, have been
unduly reluctant to adopt a system of suspension or
remission proportionate to the loss of crops, and the,
authority of the Government of India may have been
properly exerted in requiring them to apply a system
which had been found beneficial in other provinces.
The same can hardly be said of the manner in which
the Local Administration was coerced in respect of
permanently - settled tracts. The whole weight of
opinion in Bengal was against the application of the
system to such tracts, and the attitude of the Govern-
ment of India might have been thought to indicate an
indifference to that opinion, coupled with a con-
siderable ignorance of permanent settlement conditions
in Bengal.
I attribute those administrative reforms of recent
years in which I take most interest to the initiative of
the provincial Government, and their initiation was
largely dependent on financial questions. Many
matters of great importance, such as better accommo-
dation for public offices, the housing of officers, im-
provements in local communications, improvements in
salaries, increase of the cadre of different branches of
the service, have long been considered by the pro-
vincial Government, and would have been introduced
much earlier had funds been available, but for funds
it is dependent on the powers or liberality of the
Government of India, and it was only since that
Government has been able to revise the provincial
■contracts in a manner favourable to the Local Govern-
ment that these improvements have been undertaken.
In Bengal during the last three years an enormous
amount of delegation has taken place, and the greater
part of the powers which can be legally delegated by
one authority to another have already been delegated.
Officers are still occupied in accustoming themselves to
the new arrangements, and have hardly had time to
consider what further progress could be made upon
the same lines. No doubt there are still matters on
which further delegation might take place with
advantage. Programmes of works of improvement
have to be sent to the Board of Revenue, even when
these are of small amounts, and little or nothing
can be gained by obtaining a technical opinion upon
them. Under the rules recently enacted the Com-
missioner has power to grant suspensions of revenue,
but only if they occur within the year in which they
are granted. Therefore if an instalment becomes due
within the first few days of the new year, it is necessary
to go to the Board of Revenue for sanction. The
instance will occur in this division next March. It was
probably merely an oversight in framing the rules.
Purely formal abatements of land revenue, e.g., those
connected with land acquisition, might be dealt with
by Commissioners or even by Collectors instead of by
the Board.
The influence and the authority of Divisional Com-
missioners have been much increased of late years by
the delegation of important financial powers. The
proportion of the Public Works Cess which was made
over by the Imperial Local Governments is now distri-
buted to districts through Commissioners. Small'
grants have also been given to Commissioners to aid
local institutions in the removal of obvious defects
and to execute minor public works. Probably both of
these might he increased with advantage. The Public
Works grant was probably based on technical calcula-
tions, but was undoubtedly inadequate, and in Orissa
has had to be increased every year. Almost more
important, however, than increasing the funds at the
disposal of the Commissioner would be to similarly
place some small funds at the disposal of District
Officers. A small fund, subject to no further audit
than the production of voucher and a certificate that
the expenditure was essential, would add very greatly
to the influence and usefulness of the District Officer.
As regards the Court of Wards, all estates with
incomes below one lakh have recently been placed
under the control of the Commissioner, and no further
delegation appears to me to be necessary at present.
In Bengal, owing to the elaborate machinery of the
Court of Wards, it has been customary to accept
charge of only very wealthy estates, and comparatively
few zamindaris with an income of less than, say, half
a lakh are taken under the Court. In the Central
Provinces, where the system is in many respects
simpler, it has been customary to take very small
properties, where the family was respectable and of
some local importance. It would be very desirable to
alter the Bengal system so as to admit of a similar course
of action, and to take more interest in the estates of such
men during their minority. But it could not be done
under the elaborate system requiring everything to
be sanctioned by the Commissioner. If estates of
Rs. 10,000 a year and less were managed by the
Collector, subject only to his making some general
reports and returns, it would be possible for him to
assume charge in many cases with benefit to the land-
owning class.
Local officers might exercise control of expenditure
with advantage—particularly as to Public Works,
Major Works, i.e., those above the sanctioning powers of
the Commissioner, Rs. 2,500 in each case. We have
very little to say as to the works which are to be under-
taken in our divisions. Government must necessarily
decide as between divisions, which works are to have
precedence. Commissioners do supply formal state-
ments of the order of importance of works to be
undertaken. But the principle of divisional allot-
ments might be carried much further than it is.
Only works of really great size and cost need be
reserved for the sanction of Government, and those
of an ordinary character, such as must be supplied in
each district, should be left to divisional sanction and
allotment. If the power of the Commissioner were
increased, I would grant an allotment with power of
sanction of small works, say, up to Rs. 1,000, to
District Officers.
The difficulties occasioned by appeals are more due
to lax procedure by appellate authorities than to any-
thing excessive in the right itself. It appears arbitrary,
and is certainly unpopular, to curtail the right of
appeal, but there is no reason why the officers to
whom appeals lie should not exercise their power with
reasonable discretion. I certainly do not approve of a
certificate from the authority passing the order that
reasonable grounds of appeal exist.
Commissioners have not much to complain of in the
way of adequate weight not being given to their
views, whenever they choose to insist upon their
opinions. It is only occasionally that a Commissioner
has occasion to express special views on questions, say,
of education or public health, but in order that he
may do so effectively it is necessary that he should be
in constant touch with the departments concerned, and
it is rather difficult for touch to be maintained when
the instances in which action is really called for are
infrequent. Generally, it may be said that the
influence of the Commissioner in departments outside
land revenue has been strengthened in recent years.
Executive Officers have sufficient opportunity for
personal contact with the people in districts where
they are not overworked. But in at least a third of the
districts in this province, and, probably in more, they
are chronically overworked. As a rule, the matters in
which they would gain by personal contact with the