DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68025#0139
ROYAL COMMISSION UPON DECENTRALIZATION.
133
people are those which it is also most easy to delegate
to a Deputy Magistrate. Too much of the time of
most District Officers is still taken up by routine. It
would be in the interests of the administration if
more delegation to Deputy Magistrates and other
assistants were recognized, and more individual re-
sponsibility for the departments in theii' charge enforced
upon them.
Executive Officers do not now possess a sufficient
knowledge of the vernacular. Even the police work,
from which in former times they received their
principal training, is now mostly performed in English.
In this province at least three principal vernaculars
may be counted, and it requires some talent for
languages and much industry to be in any way familiar
with the whole of them; but I question whether
nowadays officers, as a rule, know, even one well.
A general increase in the administrative staff is
required. District administration is greatly weakened
by the number of appointments for which officers have
to be specially selected, and also by the amount of
special duty. A mere increase in the number of the
staff will not entirely get rid of this difficuly, but it
would do so to some extent. If districts usually had
a Joint-Magistrate, whether he was removed or whether
he replaced the District Officer, there would be much
less disturbance of district work than there is at pre-
sent. I do not think that any general reduction in the
area of district charges is required. One or two
districts are notoriously excessive ; but the general size
of a district is not beyond what a competent officer can
manage. It is the experience of almost every officer
with whom I have discussed the question that the Sadar
sub-division is the most neglected part of a district.
The Collector is responsible for two or three other
■sub-divisions besides, and can only give it a divided
attention, and for the rest it is nobody’s business.
There is probably a larger staff and relatively less
pressure in the Sadar sub-division than in any other,
but there is a want of direct responsibility. Sadar Sub-
Divisional Officers should be appointed in all Bengal
districts.
Transfers of officers are excessively frequent. A
certain step in advance has been obtained by refusing
to consider seniority as a ground for filling acting
appointments of three months or less, but anything
gained in this way has been more than lost by the
increase of transfers occasioned by special appoint-
ments. The effects on the position of the District
Officer and on the continuity of administration have
been disastrous in many districts. As regards acting
promotion, I should extend the three months’ rule to
all vacancies of one season. For all appointments of
less than a year, ordinarily from spring to autumn, the
officer whom it was most convenient to take should be
chosen, and no claim by reason of seniority should be
recognized. I should strongly recommend divisional
cadres, i.e., that officers should be appointed to a divi-
sion to remain in it for a substantial part of their
service, 7 to 10 years, and that acting promotions and
in fact all kind of vacancies should be filled up as far
as possible inside the division.
I am unwilling to recommend that larger powers
should be granted at present to municipalities and
District Boards, because while their present powers
cover pretty completely the field of municipal adminis-
tration, they commonly fail to take full advantage of
them. I doubt whether there is any demand for in-
creased powers. There is a great demand for place,
but that is not the same thing. Increased powers
necessarily connote increased taxation. This is very
unpopular. Sub-Divisional or Local Boards have
generally been pronounced a failure. This is very
regrettable, because these Boards always had the whole
of the local roads in their hands, the roads in which
the people of the country are really most interested,
but they hardly seem able to take practical interest in
them. I am averse to giving them up altogether,
because self-government must be built up from the
smaller units to the greater. Possibly something might
be done in respect of primary education ; even at
some risk of efficiency I should be prepared to make
over the primary schools to Local Boards. Village
unions should be persisted with. We have made great
efforts recently to revise the chaukidari system, to get
good village panchayats drawn from a considerable area
perhaps containing a population of 8,000, and the
functions of these panchayats should be extended to
other matters, such as, care of village interior roads
and pathways, sanitation and the settlement of petty
disputes.
I am not in favour of the creation of Advisory or
Administrative Councils to assist Divisional or District
Officers. The materials for such Councils do not exist,
but there are certain persons whose advice the District
Officer ought always to take on matters affecting the
people, even when he anticipates its purport and has no
intention of following it.
I should not consider it expedient to invest District
Boards with powers of supervision and control over
small municipalities. There is hardly any community
of interest. What is most expedient is to recognize a
lower class of municipality with more elementary
functions than at present exists, and to withdraw its
area entirely from the control of the District Board and
to make it self-supporting. In many parts of the
country, but particularly in Bihar, there are large
villages with populations of 2,000 to 4,000 for which
the District Boards can practically do nothing beyond
perhaps providing one road through them and a well
alongside it. Such villages require a system of muni-
cipal government, but a much simpler system than at
present exists under the Municipal Act.
I should like from the panchayati system, which at
present is only employed for the payment of the
chaukidars and to a small extent for their control, to
evolve an organization for the management of sanita-
tion, communications and the settlement of petty cases.
17697. What is the size of the Orissa Division?—
Including Native States, it is nearly 42,000 square
miles. The Presidency Division (where I have officiated
as Commissioner) would be about 10,000 or 12,000
square miles ; the population of the Presidency Divi-
sion is much greater than that of Orissa.
17698. How long would it take you to get to know
any one of these divisions with reasonable thorough-
ness ?—I do not think a Commissioner could get to
know his division—-if he did not already know the
districts of it—within less than three or four years.
17699. Therefore to a great extent, through no fault
of your own, you were acting as the chief authority in
divisions which it was impossible for you to know
thoroughly ?—Except so far as I had previously been
District Officer.
17700. Is that a good system?—No, I do not think
it is a very good system, but divisions are generally to
some extent homogeneous, and an officer who has a good
knowledge of a typical district, who has been in one
district of a division and has a thorough knowledge of
it, is not at so great a disadvantage with regard to the
other districts.
17701. Is the personal influence of the Commissioner
a considerable factor in the government of the divi-
sion ?—I think it is.
17702. If a Divisional Officer cannot tour through
his districts, how can he have any personal influence
with the inhabitants of those parts of the division
which he does not visit ?—Of course he visits each
district of his division every year ; but even before he
has any opportunity of visiting the districts, he has
become acquainted with the principal residents. All
the great landowners and the principal men of the
division come at fairly frequent intervals into the
divisional headquarters, and they make a point of
making the Commissioner’s acquaintance; he also
makes a point of seeking the acquaintance of the leading
men in the division.
17703. Did you find in each of these divisions which
you held for a year, that you did know the principal
people of the division • at the end of a year ?—I have
never been a whole year in a division, except in my
present one, where I have been about two years. I
think, certainly, that I met all the principal men in
the division within the second year.
17704. But in the case of your other divisions it
was quite impossible for you to do that ?—Yes, but in
those places I was merely a stop-gap.
17705. But what about the point of view of the
division which you had to administer, which is the im-
portant thing ?—It was no doubt unsatisfactory.
17706. You point out a difficulty with regard to the
budget, that just when the works of construction are
in full progress, work has to be suspended until you
Mr. F. W.
Duke.
3 Jan,, 1908.
133
people are those which it is also most easy to delegate
to a Deputy Magistrate. Too much of the time of
most District Officers is still taken up by routine. It
would be in the interests of the administration if
more delegation to Deputy Magistrates and other
assistants were recognized, and more individual re-
sponsibility for the departments in theii' charge enforced
upon them.
Executive Officers do not now possess a sufficient
knowledge of the vernacular. Even the police work,
from which in former times they received their
principal training, is now mostly performed in English.
In this province at least three principal vernaculars
may be counted, and it requires some talent for
languages and much industry to be in any way familiar
with the whole of them; but I question whether
nowadays officers, as a rule, know, even one well.
A general increase in the administrative staff is
required. District administration is greatly weakened
by the number of appointments for which officers have
to be specially selected, and also by the amount of
special duty. A mere increase in the number of the
staff will not entirely get rid of this difficuly, but it
would do so to some extent. If districts usually had
a Joint-Magistrate, whether he was removed or whether
he replaced the District Officer, there would be much
less disturbance of district work than there is at pre-
sent. I do not think that any general reduction in the
area of district charges is required. One or two
districts are notoriously excessive ; but the general size
of a district is not beyond what a competent officer can
manage. It is the experience of almost every officer
with whom I have discussed the question that the Sadar
sub-division is the most neglected part of a district.
The Collector is responsible for two or three other
■sub-divisions besides, and can only give it a divided
attention, and for the rest it is nobody’s business.
There is probably a larger staff and relatively less
pressure in the Sadar sub-division than in any other,
but there is a want of direct responsibility. Sadar Sub-
Divisional Officers should be appointed in all Bengal
districts.
Transfers of officers are excessively frequent. A
certain step in advance has been obtained by refusing
to consider seniority as a ground for filling acting
appointments of three months or less, but anything
gained in this way has been more than lost by the
increase of transfers occasioned by special appoint-
ments. The effects on the position of the District
Officer and on the continuity of administration have
been disastrous in many districts. As regards acting
promotion, I should extend the three months’ rule to
all vacancies of one season. For all appointments of
less than a year, ordinarily from spring to autumn, the
officer whom it was most convenient to take should be
chosen, and no claim by reason of seniority should be
recognized. I should strongly recommend divisional
cadres, i.e., that officers should be appointed to a divi-
sion to remain in it for a substantial part of their
service, 7 to 10 years, and that acting promotions and
in fact all kind of vacancies should be filled up as far
as possible inside the division.
I am unwilling to recommend that larger powers
should be granted at present to municipalities and
District Boards, because while their present powers
cover pretty completely the field of municipal adminis-
tration, they commonly fail to take full advantage of
them. I doubt whether there is any demand for in-
creased powers. There is a great demand for place,
but that is not the same thing. Increased powers
necessarily connote increased taxation. This is very
unpopular. Sub-Divisional or Local Boards have
generally been pronounced a failure. This is very
regrettable, because these Boards always had the whole
of the local roads in their hands, the roads in which
the people of the country are really most interested,
but they hardly seem able to take practical interest in
them. I am averse to giving them up altogether,
because self-government must be built up from the
smaller units to the greater. Possibly something might
be done in respect of primary education ; even at
some risk of efficiency I should be prepared to make
over the primary schools to Local Boards. Village
unions should be persisted with. We have made great
efforts recently to revise the chaukidari system, to get
good village panchayats drawn from a considerable area
perhaps containing a population of 8,000, and the
functions of these panchayats should be extended to
other matters, such as, care of village interior roads
and pathways, sanitation and the settlement of petty
disputes.
I am not in favour of the creation of Advisory or
Administrative Councils to assist Divisional or District
Officers. The materials for such Councils do not exist,
but there are certain persons whose advice the District
Officer ought always to take on matters affecting the
people, even when he anticipates its purport and has no
intention of following it.
I should not consider it expedient to invest District
Boards with powers of supervision and control over
small municipalities. There is hardly any community
of interest. What is most expedient is to recognize a
lower class of municipality with more elementary
functions than at present exists, and to withdraw its
area entirely from the control of the District Board and
to make it self-supporting. In many parts of the
country, but particularly in Bihar, there are large
villages with populations of 2,000 to 4,000 for which
the District Boards can practically do nothing beyond
perhaps providing one road through them and a well
alongside it. Such villages require a system of muni-
cipal government, but a much simpler system than at
present exists under the Municipal Act.
I should like from the panchayati system, which at
present is only employed for the payment of the
chaukidars and to a small extent for their control, to
evolve an organization for the management of sanita-
tion, communications and the settlement of petty cases.
17697. What is the size of the Orissa Division?—
Including Native States, it is nearly 42,000 square
miles. The Presidency Division (where I have officiated
as Commissioner) would be about 10,000 or 12,000
square miles ; the population of the Presidency Divi-
sion is much greater than that of Orissa.
17698. How long would it take you to get to know
any one of these divisions with reasonable thorough-
ness ?—I do not think a Commissioner could get to
know his division—-if he did not already know the
districts of it—within less than three or four years.
17699. Therefore to a great extent, through no fault
of your own, you were acting as the chief authority in
divisions which it was impossible for you to know
thoroughly ?—Except so far as I had previously been
District Officer.
17700. Is that a good system?—No, I do not think
it is a very good system, but divisions are generally to
some extent homogeneous, and an officer who has a good
knowledge of a typical district, who has been in one
district of a division and has a thorough knowledge of
it, is not at so great a disadvantage with regard to the
other districts.
17701. Is the personal influence of the Commissioner
a considerable factor in the government of the divi-
sion ?—I think it is.
17702. If a Divisional Officer cannot tour through
his districts, how can he have any personal influence
with the inhabitants of those parts of the division
which he does not visit ?—Of course he visits each
district of his division every year ; but even before he
has any opportunity of visiting the districts, he has
become acquainted with the principal residents. All
the great landowners and the principal men of the
division come at fairly frequent intervals into the
divisional headquarters, and they make a point of
making the Commissioner’s acquaintance; he also
makes a point of seeking the acquaintance of the leading
men in the division.
17703. Did you find in each of these divisions which
you held for a year, that you did know the principal
people of the division • at the end of a year ?—I have
never been a whole year in a division, except in my
present one, where I have been about two years. I
think, certainly, that I met all the principal men in
the division within the second year.
17704. But in the case of your other divisions it
was quite impossible for you to do that ?—Yes, but in
those places I was merely a stop-gap.
17705. But what about the point of view of the
division which you had to administer, which is the im-
portant thing ?—It was no doubt unsatisfactory.
17706. You point out a difficulty with regard to the
budget, that just when the works of construction are
in full progress, work has to be suspended until you
Mr. F. W.
Duke.
3 Jan,, 1908.