DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68026#0263
ROYAL COMMISSION UPON DECENTRALIZATION.
257
scheme costing more than Rs. 25,000 a year. Some
arbitrary limits under these heads are no doubt es-
sential to the maintenance of adequate control. But
we are satisfied that the limits should be placed at
higher figures than the existing standards, which date
back to the experimental stage in the delegation of
financial authority, and have become inconsistent with
the wide general powers which the Local Governments
exercise with so much advantage under the existing
system of provincial settlements. This system gives a
Local Government practically the complete control of
the revenues allotted to it, and where the Local Govern-
ment is solvent, and the scheme submitted for sanc-
tion is not one of unusual magnitude and involves
expenditure from provincial revenues only, the ques-
tion of providing funds is a matter which concerns
the Local Government much more directly than the
Government of India. This is more especially the
case now that the provincial settlements have been
revised on a quasi permanent basis. It follows that
the criticism which we apply to such proposals is
almost wholly administrative, and practically the
whole work of dealing with them, including the draft-
ing of the final despatches, falls upon the adminis-
trative department concerned. A relaxation of
existing restrictions would therefore in some degree
lighten the task of those departments, and especially
of our Home Department, and would discourage that
excessive centralization on the administrative side
which is out of harmony with the financial rela-
tions subsisting between ourselves and the Local
Governments.
These are- the considerations which led us to ad-
dress to you a separate representation on this sub-
ject in our Finance despatch No. 17, dated the
24th January 1907, but its important bearing on
the questions now under discussion makes it neces-
sary to allude to it here.
13. We have now, as desired by Lord George
Hamilton, dealt with the condition of the work in the
Home Department as it stands nearly four years after
the despatch under reply was written. The sanction
given by His Lordship expires at the end of the
present month and we are therefore compelled to
address you regarding the necessity for the further
retention of the additional establishment which he
sanctioned. In doing so we desire to place on record
our opinion that no diminution in the business of the
department is perceptible. If the staff of officers and
clerks are not now as heavily burdened as they were
before the assistance given in 1903, they are at least
fully occupied ; and though we shall not fail to bear
your predecessor’s wishes in mind we must add that we
apprehend that there is little or no hope of a decrease
of work, and that the continuance in permanence of
the establishment added in 1903 is absolutely neces-
sary. We therefore request your sanction to the
retention as a permanent measure of the establishment
to whose temporary entertainment Lord George
Hamilton accorded his sanction it 1903.
We have the honour to be,
Sir/
Your most obedient, humble servants ;
MINTO.
KITCHENER.
H. E. RICHARDS.
E. N. BAKER.
C. H. SCOTT.
H. ADAMSON.
J. F. FINLAY.
J. O. MILLER.
Enclosure.
Abstract of receipts and issues in the Home Department during the years 1898 to 1906.
Abstract of receipts and issues in the Home Department during the years 1898 to 1906.
33383 2 K
Branch.
Class of work.
1898.
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
1904.
1905.
1906.
Increase or
decrease per
cent.
1898-1906.
Public.J
Receipts
Issues.
2,948,
3,978
3,570
6,754
4,849
6,183
4,962
8,990
4,851
6,544
4,356
6,398
3,589
4,622
3,643
6,078
3,818
4,392
Total
6,926
10,324
11,032
13,952
11,395
10,754
8,211
9,721
8,210
+ 18-54
Census .-j
Receipts
Issues.
...
47
113
248
559
287
457
137
318
63
107
28
27
...
...
Total
160
807
744
455
170
55
Judicial .{
Receipts
Issues .
1.899
2,579
2,089
2,827
2,243
3,069
2,231
3,033
2,389
3,012
2,612
3,209
2,356
3,269
2,160
2,999
2,005
2,457
...
Total
4,478
4,916
5,312
5,264
5,401
5,821
5,625
5,159
4,462
—•35
Ecclesiastical ... j
Receipts
Issues .
535
649
621
720
570
739
652
835
620
875
624
836
625
803
565
746
602
793
...
Total
1,184
1,341
1,309
1,487
1,495
1,460
1,428
1,311
1,395
+17-82
Medical .|
Receipts
Issues .
1,550
2,432
1,704
2,972
1,870
3,313
1,490
2,595
1,332
2,198
1,364
2,081
1,208
2,090
1,421
1,886
1,196
1,824
...
Total
3,982
4,676
5,183
4,085
3,530
3,445
3,298
3,307
3,020
—24-16
257
scheme costing more than Rs. 25,000 a year. Some
arbitrary limits under these heads are no doubt es-
sential to the maintenance of adequate control. But
we are satisfied that the limits should be placed at
higher figures than the existing standards, which date
back to the experimental stage in the delegation of
financial authority, and have become inconsistent with
the wide general powers which the Local Governments
exercise with so much advantage under the existing
system of provincial settlements. This system gives a
Local Government practically the complete control of
the revenues allotted to it, and where the Local Govern-
ment is solvent, and the scheme submitted for sanc-
tion is not one of unusual magnitude and involves
expenditure from provincial revenues only, the ques-
tion of providing funds is a matter which concerns
the Local Government much more directly than the
Government of India. This is more especially the
case now that the provincial settlements have been
revised on a quasi permanent basis. It follows that
the criticism which we apply to such proposals is
almost wholly administrative, and practically the
whole work of dealing with them, including the draft-
ing of the final despatches, falls upon the adminis-
trative department concerned. A relaxation of
existing restrictions would therefore in some degree
lighten the task of those departments, and especially
of our Home Department, and would discourage that
excessive centralization on the administrative side
which is out of harmony with the financial rela-
tions subsisting between ourselves and the Local
Governments.
These are- the considerations which led us to ad-
dress to you a separate representation on this sub-
ject in our Finance despatch No. 17, dated the
24th January 1907, but its important bearing on
the questions now under discussion makes it neces-
sary to allude to it here.
13. We have now, as desired by Lord George
Hamilton, dealt with the condition of the work in the
Home Department as it stands nearly four years after
the despatch under reply was written. The sanction
given by His Lordship expires at the end of the
present month and we are therefore compelled to
address you regarding the necessity for the further
retention of the additional establishment which he
sanctioned. In doing so we desire to place on record
our opinion that no diminution in the business of the
department is perceptible. If the staff of officers and
clerks are not now as heavily burdened as they were
before the assistance given in 1903, they are at least
fully occupied ; and though we shall not fail to bear
your predecessor’s wishes in mind we must add that we
apprehend that there is little or no hope of a decrease
of work, and that the continuance in permanence of
the establishment added in 1903 is absolutely neces-
sary. We therefore request your sanction to the
retention as a permanent measure of the establishment
to whose temporary entertainment Lord George
Hamilton accorded his sanction it 1903.
We have the honour to be,
Sir/
Your most obedient, humble servants ;
MINTO.
KITCHENER.
H. E. RICHARDS.
E. N. BAKER.
C. H. SCOTT.
H. ADAMSON.
J. F. FINLAY.
J. O. MILLER.
Enclosure.
Abstract of receipts and issues in the Home Department during the years 1898 to 1906.
Abstract of receipts and issues in the Home Department during the years 1898 to 1906.
33383 2 K
Branch.
Class of work.
1898.
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
1904.
1905.
1906.
Increase or
decrease per
cent.
1898-1906.
Public.J
Receipts
Issues.
2,948,
3,978
3,570
6,754
4,849
6,183
4,962
8,990
4,851
6,544
4,356
6,398
3,589
4,622
3,643
6,078
3,818
4,392
Total
6,926
10,324
11,032
13,952
11,395
10,754
8,211
9,721
8,210
+ 18-54
Census .-j
Receipts
Issues.
...
47
113
248
559
287
457
137
318
63
107
28
27
...
...
Total
160
807
744
455
170
55
Judicial .{
Receipts
Issues .
1.899
2,579
2,089
2,827
2,243
3,069
2,231
3,033
2,389
3,012
2,612
3,209
2,356
3,269
2,160
2,999
2,005
2,457
...
Total
4,478
4,916
5,312
5,264
5,401
5,821
5,625
5,159
4,462
—•35
Ecclesiastical ... j
Receipts
Issues .
535
649
621
720
570
739
652
835
620
875
624
836
625
803
565
746
602
793
...
Total
1,184
1,341
1,309
1,487
1,495
1,460
1,428
1,311
1,395
+17-82
Medical .|
Receipts
Issues .
1,550
2,432
1,704
2,972
1,870
3,313
1,490
2,595
1,332
2,198
1,364
2,081
1,208
2,090
1,421
1,886
1,196
1,824
...
Total
3,982
4,676
5,183
4,085
3,530
3,445
3,298
3,307
3,020
—24-16