REVENUE ADMINISTRATION

LAND RECORDS DEPARTMENT

The land revenue system prevalent in Yeotmal district is rayatwari and is based on a complete survey, soil classification and settlement of the assessment of every field. The original survey settlements were introduced in the district between 1873 and 1877 and revision settlements between 1903 and 1910. The land revenue rates have not been revised though the guarantee period of thirty years has expired.

The original settlements of izara villages were carried out between 1896 and 1899 and the first revision settlements were completed between 1926 and 1928. The details of these settlements are shown in the following statement: —

Survey.

The survey in this district was done with a chain of 33' and cross-staff. The unit of area is the English acre with its subdivision, the guntha (121 sq. yards or 1,089 sq. feet), 40 gunthas making one acre. The area of each survey number is separately entered in the district, tahsil and village records under an indicative number while the area of a sub-division is shown in measurers' records (kept in tahsil, for 7 months during the fair season and in the district office for 5 months during the rainy season) and the village records under an indicative number subordinate to that of the survey number of which it forms a part.

Classification.

In the original settlements, lands were assessed separately on the basis of individual soil classification, though the general level of assessment was fixed empirically with reference to the dependability of rainfall, crop pattern, average yields, prices, levels of rent, nearness to the markets, facilities of communications and other similar factors observed from tract to tract. Individual lands were never re-classified during the revision settlements and the land holders were generally allowed the benefits of improvements effected by them during the term of settlements untaxed. The comparative incidence of land revenue from field to field is thus generally the same as it was at the time of the first revision settlement and the enhancements made from settlement to settlement were brought about only by raising the levels of land revenue assessments over a tract uniformly.

Settlement and assessments.

The areas and numbers of villages for each tahsil in the district have varied from settlement to settlement. Inam or jagir villages were unsurveyed and unsettled as late as in 1947. That work has now been completed. Because of such recently settled villages and because of the territorial changes in tahsil boundaries from time to time, most of the tahsils today have a more varied pattern of land revenue assessments than what is seen in the reports of earlier settlements. Even the maximum rates fixed at each settlement or revision settlement on average land revenue rates per acre should be quite reliable indices of the incidence of the land revenue as obtaining in the district from tahsil to tahsil or in the same tahsil from settlement to settlement.

All the land to be assessed is divided permanently into fields ranging from 20 to 25 acre. These fields are marked off from each other by a strip of land 4¼ in breadth called dhura being left uncultivated between them though assessment is paid upon it, and by mounds of earth (warali) 10' in length by 5' in breadth; and stones (gota, pathar) over 2½ in length being placed according to a definite system at angles in the boundary. The name of a single khatedar (registered occupant) is entered against each field in the revenue records, except in case where there happened to be more than one co-sharer when the first settlement was made, and this person is primarily responsible for the payment of land revenue.

Each field is, for survey purposes, further divided temporarily into about twelve parts of two acres each. Three tests to discover kind of soil, depth of soil and freedom from defects are made in each part. For the first test, soils are divided into three classes or orders, which can be described briefly as black, red and white. The full description is: First order Of a fine uniform texture, varying in colour from deep black to dark brown. Second order Of uniform but coarser texture than the preceding, and lighter in colour, which is generally red. Third order Of coarse gravelly, or loose friable texture, and colour varying from light brown to grey. For the second test, that of depth, the soil is dug up and crowbar driven in until it is obstructed by rock or some hard substratum, or until it has gone in 1¾ cubits i.e., 31½". For the third test a list of eight defects is drawn up, the chief being the presence of fragments of limestones or of excessive sand, slope, liability to floodings, excess of moisture, and clayey soil.

Each field is valued as a field of so many annas according to the average value of the plots contained in it. Land classed at 12 annas would be good in any part of Berar, though occasional fields of 18 and 20 annas occur. The typical land of the plain country of this district is ordinarily classed at about ten annas and the rest at five or six annas. This valuation is made once for all in the original survey and a prati book or soil book for every village is deposited at the district headquarters showing full details about each field separately. When revision assessments are made, the original soil classification or field valuation is tested, but there is no reason for doing it again. The assessment is revised upon a careful examination of the agricultural progress of the different parts of the district. Factors of prosperity, which may be either permanent or changeable, are taken into account. The chief permanent factor is of course the character of the soil. The chief changeable factors are communications and markets.

Each tahsil is then divided into groups of villages according to various factors of prosperity, and rates are raised or lowered according to the results obtained during the examination of various factors which lead to the attainment of prosperity. Two to five groups are generally formed in a tahsil and a rate of assessment is fixed for each group. Every field in the group pays either the full rate or a proportion' of it, whether the field has been valued at 16 annas or at something less. Special rates are imposed on irrigated land and lands held on such exceptional tenures as izara, jagir, inam and palampat. Irrigated land is divided into two classes motasthal and patasthal. At the original settlement special rates were fixed for each of these classes. At the revision settlement it was provided that land irrigated by means of a well which had been sunk before the original settlement should be assessed at the maximum dry crop rate in the group of villages to which it belonged. If a well was sunk after the original settlement, no additional charge was to be made for; but the field would always be assessed just as if there was no well in the field. As to patasthal land, a maximum rate combining assessment for the land and rent for the water was fixed; and each field has to pay such proportion of this as was determined at the time of settlement. Throughout Berar, the period for which assessments are fixed is 30 years. There are special rules about the liability of land held under various tenures.

The greater part of the land in the district belongs to the first and best of the main classes. It is of a uniform fine texture and varies in colour from black to dark brown. Wani tahsil, however, contains a quality of soil of the second class of a uniform but coarser texture and of reddish colour—Kelapur tahsil has a certain amount of soil of the third class, of coarse gravelly or loose friable texture and of a colour varying from light brown to grey. Even where the land belongs to the best class it is very rarely of the best quality. Three defects are common all over the district — a mixture of nodular pieces of limestone (chunkhad), a sloping surface (utarwat) and an excessive admixture of sand (walsar),. A great difference, however, exists between alluvial soil of the Payanghat plain and the large valleys, and the soil of the hilly parts of the tahsil. The former is deep and good and its average valuation is 10 annas or more while the latter is light, shallow and generally valued at only five or six annas.

Record-of-Rights.

Likewise in other districts, full-fledged Record-of-Rights were introduced for the first time in unalienated villages some time during 1914—18, and they were prepared in the izara villages during first revision settlements. The full-fledged Record-of-Rights were introduced for the first (time in non-izara alienated villages during the years 1924—28. However, consequent upon the abolition of proprietary rights and occupants rights on lessees in alienated villages (viz., izara, jagir, palampat and nimjagir) under the Madhya Pradesh Abolition of Proprietary Rights Act, 1950, the Record-of-Rights for the aforesaid villages were prepared afresh. Thus, all the revenue villages in the district have full-fledged Record-of-Rights which are regularly maintained under the provisions of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code.

Administrative Set-up.

This district formed part of Madhya Pradesh till 1st November, 1956. There was a separate survey and settlement department for Madhya Pradesh. The chief controlling authority of the Land Records department in Maharashtra State is the Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records with head- quarters at Pune. He is assisted at the regional level by two Deputy Directors of Land Records with headquarters at Bombay and Nagpur, respectively. The Deputy Director of Land Records, Bombay Region is incharge of Bombay, Pune and Nasik circles while the Deputy Director of Land Records, Nagpur Region has Nagpur and Aurangabad circles under his charge. Each one of these five circles is supervised and controlled by a Circle Superintendent of Land Records and they are responsible to the Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records through their respective Regional Deputy Directors of Land Records. The jurisdiction of Superintendent of Land Records, Nagpur circle extends over Yeotmal district under whom are the District Superintendents of Land Records in charge of each of the districts in the circle. Excepting in Nagpur circle, these district officers are known as District Inspectors of Land Records.

The Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records is also responsible for the implementation of the Bombay Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation of Agricultural Holdings Act throughout the State. He is assisted in this work by the Deputy Director of Land Records at headquarters. The Regional Deputy Directors of Land Records are concerned with the general control over the implementation of the Act and they look after the consolidation staff in their respective regions purely administratively. The staff engaged on the implementation of the Bombay Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation of Holdings Act consists of 12 Consolidation Officers for the whole State. They are equal in status to the Circle Superintendents of Land Records and each one is assisted by four to five Assistant Consolidation Officers. They arc responsible to the Settlement Commissioner through Deputy Director of Land Records (Consolidation).

No consolidation staff has been appointed in Yeotmal district as the district has not as yet been taken up for consolidation scheme.

District Superintendent of Land Records.

The District Superintendent of Land Records, Yeotmal is assisted in his work by two Assistant Superintendents of Land Records, one assisting him in his field work and the other in his office work. The District Superintendent of Land Records and Assistant Superintendents of Land Records are assisted in their work by Nazul Maintenance Surveyors, District and Cadastral Surveyors, Pot-Hissa Surveyors and Measurers, Nimtandars and Chain-men.

 Nazul Maintenance Surveyors.

The Nazul Maintenance Surveyors and Assistant Nazul Maintenance Surveyors look after nazul surveys and maintain them up-to-date. Nazul surveys, unlike in western Maharashtra districts, the restricted to government land including roads, public places, etc., used ordinarily for residential purposes, and diverted lands within nazul perimeter. In the same way as there is a village map and Record-of-Rights in every village, there is a nazul map and Record-of-Rights for each one of the four nazul towns of Yeotmal, Wani, Pandharkawda and Digras. The detailed survey is done in all these towns on a traverse frame-work by optical square and tape in feet and inches, the measurement being recorded correct up to 3" as ¼ ,½, or ¾. All the nazul maps have now been converted into metric measures. The nazul staff maintains the traverse frame work, the detailed survey and Record-of-Rights up-to-date by periodical inspections according to the programmes sanctioned by the Nazul Officer who is generally the Deputy Collector of the sub-division in the district in which the nazul town falls. Thus, the nazul staff is under the administrative control of the nazul officer and under the technical control of the District Superintendent of Land Records on whose establishment it is borne for all technical matters, survey and land records.

District and Cadastral Surveyors.

The District and Cadastral Surveyors look to the district measurement work arising out of:—

(i) land acquisition;

(ii) civil courts decrees;

(iii) alluvion and diluvium;

(iv) grant of land for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes;

(v) division on conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural use;

(vi) encroachment cases; and

(vii) applications for confirmation of boundaries.

Pot Hissa Survey Measurers.

The Pot Hissa Survey Measurers attend wholly to the measurement work of new subdivisions as appearing in the village Records-of-Rights under the supervision and control of Nimtandar. It is the duty of the Nimtandar to train and get work from the Pot Hissa surveyors according to the prescribed scales.

The District Superintendent of Land Records is required to inspect and test the field and office work done by the District and Cadastral Surveyors and Pot Hissa Surveyors intensely with a view to seeing that they understand their duties and are discharging them properly. The nazul work is inspected by the District Superintendent of Land Records once in a year and he draws a detailed inspection memo for compliance by the Nazul Maintenance Surveyors. The Superintendent of Land Records, Nagpur Circle, tours for 170 days in every year in all the eight districts of his circle and tests the work of as many district and cadastral surveyors and pot hissa survey measurers as he can and draws up annually an inspection memo of each important nazul town and issues it for compliance by the Nazul Officer through the Collector of the district, endorsing copies to the Regional Deputy Director of Land Records and District Superintendent of Land Records for their information. The Regional Deputy Director of Land Records issues further instructions or remarks on this inspection note. Of unimportant i.e., smaller nazul towns, the Circle Superintendent of Land Records draws a detailed note once in two years and they are dealt with by him, the Regional Deputy Director of Land Records, the Nazul Officer and the District Superintendent of Land Records, like- wise. Whereas the test of district cadastral and pat hissa surveyors by the District Superintendent of Land Records is both qualitative and quantitative, the test of the Circle Superintendent is qualitative. The Regional Deputy Director of Land Records and the Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records inspect the offices of the Circle Superintendent and District Superintendent of Land Records and also inspect the work done by the district measurement staff including nazul and pot hissa staff and issue suitable instruction for improving the work and working methods.

Besides the above duties, the District Superintendent of Land Records inspects intensively and thoroughly the work done by the Revenue Inspectors and patwaris borne on the Collector's establishment doing mainly land records work with a view to seeing that they understand their duties and are discharging them well. His inspection is also done with a view to securing uniformity without forsaking local peculiarities of procedure throughout the district. He is assisted in this work by the Assistant Superintendent of Land Records. It is their duty to propose where and when found necessary to amend the existing rules so as to overcome difficulties and secure uniformity of procedure. The District Superintendent of Land Records is responsible for maintaining survey records up-to-date.

The following table shows the land revenue collections in the district for the period from 1957-58 to 1967-68: —

TABLE No. 1

[Bureau of Economics and Statistics.]

LAND REVENUE COLLECTION IN THE DISTRICT FROM

1957-58 TO 1967-68

The following are the statistics showing in detail the land revenue collections in Yeotmal district for the year 1967-68: —

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