HC Deb 05 September 1893 vol 17 cc99-100
SIR H. MAXWELL (Wigton)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, with reference to the statement that the survey of Behar is an outcome of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, and any questions respecting the permanent settlement must be considered to have been determined by the passing of this latter Act, whether the official draft of the Bengal Tenancy Bill, circulated in the vernacular in 1883, contained any reference whatever to any provincial survey, or any reference to any survey at the expense of the landlords and tenants (even in local areas), except in cases where the landlords and tenants demanded it, or where there were existing disputes; whether the statement of objects and reasons for the Bengal Tenancy Bill, signed by Mr. Ilbert, contained any such reference; whether the Government, when pressed on the 12th March, 1885, to republish the Bengal Tenancy Bill in vernacular as amended in Committee, declined to do so, on the express ground that almost all alterations were excisions favourable to Zemindars, and not new clauses; and whether one of these alterations empowered the Government to impose heavy fresh taxation on the Zemindars to meet the costs of the Behar Cadastral Survey, as well as an annual tax of nearly 5 per cent. on the gross rents of their lands, to meet the costs of the maintenance of the record of right?

MR. G. RUSSELL

The original draft Bengal Tenancy Bill mentioned a record of rights, but did not contain any reference to a "Survey"; and, as has already been stated in my reply to the hon. Member for North Ayrshire on 7th August last, the two conditions quoted refer only to cases in which the Local Government act without the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council. The answer to the second paragraph of the question is, No; and to the third paragraph, Yes. The Bill as amended in Committee merged into one chapter: (a) "Settlement of rents," and (b) "Survey and record of rights," and extended to all three heads the powers of settling the proportion of cost to be paid respectively by the Zemindars and the ryots, which, in the original Bill, had been confined to the "Settlement of rents."