§ MR. WEIRTo ask the Secretary of State for India, seeing that 22,500,000 acres of land in the Madras Presidency are held by ryotwari, peasant proprietors from whom the Government make an annual demand of about £3,000,000 for land revenue, will he state the number of these proprietors, how many were dispossessed of their land during the year ending the 30th June, 1901 for non-payment of land revenue, the 11 amount of the arrears of the persons thus evicted, the acreage of the land acquired by the Government as the result of these evictions, how much of this land was sold, the amount realised by the sales, and the acreage of the land left in the hands of the Government, and, in view of the effect of the present system of land revenue in Madras on the ryotwari, will the Government of India consider the expediency of devising some system of land revenue for the Madras Presidency better adapted to the small agriculturist.
(Answered by Secretary Lord George Hamilton.)(1) Total number of ryotwari holders, 3,209,000; (2) Number of defaulters whose lands were sold for non-payment of land revenue, 14,760; (3) Amount of arrears of land revenues, 2,19,547 Rs; (4) Acreage of land bought in by Government, 26,275 acres; (5) Acreage of land resold, (6) Amount realised by re-sales, (7) Acreage left with Government, information not available. There is no intention of changing the land revenue system of the Madras Presidency, which is believed to be well adapted to the small agriculturists.