§ 6. Mr. GARDNERasked the Under-Secretary of State for India the number of licensed opium shops in India; the area of opium cultivated; and the parts of India in which opium-smoking is prohibited?
§ Earl WINTERTONThe number of shops in British India in 1925–26 was 5,844, with the addition of a small number in Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg and Baluchistan, which in 1924–25 was 88. The latest figure of poppy cultivation an British India shows 114,198 acres in the year ending October, 1925; in addition there was a small area of 1,653 acres in the Punjab Hills. The law in British India prohibits the sale of opium prepared for smoking and also its manufacture except by an individual for his own use from opium lawfully in his possession. Opium smoking in company is illegal in the United Provinces, Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, and consumption of opium in any form is subject in Burma and Assam to registration and individual rationing.