Memoir on Thar and

1849-50 1850-51 1851-52 1852-53 1853-54 1854-55 1855-56
Pay of Revenue
Establishment 4,556 4,713 5,213 3,486 5,414 4,656 4,424
Contingencies
Allowance to Chief of
810 591 820 1,336 1,207 552 552
Deepla 1,190 1,190 1,190 1,190 1,190 1,190 1,190
Remission
Compensation to Parkur
Zamindars on account of
their share of Custom
4,045 988 4,148 3,649 1,190 3,684 4,104
duties 5,463 5,463 5,118 5,118 5,091 5,091 5,091
Police 29,931 30,283 30,521 30,412 28,702 28,233 27,611
Total Rs.
Leaving Government a
loser in the following
45,995 43,228 47,010 45,191 42,794 43,406 42,972
amounts 10,213 24,169 12,861 20,769 36,279 19,036 12,991
158. The only source of revenue now, with the exception of trifling judicial receipts, &c.,
is the land, from which, under the revenue arrangements lately introduced, the probable
annual revenue will be—for the Thurr, Rupees 16,000, and for Parkur 10,000, making a
total of Rupees 26,000. The fixed assessment has not as yet been extended to Parkur; it is
impossible therefore to say, with precision, what the revenue from that district will be in
future, while it is much more likely to be 15,000 than 10,000, though, to be on the safe
side, I assume the latter as the probable revenue. In famine years, nothing is to be levied;
if therefore we take Rupees 26,000 as the probable annual revenue for the future, and
suppose every sixth year to be a famine, it will leave Rupees 21,666 as the average
annual land revenue of the Thurr and Parkur, without making any allowance for increased
cultivation. In addition to this, if the Mokye Salt Lake is worked, it will probably yield
Rupees 10,000 a year, leaving a deficit of about Rupees 10,000 more; in exchange for
which we are relieved of the expense of 200 irregular horse, kept up in Kutch, before the
conquest of Sind, to keep the banditti in check, as also of the expense of keeping a
detachment of regular troops in Parkur. The irregular horse alone must have cost the State
upwards of Rupees 50,000 a year, besides the expense of the detachment of regular
troops in Parkur, of which I have no idea.
159. The Government portion of the irregular horse in Kutch being 200 Poona Auxiliary,
sent to Kutch in 1826, was transferred to Sind in 1843, while, since 1844, no detachment
of regular troops has been stationed in the Thurr and Parkur. Under these circumstances,
it appears that the British Government has gained, instead of lost, by the acquisition of
the Thurr and Parkur, notwithstanding that the revenue of the districts does not at present
pay the cost of management; that they can be made to do so eventually, I have no doubt,
though some few years may elapse before such is the case. In the meantime, Government
is not a loser, as above shown, but, on the contrary, a gainer, by the transfer of the
irregular horse from hence (Kutch), of certainly not less—even without calculating the
capabilities of the Mokye Salt Lake, for which I claim a large credit,—of between twenty
and thirty thousand Rupees per annum; besides which, considerable reductions in the
Police department have been recommended.
<strong>Memoir</strong> on the Thurr and Parkur Districts of Sind. Copyright © www.panhwar.com
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