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Administration of
Land
In a country where
agricultural produce is the mainstay of the
people, land its assessment is an important item in the
administration of a State. In Gondal the assessment is, from the
very beginning, low and though liable to revision after a period of
30 years, has been increased since the time the present ruler
took the reigns into his hands 48 years ago. The peasant has been
given Aghat Hak or the right of full ownership, which means a free
gift of some crores at current valuation. Gondal has made its
cultivator a complete master of his land. Such a land tenure –
fixed and full – is very rare and the result is the increasing
improvement in the condition of the land the peasant in particular,
and the progressive prosperity of the country in general.
Another important feature of the revenue policy is the State us the
regular system of suspensions and remissions. Though the assessment
represents an average of good, normal and bad years, and has
suffered in value, having been fixed in cash, which has depreciated
a great deal and though the peasant has benefited by the rise in the
price of his produce, the State has remitted revenue demand
aggregating to some 57.5 lakhs, keeping in view the rise in the cost
of living and cultivation. This liberal policy emanates from a firm
conviction that people’s prosperity lies in that of the peasant
and from a definite pledge by His Highness in 1884 “The peasant
shall enjoy the fruits of his labour.”
The record of progress can be borne out by the fact that
uncultivated land in 1884 was about 1,15,673 acres while in 1932 it
is 12,209 acres – a reduction of about 89 per cent and after 48
years of the Khedut proprietary only 38,476 acres are owned by non-Kheduts.
The number of wells – a sign of industry and
prosperity – is fast increasing. Its stood at about 2,795 in the
eighties, while there are no fewer than 7,769 wells at present.
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