Final report of the revision of the settlement of the Gurdaspur district, 1912

· 1912 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

2jTul Gurdaspur the Beas gives a long river frontage on the Hoshiarpur district

3and Kapurthala State, on the north of Batala the Ravi for a short distance

4forms the boundary with Sialkot, and the same river separates tahsil Shakargarh

5from Batala and Gurdaspur. Bor the survey of these areas the system about

6to he described was adopted after much discussion between Captain E. A.

7Tandy, ll.E., and Lala Maya Das, Puri, of the Survey Department and myself.

8The Survey Department engaged to supply us with a set of squares laid

9out by scientific methods as a basis for our boundary demarcation and internal

10measurements of riverain villages ; held parties of the Survey Department

11surveyed the bed of the river, and the Lahore riverain drawing office of the

12department then furnished us with 26-inch sheets (i.e., ordinary mumvis)

13referable to a single set of. squares and showing the following details for the

14Avholc length of the boundary : —

15(1) The paper boundaries transferred from the settlement maps of

16all riverain villages. These were obtained by enlargement

17from the Survey Department 4-incli sheets which in turn are

18a reduction from our settlement maps.

19(2) The traverse points marked on the ground by the field parties.

20These were always adjacent to the actual or disputed bound¬

21aries.

22(3) The boundaries of possession as pointed out by the villagers on

23the ground.

24(4) Eixed points marked on the ground inside cultivation, to facili¬

25tate the work of internal measurement.

26On these musavis the patwaris then proceeded to carry out their internal

27measurements: this they wore easily able to do on the framework supplied.

28Base-line pillars have been set up and mark-stones placed on the opposite bank

29of the river. A special Naib Tahsildar was employed to report not only on the

30district boundary but also on all boundaries between villages in the riverain.

31It had at first been intended to accept as correct the paper boundaries

32as shewn by the Survey Department in cases where there appeared to be no

33discrepancy, i.e., where the boundaries of villages were shewn as coinciding in

34the survey 4-inch compilation as enlarged to the 2G-inch scale of our mumvis.

35I found, however, that this did not give sufficient accuracy. More often than

36not the reproduction of the boundary on the ground from our settlement maps

37failed to coincide with that given in the enlargement from the 4-inch com¬

38pilation, whether that compilation showed a discrepancy or not. This was duo

39partly to the method of compilation and enlargement aud partly to the fact

40that all discrepancies of under 2 chains had been moaned out in the Survey

41Department office. M (ire it not for (he possibility that land now waste or

42under water might at any time become culturable by a change in the course

43of the river, it might have been possible to accept the compilation boundary

44In cases where large areas of valueless land or water were concerned; further,

45this standard of accuracy would hardly have been sufficient for the compara¬

46tively small areas involved, and would certainly not have been acquiesced in

47by the people.

48Although we were thus unable to utilise the help of the Survey De¬

49partment to the full extent that had boon hoped for, yet their work has boon

50invaluable to us. Hicy have. once lor all provided a scientifically-aceurate

51framework for the whole of the riverain, where we could not by any possibility

52have laid down a, single; base-line ; they showed us where to look’ for discre¬

53pancies, and in many cases so indicated its cause that disposal of it was much

54simplified : our patwaris were enabled to measure the riverain area with case

55and certainty at a cost which T calculate to lx; less than one-half of the expense

56of measurement on the ordinary system : and, lastly, owing to the single map

57which we now possess of the whole riverain on both sides, the troublesome and

58protracted boundary disputes hitherto associated with riverain tracts should

59now be a thing of the past.