1 SALT REVENUE DEPARTMENT FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 1897-98.
2 thenumber discharged after departmental enquiry. There was
3 adecrease of 42 inthe number of persons prosecuted, only seven
4 persons were acquitted, and 486 persons were convicted during
5 both years. The percentage of convictions on committals,
6 8 ‘58, is satisfactory.
7 In the Panjab Mines Division, 268 persons were arrested
8 during the year, compared with 232 during 1896-97. No cases
9 of importance occurred. There were 192 cases at Khairabad
10 railway station, opposite Attock, in which’ petty quantities of
11 Kohat salt below one scer were found in the possession of rail-
12 way passengers, who were of course not interfered with. Out
13 of the total of 268 persons, only 34 were prosecuted.
14 At the Sulténpur Salt Works only one case occurred, in
15 which a labourer at one of the salt works attempted to remove a
16 small quantity of salt.
17 Cases at the Rajputana Salt Sources were as follows :—There
18 were 16 cases at Sambhar compared with 12 during 1896-97. In
19 one case, three persons were seized with 28 seers of salt in their
20 possession, and in another a man attempted to remove one maund
21 and three seers of salt. Ina third instance, a departmental
22 peon was found to have removed two and a halt seers of salt from
23 a heap which he was appointed to guard. Other cases were of
24 a petty nature. There were no seizures at Didwana during the
25 year. At Pachbadra there were only seven cases compared with
26 52 during 1896-97, five persons were arrested in connection with
27 thefts at the Pachbadra source and only two at the Luni salt
28 tract. All of the cases were petty.
29 In the Internal Branch, 1,232 persons were arrested during
30 the year, against 1,210 during 1896-97, but there was only a
31 difference of one in the number of persons prosecuted during
32 the two years. Considering that there was severe scaicity
33 during the first three months of the year, the ‘fact that offences
34 against the salt law did not materially increase in number, is
35 a proof of the adequacy of the measures of famine relief adopted
36 by Government. In the Lower Division there was only one
37 case of importance, in which an attempt was made to smuggle
38 22 maunds of saltpetre salt produced in the small Native State
39 of Nawanagar, into British territory. The salt was seized and
40 the importers punished by the courts. Inthe Upper Division,
41 there was az important seizure of 30 maunds of salt produced
42 onasalipetre factory in the Gurgaon district of the Panjab, and
43 the manufacturer of the salt was duly punished. Owing to the
44 increase in the duty on Kohat salt, there was a recrudescence of
45 illicit manufacture in the Dera Ghazi Khan circle of this Divi-
46 sion, on the extensive salt tracts west of the Indus in the
47 Rajanpur sub-division of the Dera Ghazi Khan district. One
48 hundred and four persons were arrested for manufacturing earth
49 salt illicitly, and 77 maunds of such salt were seized. Ihave
50 strengthened the preventive establishment in that direction, and
51 the steps which have been taken will effectively check illicit
52 practices. ;
53 70. The next statement gives particulars in regard to per-
54 sons released by the Department during the past two years :—~
55 For making | On proof of
56 Infirm pers | ° being in | ignorance or
57 Yoar son ine aa possession of | inadvertence Total.
58 : »pregnaaviess than oneland for want,
59 women and siyeee
60 ‘ seer of illicit} of proof.
61 children, salt.
62 ce eaunnemnnenemdineamnaes ne od ee eee
63 1896-97... a a. 18 797 150 |. 965
64 1897-98... ss Ze 76 812 136 1,024
65 ( 7 3)
66 PENAL ACTION oF
67 THE DEPARTMENT.
68 Departmental releases.