1 SALT REVENUE DEPARTMENT FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 1g§00-Igol,
2 maunds 3,76,816 as above stated. There was not, however,
3 any actual deficiency of salt. When the sales exceeded the
4 stocks, salt was issued from the pits asit was extracted in
5 modification of the customary procedure, and the trade
6 deniand was in this way satisfactorily met. Salt taken from
7 these pits will be paid for by actual weighment, when the pits
8 have been emptied, and the salt paid for will be then brought
9 on to stock.. Under ordinary conditions salt is extracted at
10 Pachbadra early in the cold weather as the sand-storms which
11 prevail in the spring and hot weather damage the salt and
12 reduce its value, but in the year under report the season was
13 so unhealthy that up to December 1900 the work of extraction
14 made very little progress.
15 » The Kharwals were paid for the salt, as usual, at a fixed
16 price of 1 anna a maund.
17 29 The rainfall during the year amounted to 7°47 inches,
18 506 inches of which fell in August and September. The
19 showers were, however, mostly light, and although they were
20 favourable for agricultural operations, they failed to fill the
21 tanks used for drinking purposeg in the Tract or to replenish
22 the brine springs. The average annual rainfall during the three
23 years ending on the 31st March 1901 has only been 6'7o inches
24 and a good fall at the Source is much needed.
25 30. No change was made in the strength of the establish-
26 ment, consisting of 1 Inspector, 8 kotgashts and jemadars
27 and 40 feons, employed in the Luni Salt Tract to guard about
28 110 miles of the Luni river, its branches and tributaries; but
29 the cost of the establishment, Rs. 6,794, was somewhat
30 less than in the preceding year owing to an Inspector of lower
31 grade having been posted to the tract and to compensation for
32 dearness of food-grains having been paid fora shorter time.
33 In the months of April and May 1tgoo, maunds 4,110-24 of
34 free salt were distributed at the rate of 6-sers per head to the
35 inhabitants of 39 villages, numbering 27,407 persons in the
36 Sanchor Pergannah of the Jodhpur State. Compared with
37 1899, the number of persons who received free salt was
38 less by 11,105, and the quantity of salt issued was less by
39 maunds 1,665-12.
40 31. At Pachbadra, when the Source was first leased,
41 the east of the tract produced the salt most suitable for the
42 Banjara trade, and was therefore the more important section.
43 Tke guard posts established were in consequence more numer-
44 ous in the east than*in the west. The Banjara trade is, how-
45 ever, now unimportant ; the springs are failing and the pits in
46 the east of the tract are consequently less productive, and
47 the greater part of the salt supplied to the through traflic
48 tradets is produced in the pits to the west. Fresh sites for
49 guard posts have therefore been selected, and by locating the
50 posts judiciously at approximately regular intervals round the
51 tract, their number has been reduced from 20 to 14. This
52 enabled a corresponding reduction to be made in the strength
53 ef the subordinate preventive establishment, and a saving of
54 Rs. 2,424 a year was thereby effected.
55 32. Maunds 4,066 of salt were sold at Falodi by the offi-
56 cials of the Jodhpur Darbar, and the price realised, vzz., Rs.
57 381, was credited to this Department.
58 33. It is stipulated in Article XI of the Salt Agreement
59 with the Jodhpur State that in the evert of the total realiza-
60 tions from the sale of salt at Didwana, Pachbadra and: Falodi
61 ( im )
62 PACHBADRA,
63 2
64 Rainfall during the year.
65 The Luni Tract.
66 Reduction of establish.
67 ment.
68 4
69 FALODI.
70 Sales of salt.
71 Appendix III,
72 Financial result of the
73 lease of the Minor
74 Sources in Jodhpur.