1 ¢
2 System under which
3 salt is excavated -and
4 supplied to the trade.
5 Amendment, of the
6 Wajib-ul-arz and ap-
7 pointment of contrac.
8 tors at the depéts to’
9 provide supplies.
10 THROUGH
11 TRAFFIC.
12 Extent of the trade,
13 Appendix IX.
14 KEPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
15 65. No change was made in the system of issuing salt
16 from the quarries, the Government of India having decided
17 in letter No. 5233-S.R., dated the 2nd October 1902, from
18 the Finance Department to the Commissioner, that the pro-
19 posal to prevent traders from entering the quarries and to
20 require the miners to stack salt for sale in enclosures pro-
21 vided for the purpose, should be postponed for the present.
22 The conditions: of the agreements of 1896 regarding the
23 grants of money -which certain villages in the Kohat salt
24 region receive from this Department were at the same time
25 revised under orders issued by the Government of India in
26 the letter fromthe Finance Department above alluded to. The
27 Department will in future construct and repair all salt’ build-
28 ings and roads and will keep clean all dep6dt yards at the ex-
29 pense of Government ; contractors will be appointed to pro-
30 vide supplies at the four open quarries and the head-quarters of
31 the Nari Preventive Beat, and the condition of the agreements,
32 which required the grant-holders to provide supplies of food
33 and other necessaries for the officers and men of the Depart:
34 ment at reasonable rates, will only be enforced m places and
35 in cases in which contractors have not been appointed. To
36 meet the expense involved in the appointment of contractors
37 sanction has been subsequently accorded to an annual pay-
38 ment, aS a contingent charge against the Department, of
39 such sum not exceeding Rs. 1,000 asmay be necessary to
40 supplement the amount available for the purpose from the
41 Parao Fund. The employment of contractors under agree-
42 ments for one year, at a cost of Rs. 1,468, has been arranged
43 for. 8 ?
44 66. The quantity of salt sold during the year under the
45 through traffic system at the three sources at which the sys-
46 tem is in force amounted to maunds 3,289,355 out of a total
47 rail-borte.trade of maunds 6,365,257. During 1901-02 the
48 sales were maunds 3,578,860 out of a total trade of maunds
49 6,216.050. The proportion of through traffic sales to the
50 total trade during the year was 51°68 per cent. compared
51 with 57°57 per cent. in the previous year, and there was
52 therefore a decline of 5°89 per cent. Through traffic, sales at-
53 the Khewrah Depét of the cis-Indus Mines Division in-
54 creased from-maunds 2,127,370 to maunds 2,256,392, while
55 there was.a decline in ordinary trade from maunds 1,33,467
56 to maunds 122,287. The falling off at Pachbadra in the
57 through traffic sales from miaunds gi0,058 te maunds
58 574,080 was almost equal to the decrease in the railway
59 trade of the source, the ordinary rail-borne trade of 1901-
60 o2 having amounted to maunds 106 only, While the
61 entire rail-borne trade of the Sambhar Lake increased from
62 maunds 3,045,085 to maunds 3,411,898, the through traffic
63 sales declined from maunds 541,432 in 1901-02 to maunds
64 458,283 during the year under report. The falling off in
65 the trade under the system has recently been considerable,
66 the sales having dropped from an average of maunds
67 1,206,151 annually during 1899-1900 and 1900-01 to an
68 average of maunds 499857 during the pastetwo years.
69 There has been no change in the arrangements at the Lake
70 for the. despatch of salt by Departmental Agency, and the
71 same facilities for the payment of the duty and price into
72 treasuries, post offices and railway stations in areas of con-_
73 sumption have existed throughout ; but under the unfavourable
74 manufacturing conditions that have prevailed, the salt offered
75 for sale has not only been inferior but has also been variable
76 ( 26 )