Report on the Administration of the Punjab and its Dependencies, for 1901-02 to 1905-1906 (bounded together)

· 1902 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Reasons for

2exclusion of

3Pathan Dis-

4tricts from

5Punjab.

6Number of

7districts in

8Pu njab.

9Need for ad-

10ditional dis«

11tricts.

12il PUNJAB ADMINISTRATION REPORT. [ rgor-1902.

13Pesh4war alone is more than half of the land revenue of the Frontier Province,

14Generally the districts and parts of districts excluded from the Punjab are those

15which contain a Pathan population.

163. The reasons for the separation of the Pathan districts from the Punjab

17Cd, 495, North-West Frontier and Punjab Frontier are set forth in the Parliamentary papers

18faseninastralsens noted in the margin. These reasons

19concerned the management of political relations with the trans-frontier tribes.

20It having been decided that these relations should be brought under the direct

21control of the Government of India, the intermediate authority of the Punjab

22Government being eliminated, it followed, as the only practicable arrangement,

23that there should be placed under the same control and authority the civil

24administration of the areas within our border occupied by Path4n tribes, who

25are connected with the trans-Frontier Pathdns by tribal and family ties, as well

26as by trade and other relations, both friendly and hostile, arising out of pro-

27pinquity and inter-migration,

284. The changes in the internal arrangement of divisions and districts

29of the Punjab which have been necessitated by the event just mentioned are

30noticed in paragraph 127 of Part II, Prior to 1858 the Province consisted of 26

31districts. In that year 6-districts—-Delhi, Gurgaon, Karnal, Rohtak, Hissar

32and Sirsa—were added, raising the number to 32. In 1884 ‘the Sirsa District

33was broken up and added to the Hissar and Ferozepore Districts.

34From 1884 until 1901 the number remained 31. The withdrawal of Hazara,

35Peshdwar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan reduces the number to 26, but

36the larger portions of the two last-mentioned districts remain in the Punjab and

37have been constituted a new district, Midnw4li by name. Thus the Province

38now consists of 27 districts.

395. But already the great changes which are being wrought by internal

40development within the Province are bringing into prominence the need for the

41creation of new administrative charges. Dealing with the question of compensat-

42ing the Punjab for the loss of its frontier districts, a measure which at one time

43was thought necessary, the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, recorded the following ob-

44servations :— |

45‘There is another respect in which the situation has greatly changed since 1877,

46auc which renders the question ef any compensation to the Punjab Government for the

47proposed losses superfluous, Not merely have the administrative problems demanding the

48attention of the Local Government grown in number and complexity—to such an extent

49that complaints have frequently to he made of the degree to which the Punjab Secretariat

50is overworked, and that the work of the Lieutenant-Governor is probably nearly double

51what it was 25 years ago—but the population of the Province is rapidly increasing, and

52must continue to increase, not alone by the normal increment arising from natural* causes,

53but by the reciamation of immense new tracts of habitable country. It. is estimated that

54the great scheme of canalisation connected with the Chenab River has, during the last few

55years, brought under cultivatioa for the first time an area of over 1,009,000 acres, with a

56pepulation of 700,000 persons,—figures which are expected to rise, within a few years, to

571,500,000 acres and 1,500,000 persons. The Jhelum scheme, now in course of execution,

58wiil similarly augment the area of cultivation by over 500,009 acres and should accommodate

59an increased population of about 400,000 persons. These two increments alone will far

60more than balance the loss of population which my scheme entails upon the Punjab. The

61Lower Bari Doib scheme, which is next on the list, and the surveys for which! are

62about to be commenced, will add another 520,000 acres, and the same number of

63population. :