Remission of land Revenue in connection with arboriculture

Original issue, dated 7^th June, 1909.

First Reprint, dated 10^th September, 1951

Second Reprint, dated 13^th March, 1980.

In addition to the paragraphs of the Settlement Manual mentioned below, reference should also be made to paragraphs 825-830 of the Land Administration Manual.

1.  Supervising authority- Arboriculture is supervised by Government direct, not through the Financial Commissioners, but the treatment of the remissions of land revenue in connection with arboriculture is controlled by them.

2.  Rules as to remission of revenue at revision of assessment.  The rules as to the remissions at the time of settlement of revenue chargeable on timber plantations, gardens and groves and as to remissions granted on account of injuries to crops done by roadside trees, are given in paragraphs 511-513 of the Settlement Manual.

Subject to the rules regarding fruit trees, all revenue-paying land planted with timber-producing trees may be freed from assessment either by the Settlement Officer at a general revision of assessment or by the Collector at any other time.  If the Settlement Officer exempts land from assessment under these orders he will treat the land like a muafi or revenue-free plot, and record in the Settlement record the assessment remitted and the terms and conditions of remission.

3.  Form of Mauzawar Register.  The form of the Mauzawar Register Rule VIII (in paragraph 512 of the Settlement Manual) is given below:-

Mauzawar register of revenue-free grants for formation of timber plantations in village…

4.  Form of application for remission of revenue.  If a collector proposes to free land from assessment under the rules, he will submit an application in the Form appended for the orders of Government, and several cases may be included in the same application.

From of application for revenue-free grant of land assessed to

land revenue for timber plantation

N.B.  A statement for reduction of rent roll should accompany this application.

5.  Chinese Mulberry.  Government sanctioned, in a letter No. 839 of 10^th July, 1876, the remission of assessment on land planted with the Chinese Mulberry (Morus sinensis) on the same conditions as are applicable to land planted with timber trees.  Collectors of districts where this tree can be grown with success, and where silk culture is carried on, or is practicable, should take every opportunity of making known to the people the orders on the subject and of encouraging applications for such remissions which must be reported for sanction in the Form prescribed in this Standing Order.

6.  Chos and hill-torrents.  Government has allowed the grant of specially favourable conditions in the way of remission of land revenue to proprietors, who plant groves on or near the banks of Chos or hill-torrents.  The conditions are as follows:-

(a)  All village proprietors planting with timber trees (other than fruit trees) on or near the bank of a Cho on a spot approved by the Collector with reference to the object of resisting the encroachment of the Cho or sand-drafts, an area of banjar land not less than one acre, are to be entitled for the term of settlement to a remission of land revenue on their assessed land at a rate per acre planted equal to 1½ times the incidence of the total village assessment per acre of total area;

(b) In the case of cultivated land it will ordinarily be sufficient to grant the remissions at the village rate abovementioned, but discretion has been left with the Financial Commissioner to sanction remission in this case also in 1½ times the rate mentioned, if desirable;

(c)  The plantations are to be properly kept up, and trees are not to be cut down until they have attained a good size, and in case of a tree dying or being cut down, a new one is to be planted in its place.  The plantations are to be regarded as the exclusive property of the village proprietors, and not of Government; and

(d)  These conditions are to be entered in the village administration papers, subject in regard to the planting of shamilat lands, to the consent of the majority of the proprietors.

7.  Roads and avenues.  Land taken up by local bodies for roads and avenues will be exempt from the payment of land revenue cesses (and malikana if the land made over to the local body is the property of Government).  But land taken up for revenue will not be exempt from the payment of occupiers’ rates or other direct charges made by the Irrigation Department.  The exemption will run from the date of acquisition and will continue, in the case of a road, so long as the land is used for a road, and in the case of an avenue, so long as it is properly maintained.

8.  Appropriation of common land for plantation.  Sanction has also been given to the insertion at the settlement of any district of a clause in the administration paper allowing the appropriation for tree-planting of part of the common land of a village.  The form of the clause and the conditions inserted in it must vary with the requirements of each district.  It might, e.g., give the Lambardar, with the consent of a majority of the khewatdars, a right to plant at any time, trees in, say, one-tenth of waste shamilat, and to prevent grazing after planting till the trees are safe from injury, etc.  Its inclusion in the administration paper would be contingent as a matter of course on the free consent of the village proprietors.

9.  Power of resumption.  Government has delegated to Commissioners authority to sanction resumption of revenue-free grants made for the purpose of tree planting in cases where the conditions of the grants are not fulfilled by the grantees.