especially as the cultivator who paid by volume should speedily develop economical methods, and a comparison of his crops with those of his neighbours should indicate whether excessive irrigation not only means loss of water but also actual damage to the growing crop. We consider that this view has much to commend it and that further investigation and experiment are eminently desirable, both in the Punjab and elsewhere, before a final decision against the sale of water by volume is reached.

The scepticism of irrigation engineers in regard to the sale of water by volume does not mean that no progress has been made in recent years in the improvement of the system of distribution. This is far from the case. Every distributary in the Punjab has been, cr is being, fitted with a meter so that the exact amount of water passed into the distributary is known. The meter functions with a module, which is an apparatus designed to fix the proportion of water taken from the canal and to give as even a distribution as possible from the head to the tail, independently of any rise or fall in the level of the water in the canal. By this means, considerable economy of supply has been effected, enabling irrigation to be extended to areas for which water was not previously available, and the opportunities for harassment and interference by the subordinate staff have been greatly reduced. It is held that the new system inspires confidence in the cultivator, especially in the small man, but there is one respect in which there appears reason to doubt this. Even under the area system of distribution, there are some cultivators who make their water go much further than others. It was represented to us that the good cultivator who utilises his water in the irrigation of a larger area than his neighbour is promptly penalised by a reduction in the capacity of his outlet. It would appear obvious that, once the cultivator is aware that he will not be permitted to retain the benefit of an economical use of water, he ceases to have any incentive to economy. It was stated in evidence that the saving of water thus effected might enable the cultivators at the tail end of a distributary to receive water of which they would otherwise be deprived and that the Irrigation Department has an obligation to fulfil its responsibilities to these cultivators by every means possible. We agree that this is a strong argument for the economical use of water in general, but we are unable to accept it as justification for reduction of supply to a specially skilful cultivator. If savings are to be effected, it is the careless and wasteful user of water who should first be penalised. We are of opinion, therefore, that the cultivator should be regarded as having a right to an outlet of a definite and uniform capacity in propertion to his area and that no reduction in this capacity should be made in any individual case solely because it is found that a larger area is irrigated than that for which the outlet was designed.

AGENCY OF DISTRIBUTION.

278. As regards the agency of distribution, we can see no advantage in the proposal made to us by several witnesses that this should be transferred from the irrigation to the agricultural departments. Closer co-operation between the two departments in this and other matters is no doubt very desirable and we recur to this point later, but the acceptance of this

MO Y 286-22

suggestion would involve the diversion of the agricultural departments from their legitimate functions to work for which they are wholly unfitted. As between government and private agency, we are of opinion that there is at present no practical alternative to the system of government Control over distribution down to the field distributaries. The question of agency is closely linked with that of methods of distribution and, as we have already indicated, there can be little doubt that the general introduction of the sale of water by volume would greatly facilitate the substitution of private for official management of the minor distributaries. Co-operative action in this respect has so far made little headway. One instance in which the co-operative distribution of water on an acreage basis-on the Nira Canal in the Bombay Deccan by cultivators in the village of Malegaon--has proved successful was brought to our notice in the Bombay Presidency. Irrigation panchayats for the management of minor irrigation works and of branch channels have in some instances worked with fair success in Madras and the possibilities of the panchayat system for the control of field distributaries were hopefully spoken of, on the basis of recent experience, by a Chief Engineer for Irrigation in the Punjab. It is important that the real obstacle to entrusting the distribution of water to private agency should be clearly grasped. It is not the lack of facilities to measure water accurately and to control supplies to distributaries from canals and their main branches. Meters and modules have been devised which are held to measure and control water in a satisfactory manner. The fundamental obstacle is the attitude of the cultivator himself. Water is so vital a need to him that he is not at present prepared to entrust his interests in this matter to the decision of his fellows. The formation of irrigation panchayats for the management of field distributaries points the way and it is collective action in this limited sphere which will best develop the mutual confidence necessary for the successful management of the larger distributaries. The progress of education, and the experience gained in other directions, such as the communal management of forests and the co-operative supply of credit, should also play their part in rendering the distribution of water by private agency possible.

279. The figures we have given in this chapter have shown the importance to the cultivator of the smaller storage

MINOR WORKS. works and of "other sources." of irrigation. We do not consider that the construction, preservation and improvement of these minor works have, in the past, received the attention from Government which that importance justifies. To mention only one instance, we were informed by the Secretary for Irrigation to the Government of the United Provinces, that there was endless scope for small tank schemes in that province. In Madras, the fact that over wide areas the only source of irrigation is the conservation of the annual rainfall has ensured that due attention is paid by Government to works of this character. Up to date, nearly a crore-and-a-half of rupees have been spent on the restoration of tanks. In that province, all government works irrigating less than 200 acres, except such as for special reasons

66

have been transferred to the charge of the Public Works Department, are in charge of a "Minor Irrigation Department" which works under the Collector of the district and is, in effect, a subordinate branch of the Revenue Department. The maintenance of minor irrigation works by the Revenue Department is, as a rule, limited to the repair of masonry and earth work and the reconstruction of damaged works. If anything beyond this is required, the assistance of the Public Works Department is invoked. In Bombay, special attention has recently been paid to this subject and, in 1925, a superintending engineer was placed on special duty to investigate natural resources for the protection of lands from famine" for which purpose he was given a staff of three assistant engineers and eight survey parties. His operations are, however, confined to the insecure tracts of the Bombay Presidency, except that two subordinates have been placed under his orders to give advice to cultivators outside those tracts. In the Punjab, a Rural Sanitary Board which was first started in 1920 as a Drainage Board, has been responsible for various minor irrigation works in the course of its work of supervising or co-ordinating operations for the prevention or cure of waterlogging.

We are of opinion that much could be done to promote the development of minor works, if the example of the Bombay Government were followed in other provinces, and we would also suggest that the operations in Bombay should be extended to districts outside the insecure tracts. In our view, an agency is wanted, to which the cultivator who wishes to improve his land by utilising the natural sources of water supply can turn for technical advice and assistance. This agency should not wait for the cultivator to consult it, but should go to him and urge him to adopt the scheme best calculated to utilise his available water supply to the fullest advantage. The personnel should regard its function as educative rather than purely advisory. The Madras system does not provide such a staff, but there is probably less scope for the construction of small private irrigation works in the ryotwari tracts of that province than there is elsewhere. Had such advice and assistance been available in the past, it is probable, to say the least, that many taccavi loans to cultivators for land improvement would have been utilised to better purpose than they have been.

We refrain from proposing detailed arrangements for giving effect to our recommendations under this head as we apprehend that a suggestion for the formation of a separate Minor Irrigation Department might give rise to administrative difficulties. The object we have in view would be achieved if, in each province, one or more officers with suitable subordinate staff were made directly responsible for the investigation of the possibilities of small irrigation works and for advising and assisting the cultivators in regard to all questions connected with such works. Special attention should be devoted to the formation and assistance of co-operative irrigation societies for the construction of small works and for keeping existing works in proper order by the removal of silt and the repairs of embankments. The officer or officers entrusted with these duties would ordinarily be selected from the Irrigation Branch of the Indian Service MỌ Y 286-22a

of Engineers. It is essential that the work should be done in the closest association with both the revenue and agricultural departments. In thus recommending the formation of a special agency within the provincial irrigation departments to deal with the investigation and construction of minor works, it is far from our intention in any way to criticise those departments for any failure in this respect in the past. Where small schemes possessing no engineering features of interest have to compete for attention with important projects presenting problems which demand the highest professional qualities for their solution, it is both natural and proper that they should take the second place. In these circumstances, we are persuaded that it is only by making minor works the definite responsibility of a special agency that they will receive the attention to which their value to the cultivator, especially to the smaller man, entitles them.

280. Irrigation from tube wells is a comparatively recent

development in India. There were few such TUBE WELLS. wells in existence when the Indian Irrigation Commission reported. Wells of this type are almost entirely in private ownership and, except in the United Provinces, are privately financed, though a loan under the Land Improvement Loans Act may be given for their construction. Technical advice and assistance are, however, freely given by the government department concerned and the well is, in fact, usually installed by that department subject to the payment of moderate fees for the services it renders. In Madras, pumping and boring operations have been entrusted to the Department of Industries and, in the Central Provinces, to the Public Works Department; in other provinces they are in the charge of the Agricultural Department.

The assistance given in the United Provinces in the ccnstruction of tube wells goes much further than that described above. In that province, the landholder pays the cost price of the actual material left in his possession on the completion of the work, that is, for the tube, the engine and pumping plant, all overhead charges and depreciation and interest on the capital invested in the boring equipment being borne by Government. The following figures have been supplied to us by the Director of Agriculture, United Provinces, as giving "a reasonably accurate estimate of the all in cost' of a 15 inch strainer tube well and pumping plant giving 35,000 gallons of water per hour "

(i) Paid by landholder

Rs.

8,000

4,987

(ii) Overhead charges borne by Government (1926) (iii) Depreciation (ten per cent) and interest (six per cent) on capital invested in boring equipment

960

Thus, towards the expenditure of a well costing in round figures Rs. 14,000, Government contribute about Rs. 6,000. In addition to the assistance thus given, zamindars, who undertake to multiply seed for Government or to lease land to Government for demonstration purposes, may receive, in special cases, grants-in-aid up to a maximum of Rs. 3,000. We understand that, in practice, such

grants are invariably applied for and are given at the maximum rate.

The main points for examination in connection with tube wells are three in number, the conditions under which they can be regarded as a paying proposition, the degree of responsibility which Government should assume for their construction and the department of Government which should be charged with that responsibility.

The point at which the cost of sinking and operating a tube well becomes such that the undertaking ceases to be profitable is obviously not a fixed one, but must vary, not only with the first cost of sinking the well, but also with the flow of water per hour, the character and extent of ground irrigable, the nature of the crops grown and the marketing facilities which are available. All that can be said with confidence, in present conditions, is that irrigation from tube wells is never cheap as compared with canal irrigation. The Director of Agriculture in the United Provinces informed us that it does not pay unless intensive cultivation is adopted and unless a valuable crop such as sugarcane, potatoes or tobacco is grown. He added that it is not a business proposition to irrigate only wheat or other rabi crops grown on the indigenous system, with yields of fifteen maunds per acre, except in cases in which the discharge is high and the lift low. We consider that a landholder is entitled to obtain from the Agricultural Department sufficiently definite information to enable him to decide whether, if water is found at a certain depth and with a certain minimum discharge at the surface, it will pay him, in the local conditions of soil and of marketing facilities, to install such a well. The department entrusted with the charge of pumping and boring operations should make detailed investigations with a view to the collection of this information. These investigations should include a systematic survey of the subsoil water supplies.

The degree of responsibility which should be assumed by Government for the development of tube well irrigation should be limited to the supply of the economic data just mentioned and of expert advice, to the provision of finance, where required, on the taccavi system and to placing at the disposal of the landholder, on payment of a reasonable fee, the boring equipment and skilled labour required. We can see no justification for the system of subsidies which has been adopted in the United Provinces and recommend that it should be terminated. In so far as the subsidy may have served to popularise tube wells, we are of opinion that more satisfactory results would have been obtained if the work had been undertaken directly by the Agricultural Department. If the wells had been sunk in typical areas and utilised for intensive cultivation under the close supervision of the department, it would now be in a position to supply the data on the absence of which we have commented. The benefits of the subsidy have so far been entirely confined to the large landholder. If the wells had been operated as we have suggested, under the supervision of officers whose business it would have been to supply information to all enquirers, this might have led to developments in the direction of co-operative action which would have assisted the small cultivator. We would mention that the Punjab Government have