A History of Assam c24.25

c24.25

In order to encourage the taking up of land for tea cultivation, very favourable terms have at different times been sanctioned by Government. The first rules were issued in 1838, when it was laid down that any tract of waste land, from 100 to 10,000 acres, might be taken up on a forty-five years' lease, with a rent-free period of from five to twenty years, according as the land was open, or under reeds or forest, and, after that, a progressive assessment on three-quarters of the area, rising to Re. 1-2 an acre. On the expiry of the lease, one-fourth of the area was to remain free from assessment in perpetuity and the rest was to be assessed, at the option of the grantee, at one-fourth the gross profits, or at the rate paid for rice lands in the neighbourhood. There was a clause providing that a quarter of the area must be cleared within five years, failing which the land was liable to resumption. In 1854 these rules were revised; the term of the lease was extended to 99 years, and the progressive assessments were greatly reduced, so that, during the last 74 years, the rent was fixed at only As. 6 per acre. In 1861 the system of fee simple grants was introduced, under which land was sold at rates ranging from Rs. 2-8 to Rs. 5 per acre. Leases under the previous rules were commutable to fee simple at twenty years' purchase of the rent payable at the time of commutation. A year later the grants were made auctionable, with an upset price of Rs. 2-8-0 per acre, which in 1874 was raised to Rs. 8. Lastly, in 1876, the sale of land outright was put a stop to, and a system of thirty years' leases was introduced; under this system the lease is sold at an upset price of Re. 1 per acre, and the area covered by it is liable, after a revenue-free term, to assessment at progressive rates, rising in the last period of the lease to Re. 1 per acre. The thirty-year lease rules are still in force, but land is no longer granted under them, except in certain tracts where there is still plenty of waste land. Under recent orders all leases expiring prior to 1932 may be renewed up to that year at rates varying from Re. 1-2-0 to Re. 1-4-0 per acre.