Can our officers pick up some lessons from other States?

B D Sharma
Like any other boy of my age, I was quite ignorant of much of our Dogra history. Though the elders in the village in their sittings would often talk of Maharaja Gulab Singh and his exploits in the arena of war and diplomacy or at other times about the Kisan martyr Baba Jitto but the youngsters like me didn’t evince much of an interest in their glorious stories. It was only after I gained some maturity that I happened to go through the Dogra history which I found to be very interesting and a must read for all of us. It was amazing for me to know that we had remained an appendage of Lahore for quite a few centuries. When Jammu became part of Mughal empire we were governed by them through the Governor of Lahore. Mughalani Begum and other Lahore governors appointed by Ahmed Shah Abdali remained our masters during the years of the decline of Mughal empire. One of our proud rulers Maharaja Ranjit Dev had to undergo twelve years of his imprisonment at Lahore. The most famous Dogra family of Maharaja Gulab Singh flourished through the kindness and bounties of Lahore Durbar. Even after Punjab came under the English in 1849, our connection with the Viceroy remained through the English establishment of Lahore. Lahore in a way remained in our lore for centuries till the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
Passage from Jammu to Lahore, before the advent of modern means of communication, remained mainly through Ramgarh to Zaffarwal to Narowal to Lahore on the horse backs or on foot. Budhu Da Aawa in the outskirts of old Lahore is often mentioned as one landmark in the annals of Dogra history and discourse. The Dogras would often set up camps in the vicinity of Budhu’s Aawa during their sojourn to Lahore. The unfortunate skirmish between Raja Suchet Singh and his nephew Raja Hira Singh had taken place near Budhu’s Aawa during which the former lost his life. It puzzled me a lot as to why such an insignificant place such as an Aawa was chosen as a reference point by the people of yore. I had observed that in the rural areas of Jammu of our childhood we used to have three, four Aawas in each village or even more in big villages. Each Aawa was nothing more than a pit few feet deep with a diameter of about fifteen feet, its surface plastered with a mixture of clay and husk. The Aawas were managed by a community known as Kumhars (potters), Kahaar in the film lore and Prajapati in salutation. They used to be artisans of much worth and rendered useful service to the village community. They would dig out Chikni Mitti usually from Common or State land or sometimes from private land of zamindars, bring it to their work place usually on their donkeys and moisten, mature and mould it in different shapes and sizes producing thereby a variety of earthen pots such as Gharhas( pitchers), Kunis(Dal and Saag making pots), Chaatis(Curd churning pots), Diyas(earthen lamps) and a host of other pots. Giving shape to the pots from a clump of moistened clay on the circular moving wooden surface connected to a horizontally moving pulley spoke volumes of their craftsmanship. Potters would dry the pots in the scorching sun and then systematically put them in the Aawa in hundreds, interspersed with dry pieces of wood and pieces of cow dung as fuel. A day would be fixed for igniting the fire usually in the evening and a gush of smoke would come out of Aawa and engulf the whole locality. The baked pots were then taken out from the Aawa after two/three days and some of them were sold in the bazar and the rest of them distributed among the client farmers known locally as ‘Shepi’.
The Aawa as such hardly commanded a distinction in the scheme of my thinking as to warrant a place denoting the reference landmark for the travellers and others. Besides being unnoticeable, they were numerous in every place and so it made no sense to mark them as reference landmark. It remained for Wikipedia to enlighten me that Budhu’s Aawa was no ordinary Aawa of some potter but was a brick kiln of huge proportions producing lakhs of quality bricks which gave shape to some of the most beautiful buildings of Lahore during the reign of Shah Jahan and even for many years thereafter. It is said that due to a curse of some saint, Budhu’s bricks wouldn’t bake properly and he approached Guru Arjun Devji with his tale of woe. With Guru’s blessings Budhu’s Aawa started producing quality bricks and his business flourished hugely. He extended his brick making operations to about 3000 acres of area and Budhu, despite having a humble name, became so rich and respectable that he was enrolled among the nobility of Lahore.
In fact the famous adage ‘Kahan Raja Bhoj aur Kahan Gangu Teli’, would apply to the two owners of Aawas, one a potter of our villages and his modest Aawa and the other to the Budhu’s flourishing Aawa. The mystery in fact rested on the word Aawa which has Persian origin. It connoted both the pot baking pit of the simple Kumhars and the grand brick kiln of Budhu of Lahore. However, in Dogri we have two distinct and separate terms for both of them. Aawa for potter’s baking pit and Bhatha or Patha for the brick kiln. This overlap in meaning, was perhaps the cause of my confusion and astonishment. The discussion on Aawas leads us to delve into the world of potters. Unfortunately the explosion in the production of plastic and metallic pots and containers have diminished the demand of earthen pots of our poor Kumhars and many of them have been rendered jobless. The few who still remain in the lackluster business are facing lot of difficulties in our Union Territory after the rules with regard to the minor minerals were revised some time back. The new rules have compounded the woes of the potters and the other poorer sections of the villagers.
It may not be out of place to mention that the village communities had been enjoying the customary rights over the minor minerals since time immemorial irrespective of the fact whether their source was located in the State land, community land or the private land. The custom of excavating clay by the potters for example, is certain, ancient and reasonable. But these practices and privileges are being interfered by the somewhat over enthusiastic officials who have been conferred with vast powers for enforcing the new rules regarding the minor minerals. The villagers had been enjoying the privilege of extraction of minor minerals for free since time immemorial in accordance with the customary law but this has not been duly recognized in the new scheme of statue. There is no doubt that with the fast pace of development and construction activities, ruthless exploitation of the mineral resources is taking place. Consequently it is adversely affecting the rare natural resources as also degrading the environment in the process. The government in the circumstances is duty bound to step in and come out with the rules for regulating the extraction of the minerals. Unfortunately the promulgation and revision of rules on the subject have lost sight of the interests of the poor villagers like potters and farmers. Consequently they have been adversely effected in the Union Territory. In other States the traditional rights of the potters and other poorer sections of the people have been duly protected. Incidentally it had happened during the time when the main thrust of PM Modi is directed towards the welfare of the poor. Moreover, these rules were framed during the MLAship of the legislators who were, without an iota of doubt, the product of the unprecedented wave created by the PM and they were expected to carry out his agenda.
In our neighbouring State of Punjab the exemption rules have been formulated in such a way that it has been explicitly laid down that the extraction of ordinary clay or ordinary sand by hereditary Kumhars, who prepare earthen pots on a cottage industry basis, shall not attract any rent, royalty or permit fee. Similarly excavation of masonry stones and ordinary clay from areas which are not occupied by lessee or contractor, have been allowed for bona fide personal requirements of the inhabitants of the area. In the same vein the contractors, who have acquired in auction mining rights, have been obligated to supply to consumers or allow them to excavate building stone, limestone, kankar and bajari at the royalty rate on the mineral which is very less as compared to the market rate, for the bona fide personal use or for the construction of buildings meant for charitable or philanthropic purposes. Local level functionary of Revenue/ Rural/ Mining have been authorized for certifying the authenticity of bona fide personal requirements of the residents.
Similarly in Maharashtra any potter or maker of bricks or tiles may, for the purposes of his profession, remove earth, kankar, sand or any other material (each of which is a minor mineral) from the bed of the sea or from the bed of any creek, river and nalla or from any Government waste land, within the limits of the village in which he resides with the prior permission of a Revenue officer and without payment of any fee. Some restrictions like financial condition of the potter and prohibition from some sensitive and environmentally vulnerable areas have, however, been prescribed. On the same pattern any inhabitant of any village or even of an urban area with the prior permission of a Girdawar, Naib Tehsildar or Tehsildar can remove any earth, stone, sand or any other material ( each of which is a minor mineral) in limited quantity for his domestic or agricultural purposes.
Another of our neighbouring States, Himachal Pradesh has granted concessions to the potters and other residents in accordance with the provisions of HP Minor Minerals (Concessions) and Minerals (Prevention, Transportation and Storage) Rules, 2015. According to these Rules, no rent, royalty or permit fee is charged for extraction of ordinary clay or ordinary sand by hereditary Kumhars who prepare earthen pots on a cottage industry basis and whose turnover during a year does not exceed one lakh rupees. Moreover, extraction of masonry stones, ordinary clay and any other minor mineral can be done firstly by the right holders in accordance with their rights recorded in the Wajib-ul-Arz (Village Administration Papers forming part of the Record-of-Rights), secondly by the members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes whose monthly income does not exceed Rs five thousand per month and thirdly by the persons who want to construct Dharamshala, Piao or other such construction for charitable or philanthropic purposes under a permit issued by the local official of the Mining Department. The contractors/lease holders have also been obligated in Himachal Pradesh to supply or allow to extract building stone, kankar, sand and bajri to those persons whose rights as such are recorded in the Wajib-ul-Arz by charging royalty rate (which is abysmally small as compared to market rate of the mineral), for their bona fide personal use or for the construction of other buildings meant for charitable or philanthropic purposes.
All these concessions are not, unfortunately available either to the poor potters or to the poor village folk of our Union Territory. Even the perfunctory concessions which had been provided to these sections of society with regard to minor minerals vide the superseded J&K Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 1962 have also been washed away through the medium of newly framed J&K Minor Minerals Concession, Storage, Transportation of Minerals and Prevention of Illegal Mining Rules, 2016. All the permissible modes enumerated in the Rules such as Mining Lease, Mining License, Quarry License, Short Term Permit and Disposable Permit fail to take note of the traditional rights and interests of the marginalized sections of the society. The only privilege and favour showered upon this unfortunate lot is very perfunctory and worded thus in rule 107(ii) : extraction of minor mineral by an agriculturist from his/her private land for bona fide purpose of agriculture;, purpose of agriculture does not denote something adequate. All the three States mentioned above have given due attention to the needs of potters but our rules have ignored altogether to discuss about their rightful claim. The concessions and exemptions granted to the potters and members of other weaker sections of the society with regard to the extraction of minor minerals in these States are elaborate and judicious. It is not understandable why this measure has been dealt with in a slipshod manner by us. In this connection the present author is reminded of a representation of an old man to solve his problem by him as Deputy Commissioner, Kathua in the way it was being done in neighbouring States of Punjab/Himachal Pradesh. On being told that the same was not possible as the rules here were different from those States. But the old man confronted him that why our State, as it was then, did not make similar rules as it would solve the problems of the common people. The old man did not stop at that and further rubbed salt on the DC’s wound when he asked him as to why our officers don’t take the trouble to copy the rules from the books of our neighbouring States. The old man had wittingly or unwittingly struck the nail on the head and delivered an apt message to our Government machinery to keep their eyes and ears open and take a note of the things happening in the world around them.
(The author is a former civil servant)

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