Yanam - Revenue Administration in The Colonial Era

Revenue Administration in The Colonial Era

After the French took over the establishment from the British (1816), they brought forward some legislation to regulate the system of farming and to improve the status of cultivation. An Ordonnance Royale issued on 25 October 1826 legislated that lands were perpetually farmed out to Europeans or their descendants. The farmer with the help of the ecrivain (Village Administrative Officer) had to draw up every year a contract called patta stating the extent of lands cultivated by the ryot and taxes due on such land. The pattas were then registered in the Bureau du Domaine.

The ordinance of 25 October 1826 was repealed by the ordinance of 7 June 1828 to regulate the ownership of lands and collection of land tax. This is the basic and primordial law to which one has to refer even now for matters relating to the origin of land ownership. The ordinance put forth a fourfold classification of the lands and provided for the payment of tax directly to the domaine but did not envisage any major deviation from the old principle that gave the king the exclusive right over the land. Hence, the Commission d'Agriculture et de commerce constituted in the year 1848 recommended a remission of tax and conferment of ownership rights to cultivators. An arrete was issued on 19 February 1853 to give a general remission of tax.

The Arrete of 6 November 1889 laid down the conditions for establishment of a Bureau du cadastre in the offices of Services des contributions to deal with administrative aspects of survey work. The land records prepared during the French regime were plan parcellaire, tableau synoptique, matrice cadastrale, etc.