CH. XV.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 293
receive the whole crop. A license is given to the raiyat describing the quantity
and kind of ganja he is allowed to store, and authorizing him to keep it until he
disposes of it to a licensed purchaser. The amount is arrived at by the super-
visors by inspection of the crop after manufacture and the number of bundles
into which it is manufactured. The crop is made up by the raiyat into 2-sér
bundles, and by long practice the measurement is wonderfully exact, though it is
done by guess. The raiyats' store is generally situated close to his manufacturing
ground. The wholesale dealer comes to the mahal armed with a license from
the Collector of his own district giving the amount he is authorized to
export. He makes his own arrangements with the raiyats, visiting any store he
likes, and, as far as I know, unaccompanied by a supervisor or any excise officer.
Having made his bargain, the dealer brings the ganja to the Government gola,
where it is weighed, and the sale recorded on the back of the raiyat's license as well
as in the Government books. No pass is required for the removal of the ganja from
the raiyats' store to the Government gola. The dealer's consignment is sealed at
the Government gola, and then carried by the wholesale dealer under pass to his
gola at the head-quarters or sub-division of the place of import. There it is placed
under double lock, one being in the possession of the dealer, and the other in the
possession of the Excise Deputy Collector.
The wholesale dealer sells to
the retail vendor at his own price, and the retail vendor sells to the public
at his own price, except in one district, where a maximum limit is imposed under
the terms of the arrangement with the monopolist. This district is Cuttack.
The right of retail vend is sold by auction."
Where the existing practice dif-
fers from the rules.
595. The above procedure differs in one important respect from that pre-
scribed in the rules issued by the Board, inasmuch
as these rules contemplate the storing of the
ganja in a public gola, and there is an exceptional provision permitting storage
in a private gola, when a cultivator can satisfy the supervisor that he has a
secure private place of his own. He is then allowed to store his ganja there
subject to periodical inspection by the supervisor or his assistants. There is
no public gola for the storage of the crop, hence the exception has become the
rule.
Garbjat ganja and illicit practices.
596. Ganja is not ordinarily imported from any other British province into
Bengal, but ganja grown in the Orissa Tributary
Mahals (Garhjat) is imported under passes in small
quantities into the districts of the Orissa Division. The rules as to storage and levy
of duty on Rajshahi ganja apply mutatis mutandis to Garhjat ganja. Any vendor
licensed to retail Rajshahi ganja may sell Garhjat ganja under the same license.
The Excise Commissioner states that Garhjat ganja is largely smuggled
into Orissa. This subject will be again mentioned further on. With this excep-
tion, the growth and trade in ganja in Bengal is fairly under control. The
cases of illicit cultivation are few. They are all of a petty description, such as
the growing of a few plants (very often only a single plant) in the courtyards
of houses more for the purpose of using the leaves as bhang than for manufac-
turing ganja. Cases of unlicensed sale of ganja, though comparatively numerous,
generally represent sales of the excised drug by petty dealers who have obtained
their supplies from licensed vendors, and often occur from the licensed shops
being too few to supply the local demand. The system in force in the Ganja
74