4
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
the cultivator on whose land it is found is only too glad to get any one to remove this trouble-
some weed, and all that the collector of the drug has to pay are wages for gathering and
drying the leaves and cartage to the gola.
8. The cultivation of the hemp plant for the production of ganja is permitted under
special licenses. Prior to the passing of Act II (B.C.) of 1876 persons engaged in the culti-
vation of ganja apparently were not required to take out licenses, though by section XXIII of
Act XXI of 1856 the Board of Revenue were empowered to "place the cultivation, prepara-
tion, and store of the drugs under such supervision as may be deemed to be necessary
to secure the duty leviable thereon," and by section L of the same Act the cultivators of
ganja and bhang were prohibited from selling the drug to any one other than a licensed
vendor or other duly authorized purchaser. Unlicensed cultivation was prohibited under sec-
tion 13 of the Bengal Council Act, No. II, 1876. The same provision has been retained in
section 54 of the present Act, VII (B.C.) of 1878, and every cultivator has to take out a license
for which no fee is charged.
9. During the first half of the present century the district of Jessore was celebrated for
its ganja, and large quantities of the drug were prepared there for the market. The cultivation
in Jessore was entirely suppressed in 1875. Ganja is now cultivated in a compact tract of
country with a radius of about 16 miles lying in three districts, viz., Dinajpur, Rajshahi, and
Bogra. The whole tract, though situated in three districts, is for the purposes of ganja admin-
istration, placed under the jurisdiction of the Collector of Rajshahi, who is styled the Super-
intendent of the Ganja Mahal, the Sub-divisional Officer of Naogaon, who is in immediate
charge, being designated Deputy Superintendent. The cultivation and manufacture of ganja
and its sale by cultivators are regulated by clauses 3 to 27, section XX of the Excise Manual,
pages 154 and 158.
Clause 3, section XX, Excise Manual.
Clause 4, section XX.
10. Any person who intends to cultivate the hemp plant for the purpose of making ganja
must first apply in writing to the Sub-Deputy Collector at
Naogaon, who is also the supervisor of the Ganja Mahal, for
a license authorising him to cultivate. The license is ordinarily granted, unless there be
any valid objection, and remains in force for one working
season only.
Clause 10, section XX.
11. In February and March the supervisor or one of his three assistants visits each
manufacturing yard or chatter as often as possible to take note
of the outturn, and to see that the drug as manufactured is
forwarded to the public gola or stored in some secure authorized place in the premises of the
cultivators, or of such wholesale dealers as purchase the standing crop and prepare their own
drug.
Clause 11, section XX.
Clause 12, section XX.
12. The manufacturer of the drug, whether a cultivator or a wholesale goladar, is bound
to give notice three days before he commences to cut his crop
to the supervisor or to an assistant supervisor; the rule also
requires him to send into the public gola all the ganja he manufactures, unless he has a secure
private place of his own. But hitherto the rule regarding storage in the public gola has not
been enforced owing to practical difficulties, and the cultivators have been permitted to keep
the manufactured drug in their own houses. A cultivator has to obtain a license from the
supervisor to retain ganja in his own private gola until it is
disposed of to a licensed purchaser. This license shows the
quantity and the kind of ganja covered by it, and has to be returned to the supervisor endorsed
with the names of the purchasers to whom the ganja may subsequently be sold, and the quan-
tity sold to each.
Clause 14, section XX.
Clause 25, section XX.
13. A cultivator may sell his standing crop to a duly licensed wholesale purchaser, but
not without the written sanction of the supervisor of ganja
cultivation.
Every purchaser licensed to purchase ganja
for export is bound to keep for the inspection of the super-
visor, or other excise officer, a statement of his purchases and sales on pain of forfeiture of his
license.
14. Owing to the area within which cultivation is permitted being extremely limited, and
to the close supervision exercised there, there is every reason to believe that unlicensed cultiva-
tion has been all but suppressed. The manufacture of the drug entails a series of elaborate
processes, and cannot be successfully carried on in secret, at all events to any appreciable ex-
tent, and it may be safely affirmed that the manufacture of ganja is now confined in these
provinces to the very limited tract which has been specially set apart for the purpose. Iso-
lated cases of one or two plants being grown in the inner courtyards of houses are occasionally
detected, but these only show how effectually unlicensed cultivation has been put down.
15. But much remains to be done to bring the manufacture of the drug, and more especi-
ally its storage in private houses, under more effective control than is exercised at present.
Manufacture begins almost simultaneously in every part of the tract, and it is physically im-
possible for the limited excise staff to visit the chatters or manufacturing yards with sufficient
frequency and to check the outturn.