Page 50 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

Proprietary and Cultivating Occupancy of Land
The table below based on the Settlement Reports of 1901-02 and 1921-24
shows the then cultivating occupancy of the land:

Detail Cultivated Area percent
1901-02 1921-24
1. Cultivated by owners 41 45
2. Cultivated by tenants paying no rent 0 2

3. Cultivated by occupancy tenants 8 5
4. Total Land Cultivated by tenants-at-will 51 48
Tenants-at-will paying cash rent 1 1
Tenants-at-will at revenue rates 4 2
Tenants-at-will paying other rents 46 45

In the year 1952, Agrarian legislations were passed, by which the occupancy
tenants were conferred proprietary rights for the area under them. In later
years, the land lords had mostly taken up self-cultivation. In the Thal, where
there was scarcity of the tenants in the previous years, the owners had
started self-cultivation due to the development of the Thal area under the
Thal and Taunsa Barrage Projects.
The position of the proprietary and cultivating occupancy of land in 1964 is
shown in the table below:
Detail of tenancy Percentage of
cultivating area
1 Cultivated by owners 48%
2 Cultivated by tenants paying no rent 3%
3 Cultivated by occupancy tenants -
4 Cultivated by tenants at will 49%
5 Tenants-at-will paying cash rents -
6 Tenants-at-will at revenue rates -

By 1963-64, the average holding in the district comprised 24 acres. Except
on the wells round the towns, cultivation was too precarious for cash rents
to be taken, and throughout the district the tenants paid a share of the
produce as rent. Indus land crops irrigated by lift used to pay one quarter
after deduction of the menial’s dues; crops grown on flood water paid one-
third. In the river Chenab lands the common rent was one half. There were
special rents for the expensive crops such as cane and tobacco, which

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