Page 62 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

settlement, the wrong measurements both alter the shapes of the fields and
place them in wrong positions. Through the fault of the system, although an
owner might be in undisturbed possession of his entire field, he would be
shown as a trespasser in half the area in his possession and as having lost
the half of his rightful field from the trespass by his neighbour on the other
side. The result was a nightmare map and a record full of numbers which
had no existence in fact, but were created in a mad attempt to reconcile two
sets of measurements, preference being given to that which was known to be
wrong. Mercifully, the faults in this system were detected sufficiently early
for the work to be corrected, or, where necessary, to be done a second time.
Later, the following procedure was adopted; on the receipt of the plotting
sheets from the Survey Department, sufficient fixed points were laid down to
enable the patwaris to plot out the squares and fields of the old
measurement. They then went to the spot and measured the estate in the
ordinary way in the presence of the landowners, who were called on to declare
any disputed boundaries. There never were any since in the riverain estates
the memory of the owners was tenacious, and trespass was never permitted,
no one ever tried to take advantage of the old inaccurate measurements, and
to do so would usually have been suicidal since invariably what would have
been gained on one side of the number was lost on the other. Whereas by the
old system the real fields found on the spot were changed to make them
conform to the old mistakes, by the new system the records were brought
into conformity with the real fields.
Remeasurement and Revision

Except in the Thal, fields were prepared in all estates and parts of estates
safe from riverain action. In a few estates in the three southern tehsils,
revision was found to be impossible, and re-measurement was made by
squares. Everywhere else revision was found suitable, and was carried out
in the usual way.
In addition to the copy of the maps prepared for the tehsils, tracings on wax
paper were made for the patwaris of all riverain estates for use in matters of
alluvision and diluvion. Every patwari was given a tracing on cloth for crop
inspection, etc.
Index maps on the scale of 240 karams to the inch were prepared for each
purt sarkar. During the first year duplicates were also made, but later on
were given up as unnecessary. Maps on the scale of 960 karams to the inch
were made for each village notebook.
Record of Rights
The following documents were included in the Record of Rights:

(1) the preliminary proceedings, citing the notification of the Government
sanctioning the new settlement, and giving the date of the beginning and end
of the measurement and of the attestations by the different officials;
(2) the field maps;

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