352 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XVII.

Partabgarh and Lawa.

728. No information has been received regard-
ing these small States.

Hill States lying between Bengal,
Central Provinces, and Madras.

729. It will be convenient next to notice together that tract which lies en-
closed between Bengal, the Central Provinces, and
Madras, comprising the Tributary States of the two
first and the Agency tracts of the last named province. In this manner only is it
possible to consider systematically and thoroughly the question of bringing the
excise arrangements in respect of hemp drugs which prevail in this tract into
some conformity with the general principles recommended by the Commission.
This tract may be divided into four parts, viz., the Chota Nagpur Tributary
Mahals and the Orissa Tributary Mahals, both under the Bengal Government; the
Chhattisgarh Tributary States, under the Central Provinces; and the Agency
Tracts, under the Madras Government. The following table shows the area,
population, and revenue of each of these groups:—

Tributary States of the Central
Provinces.

730. In the Tributary States under the Central Provinces the cultivation of
ganja has been stopped at the instance of the Local
Administration, and a supply of ganja is now furnish-
ed to these States from the Government storehouse at Khandwa. The system
is that the drugs are supplied to the chiefs at cost price (the cost going to the
wholesale vendor, and the Government realizing nothing), and that the chiefs
must adhere to the provincial price of Rs. 3 per sér in their sales to the retail
vendors. The only exception is in the case of the three Western States of the
Raipur district, in which under special arrangement half the duty goes to Govern-
ment. Elsewhere the whole of the duty is realized by the chiefs. The present
state of affairs is thus described by the Political Agent, Chhattisgarh. It should
be explained that his report refers to all the Chhattisgarh States, including the four
Western States which are detached from those on the Bengal or Madras border:
"The only States in which the hemp plant has never been cultivated for the
production of drugs are those of Kawardha and Kalahandi. In the other twelve
such cultivation was at one time fully indulged in, but in all it has now been
completely suppressed. The system in force may be summed up in a word as
being identical, so far as the local circumstances permit, with that which
prevails throughout the Central Provinces. The principles observed are prac-
tically, though not in all cases formally, based on the provisions of Act XXII of
1881 and of the Central Provinces Excise Manual. Bhang and charas are un-
known in the Feudatory States, except in Nandgaon, where a little bhang is
consumed." This complete arrangement suffers, however, from the smuggling