SAMARTH— INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OKHAMANDAL 37 



commercial success remain yet to be investigated. There is also salt which nature 

 produces in abundance and which can be had for the gathering. But political 

 circumstances are such that this source of wealth is allowed to go to waste. The 

 attitude of the British Government in this respect is not in my opinion helpful, 

 but this by the way. Finally there is the possibilty of developing a pearl fishery, 

 a question, however, which must be taken in hand by an expert. 



6. Okha should be connected with the Kattiawar system of Railways, and 

 the port of Beyt should be improved. The advantages of so doing would be very 

 great. In the first place the disadvantages which exist at present owing to distance 

 from Amreli and Baroda would vanish. Under prevailing conditions two battalions 

 of sepoys have to be maintained, one at Dhari and the other at Dwarka ; one of 

 these could be safely dispensed with and the expenditure involved in its upkeep saved. 

 It would be very easy to move troops to or from Dwarka and Baroda or Eajkot 

 were the Railway extended to Dwarka. Even if there were no other income 

 assured from the construction of a railway, the consideration that a saving of 

 expenditure on either the Okha or the Dhari Battalion would be effected, should 

 in itself be a strong incentive to the undertaking. But as a matter of course, 

 considerable revenue would accrue from pilgrim traffic which would increase immensely 

 and from trade which the port of Beyt would attract when connected with the 

 general Indian railway system. An important reason, besides the excellence of 

 these ports as safe anchorages, why trade would favour Beyt and Dwarka is that 

 being treated on a level with British Indian ports for purposes of customs tariff, 

 a status not granted to the neighbouring ports of Kattiawar, exports from Okha 

 ports would be, and actually are at the present day, exempted from customs dues 

 at British Indian ports ; as for imports, we are free to tax them or not at our 

 pleasure, if they come from British Indian ports. These are important advantages 

 and would help a railway to earn good income should we construct it. 



7. Of minor sources of wealth, Okha produces ghee, wool, sesame, and castor. 

 It is possible to develop tobacco cultivation and even cotton and although no 

 afforestation appears practicable owing to the violent winds which blow over it 

 saturated with saline matter destructive of vegetable growth, my idea is that the 

 non-arable waste land which exists in abundance may be planted with googul 

 which grows naturally if protected from goats, sheep, and camels and is capable 

 of yielding some revenue from its gum and from its wood which is used as 

 fuel when dried. 



8. The great sources of revenue, next after the land, tax (Rs. 32,850) which 



is only nominal in it incidence, are the pilgrim tax (Rs. 3,5,900) and the customs 



duties (Rs. 26,125). The total revenue of the Taluka from all sources is Rs. 109,250 



and the total expenditure is Rs. 203,700, a normal deficit of Rs. 94,450 annually. 



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