Chak, a Punjabi word, is the land revenue settlement/assessment circle marking a contiguous block of land. The word Chak comes from Chakar referring to a wheel in Punjabi, specifically a wheel associated with a water well. Historically there was one water well allotted per village and every village number allotted as per water-well wheel. [1] Now the individual chak circles have come to be associated with the name of the village founded within the revenue circle. Chak circles are based on the British Raj era revenue collection system. To enhance the government revenue during the British Raj, new canals were built to bring the barani (rainfed) areas under cultivation by introducing the irrigation to the bangar (upland) areas of Punjab region. Block of contiguous land irrigated by the specific Rajwaha were given a unique chak number each. The migrant farmers were brought in to settle into those newly irrigated areas around the core of new villages [which started out as dhanis ]. Those new villages were called by the same name as their corresponding irrigation circle chak number. Government left it to those residents to give "chaks" a proper village name later. In due time, the term "chak" became synonymous with the term "village". [2]
Chaks are found mainly in the bagar tract on the tri-junction of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab region. Chak, the administrative revenue assessment circle or division, is also called the Chakla, which is not to be confused with the other types of Chaklas. [3]
The villages are named using a four-part British colonial era nomenclature: "Chak (number) (letters) (village name)". Variations exist but usually names of chak have four parts,
Examples of four-part nomenclature are " Chak 106 JB Khichian" (JB denotes Jhang Branch canal), "Chak 445 GB Thaggan Wali" (GB denotes Gogera Branch canal) and "Chak 354/WB Dunyapur". other example Chak 236 GB Kilanwala (GB denotes Gugera Branch Canal)
Examples of chak names with first three components of the four-part nomenclature are Chak 152 P (P denotes the Panjnad River from which they draw water), Chak 128 NB (NB denotes North Branch canal) and Chak 21 MB.
Examples of chak names with first two components of the four-part nomenclature are Chak No. 22.
Examples of chak names which now retain only the name of village are Chak Bahmanian (named after Brahmin caste, Chak Des Raj (named after the founder), Chak Mai Dass (named after the founder), Chak Bilgan, Chak Guru, etc.
Chak is also a village in Danta Ramgarh Tehsil of the Sikar district in Rajasthan, manily populated by Pandits and Purohits.
Chak Bandi in Urdu (چک بندی), in Hindi (चकबंदी) or Killa Bandi in Urdu (قلعہ بندی), in Hindi (किल्लाबंदी), in terms of land and revenue, is the process of land consolidation, [4] and Revenue Settlement. [3] Chak bandi and Settlement is done by the Settlement Officer with the help of patwaris, lambardars and earlier zaildar (now abolished). [5] Chakbandi, in terms of irrigation, means that each chak is irrigated by a branch water-course, fed by a sluice channel in the bank of the main canal where the amount of water given to each chak (farm) owner is in proportion to the area of its chak. [6] Block of contiguous land irrigated by the specific Rajwaha, also called irrigation circle, were given a unique chak number each. [2] The Chak (चक) is also referred to as the Chakla (चकला), [3] which is different from the Chakla-belan for making roti or the Chakla (brothel).
Land consolidation is a planned rationalisation, readjustment, rearrangement of land parcels and their ownership to improve the rural infrastructure and to implement the developmental and environmental policies (improving environmental sustainability and agriculture). [7] For the Chakbandi, contour of village is surveyed, to determine the slope category and drainage profile of the village land in cordinal directions. The land is also evaluated based on its price and productivity. The land holdings of each farmer is consolidated in the standardised-sized "khet" (field plots of usually 1 acre each) and then redistributed to the landlords in proportion to their earlier fragmented land holding's price and productivity. [8] Each chak must contain the same relative quantity of good, bad and indifferent soil. In some tarafs (sides of a tract), almost every alternate field belongs to a different one of the four or five mauzas (villages) contained in it. In others the pattis (fragmented portion of land) are apportioned in long strips of land belonging to each of the different mauzas, and then again subdivided on the same principle. [9]
Permanent Settlement is the process of confirmation of landlord's property rights in the form of tenure or ownership and fixing a corresponding property tax to be paid by the landlords to the government, [10] for using the public infrastructure, such as canal water for irrigation which results in higher crop yield.
Terms related to chakbandi in the measurement of land in Punjab are: Banjar, Jungle, Abadi, Shamlat, Gair Mumkin, Barani, Nahri, Chahi, Taal, Bigha, Doab, HALRIS, Khadir and Bangar, Khasra, Patwari, Shajra, Zaildar, etc.
"Wara" (वारा), a vernacular Haryanvi/Punjabi word for the Hindi word "bari" (बारी), simply means the "turn". Warabandi (वाराबंदी) means the rotational system of a weekly roaster for equitable distribution of irrigation water to the individual chak (field) of each farmer from a sluice outlet. Time allocated to each farmer to draw water from the sluice is proportional to the size of farmer's land holding. To optimise the system, once the wara of a farmer is over, the wara of next farmer in the sequence of contiguous land commences. Irrigators know their turn or wara in advance. [3]
For the fair distribution of water, warrabandi takes into consideration Bharai and Jharai. Bharai (भराई) is the common pool time taken from the release of water from canal through sluice or upstream farmer and its arrival at the delivery point of the farmer whose wara has arrived. Jharai (झराई) is the common pool time (time it takes for the water to arrive) applicable to the tail-end (last) farmer on the sluice. [3]
Doab is a term used in South Asia for the tract of land lying between two confluent rivers. It is similar to an interfluve. In the Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, R. S. McGregor defines it as from Persian do-āb "a region lying between and reaching to the confluence of two rivers."
Hisar district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana, India. Hisar city serves as the district headquarters. Hisar district has four sub-divisions that is, Hisar, Barwala, Hansi and Narnaud, each headed by an SDM. The district is also part of Hisar division. Hisar was founded by Firuz Shah Tughlaq.
Burewala, is a city of Vehari District in Punjab, Pakistan. The city of Burewala is the headquarters of Burewala Tehsil, an administrative subdivision of the district. It is the 34th largest city of Pakistan by population.
A johad, also known as a pokhar or a percolation pond, is a community-owned traditional harvested rainwater storage wetland principally used for effectively harnessing water resources in the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, and western Uttar Pradesh of North India, that collects and stores water throughout the year, to be used for the purpose of recharging the groundwater in the nearby water wells, washing, bathing and drinking by humans and cattle. Some johads also have bricked or stones masonry and cemented ghat.
Haryana, formed on 1 November 1966, is a state in North India. For the administrative purpose, Haryana is divided into 6 revenue divisions which are further divided into 22 districts. For Law and Order maintenance, it is divided into 5 Police Ranges and 4 Police Commissionerates.
Wazirabad Tehsil, is an administrative subdivision (tehsil) of Wazirabad District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The tehsil is headquartered at the city of Wazirabad and is administratively subdivided into 36 Union Councils.
Zaildar was an officer in charge of a Zail which was an administrative unit of group of villages during the Sikh Empire, British Indian Empire in Punjab and Dogra dynasty rule in Jammu and Kashmir. The Settlement Officer, with the advice of the Deputy Commissioner, was responsible for appointing Zaildars from amongst the men of the tribe or the area, thus reinforcing his preexisting social authority with the official sanction as the representative of the government. Zaildars were the revenue-collecting officers also responsible for maintaining law and order. The Lambardar and Safedposh assisted the Zaildar. The Zaildar in turn assisted the Deputy Commissioner. The Zaildar was more influential than the Lambardar because a Zail included several villages.
Dhani or Thok is a type of hamlet, the smallest conglomeration of houses, in the sandy Bagar region of the northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab in India. Per the Census of India, 70% of Indians live in villages. 80% of the villages have a population of less than 1000 people and each consists of a cluster of hamlets. Most dhanis are nucleated settlements, while others are more dispersed. A dhani could be as small as one isolated house for a single family or a small cluster of several houses which could grow in number with successive generations, and even become a village by itself. All families living in a dhani are relatives or at least are of the same caste. An isolated collection of several dhanis, which could be few hundred meters apart, constitutes a gram panchayat village community. A typical dhani in the arid zone of Rajasthan is a cluster of huts with a boundary made of dried shrubs around it and with owners' livestock such as goats, sheep and camels inside the bara. Dhani are atypically mud huts in Rajasthan. Houses in dani nowadays are made of modern brick and mortar, specially in affluent higher-per-capita-income states of Haryana and Punjab, and some richer families of Rajasthan.
Chak No. 129 N.B., commonly referred to as Unatti Moar, is a village situated in Tehsil Sillanwali. It is positioned along the Sillanwali-Farooka Road, on the western side of the Lower Jehulm Canal, within the Sargodha District of Punjab.
Samundri Tehsil is an administrative subdivision of Faisalabad District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Samundri is the city and headquarters of the tehsil. Samundri Tehsil farms are irrigated by Gugera Branch Canal and Burala Branch Canal.
Khādir or Khadar and Bangar, Bāngur or Bhangar are terms used in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi in the Indo-Gangetic plains of North India and Pakistan to differentiate between two types of river plains and alluvial soils. Bangur and Khadir areas are commonly found in the doab regions. Some villages may have both Khadar and Bangar areas within their revenue boundaries. Bhangar soils are less fertile as they are above flood level whereas Khadar soils are more fertile as they are below the flood level. Bhanger is full of kankers while khadar soil is composed of fine silt and clay. It is fertile land as it contains alluvial soil deposited by rivers.
A Khasra Girdawari is a legal Revenue Department document used in India and Pakistan that specifies land and crop details. It is often used in conjunction with a shajra, which is a family tree of owner ;used for reference map of the village that administers the land described by the khasra girdawari. Khasras traditionally detail "all the fields and their areas, measurement, who owns and what cultivators he employs, what crops, what sort of soil, what trees are on the land.". In Indian Land record system, "Khatauni" is an account book, "Khasra girdawari" is a survey book and "Sajra" is the village map. At village level, patwari is appointed to update and maintain these land records.
A shujra or shujrah is a detailed village map that is used for legal and administrative purposes in India and Pakistan. A shujra maps out the village lands into land parcels and gives each parcel a unique number. The patwari maintains a record for each one of these parcels in documents called khasras.
Jalapana is a large village and union council in the Sargodha District of Pakistani Punjab. Its original name is Jalpāna.
Irrigation in India includes a network of major and minor canals from Indian rivers, groundwater well based systems, tanks, and other rainwater harvesting projects for agricultural activities. Of these groundwater system is the largest. In 2013–14, only about 36.7% of total agricultural land in India was reliably irrigated, and remaining 2/3 cultivated land in India is dependent on monsoons. 65% of the irrigation in India is from groundwater. Currently about 51% of the agricultural area cultivating food grains is covered by irrigation. The rest of the area is dependent on rainfall which is most of the times unreliable and unpredictable.
Chak 217 GB, or Gujjar Pind, is a suburban village of Tehsil Samundri in District Faisalabad, Punjab in Pakistan. The first known settlements in the village date between 1898 A.D. to 1920 A.D. The village comprises roughly 1,500 acres. Water is supplied by five irrigation channels, known locally as moga. The Gogera Branch canal, abbreviated as GB and forming part of the village name, irrigates the specific area.
Bagar, also Bagad (बागड़) a term meaning the "dry country", is a region refers in north-western India in north Rajasthan, West Haryana, south west Punjab, India where the Bagri language is spoken and which is inhabited by Bagri people. The region is characterised by sandy tracks and shifting sand dunes which are now irrigated by canals.
CHAK 382 GB Sarwarwali is a village of about 5,000 people situated near the city of Jaranwala in Faisalabad District of Pakistan. There are many castes living this village, such as Dar, Noon, Khichi, and Koras. It has two primary schools: one each for girls and boys.
Chakla may refer to:
The Punjab Irrigation Department is a provincial government department responsible for irrigation in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It irrigates 21 million acres (8,500,000 ha) of the agricultural land in the province.