370. Information to be obtained at chaukidari parades. [§12, Act V, 1861].
(a)After recording attendance, the officer holding the parade shall question the chaukidars present as to whether they have any reports to make on the following points :-(i)births ;(ii)deaths ;(iii)epidemics:(iv)fires ;(v)the state of crops ;(vi)cattle disease ;(vii)obstruction to telegraph wires ;(viii)injury to survey pillars, Government trees, bridges, etc.;(ix)the arrival of foreigners, swindlers, or criminal tribes in their villages ;(x)the movements of bad characters ;(xi)visits of suspicious persons or registered bad characters to their villages ;(xii)persons suspected of cattle poisoning ;(xiii)loss or straying of cattle ;(xiv)the arrival of any suspicious boats ;(xv)the existence of any dispute likely to lead to a breach of the peace;(xvi)encroachments on, and injuries to, public roads ; and(xvii)any other matter regarding which the officer holding the parade may wish or have been ordered to obtain information.Note. - Information regarding points (i) and (ii) shall only be collected in the rural areas referred to in regulation 234. Information regarding unnatural deaths must, of course, be insisted upon in all areas since this duty is imposed upon the village police by section 45 of the Code of Criminal Procedure .(b)The subjects on which information is required, as specified in clause (a) above, are intended to be of general application, and not to meet the special requirements of particular areas. District Magistrates are at liberty to prescribe further questions, but it is desirable that the number of questions should be strictly limited, and to prevent such special questions being continued after they are no longer required, they should be sanctioned only for a specified time, after which they should be reconsidered. Information obtained in answer to questions specially prescribed by the District Magistrate shall be entered in the general diary.(c)All chaukidars having information to give on any particular subject shall stand up and remain standing until their information has been recorded.(d)Any dafadar or chaukidar having any information to give as to items (x) to (xvi), and any other men whom the officer holding the parade wishes to interrogate, shall be ordered to fall out and their information elicited from them out of hearing of the rest, so that they may understand that it will be kept as far as possible confidential. The remaining chaukidars shall then be allowed to depart. Those detained as above shall not be kept longer than is absolutely necessary. These enquiries shall always be made by the officer-in-charge when he is present at the police-station and the fact noted in the general diary. The questions noted in items (i) to (ix) above may be put by the second officer or the Assistant Sub-Inspector under his supervision, provided that the officer-in-charge acquaints himself with the information elicited. If the officer-in-charge does not himself question the chaukidars who have information to give privately, he shall explain his reason for not doing so in the general diary.(e)The information obtained under items (i) and (ii) in clause (a) above shall be entered in the registers of births and deaths, that obtained under other heads in the general diary, items (ix), (x), (xi) and (xv) being also entered in the Village Crime Note-Book.(f)When birth and death reports are called for, each chaukidar shall hand in his hath-chitta. These hath-chittas, whether containing entries or not, shall be authenticated by the signature of a member of the Union Board or Panchayat, and shall be brought in by chaukidars even when blank. Fresh entries shall be transcribed into the registers of births and deaths while the parade is going on.(g)Chaukidars should be catechised to ascertain whether they are acquainted with the absconders, proclaimed offenders, released convicts, suspected characters and lathials residing or having relations in their villages.(h)Complaints by chaukidars of non-payment of salaries should be entered in the general diary, after chaukdiari parade which will be available for reference when enquiries into a police complaint regarding non-payment of chaukidars' salaries are made.
