Page 203 - PERSIAN 9 1931_1940

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Kail) Sarhnfcg Abdullah Khan Tumnj remained in command of the Aftmich
Ainnicli. Regiment in this province throughout the
the year.
►Salining Baqir Khan of (lie Central Amnieli Administration arrived from
Tehran on inspection early in the year, and Amir Ka.shkar Zurgluuni, the Gene-
ral Officer Commanding, visited Kerman in the month of May.
In view it is understood, of the Amnich authorities’ inability to cope with
.the various road robberies, which became rather too frequent in the early uuin-
mcr, Kaib Sarhang Tuniaj received instructions from Tehran, in the month of
July, to take his orders from the Officer Commanding Kerman Brigade, and this
■arrangement remained in force until the end of the year.
Scvcrnl cases of irregularity on lxdialf of the Amn'ueh Officers and Non-
Commissioned Officers stationed in the various outposts in the province were
brought to notice during the year.
The main artery road cut through middle of the town from east to west
Municipality. and called the Khcyaban-i-Shahpur was com­
pleted during the year, with the exception of
eertaiu sections which will still have to be levelled up and metalled.
A new road leading from the above to the main bazaar was taken in band
by the cx-Govcrnor-Gencral and finished during the year. A large circus at the
cast end of the new main road was also begun early in the year but left unfinished
■due to want of funds and the recall of the ex-Qovernor-Goneral at the end of
August. Sections of the balustrade round this circus sank in at the latter part
of the year as the result of the ground being flooded for cultivation.
The old cemetery on the east side of the city, in which dead bodies were
being buried until quite recently, was plotted out by the crr-Govemor-Gcneral,
with a view to providing land to the inhabitants whose houses had been demo­
lished to make room for the construction of the new roads. As the result of
representations made to Tehran, however, the Governor-General received orders
in the month of March not to interfere with the cemeteries any longer. But
several plots had already been disposed of and houses built on the site.
A new cemetery, which was started by the erc-Governor-General some two or
three miles outside the city, to replace the old one, and on which a considerable
amount of the Municipality funds had been spent, was, therefore, abandoned
without having been completed or used.
The yearly allowance allotted to the Kerman Municipality from Tehran,
for construction work and general improvement of the city, was reduced at the
beffinning of the current Persian year (21st March) from Tomans 20,000 to
8,000.
All available funds, including a sum of Tomans 18,000, subscribed from other
provinces and collected locally for distribution among those who had suffered
from the floods of the previous year, were used up on construction work, by the
ez-Govcrnor-Gencral, on whose recall to Tehran in the month of August the
Municipality was left with n large deficit.
To make matters worse, the pay of the various Health Departments was
struck off the general budget from the beginning of November, and the Kerman
Municipality wore to make llicir own arrangements for the payment of the
Health*services in tlieir own area from that date onwards.
With the exception of the reduced .allotment of Tomans 8,000 referred to
above, the Municipality will have to find all their requirements locally. The
lighting of the Municipal area hv electricity alone is costing oven Rials 10,000
each month.
It is needless to say that very little construction work is being carried on
under the present circumstances.
The Municipal tax of 3 per cent, on private houses was finally fixed by the
new Governor-General on the basis of a nominal rent of 3 per cent. Houses lot
out on lease will have to pay 8 per cent., while those valued below Rials. 4,000
will he exempt, from tax.
The above tax, which is being collected gradually for the last threo years, is
expected to amount to over Tomans. 50,000 in the year.