DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0096
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and in activity, zeal, watchfulness of the interests of the
Government, and humanity towards the people left nothing1
to be desired. The Lieutenant-Governor desires to acknow-
ledge the great obligation under which they have placed this
Government.
At an early date special provision was made for
the punctual preparation of the accounts. The Govern-
ment of India, responding to an appeal from this Govern-
ment, deputed some senior officers for the purpose, and
aid was also procured from the Irrigation Branch of the
Public Works Department. Extra clerks were engaged, and
the divisional accounts were gradually brought up to a fair
standard of punctuality. To illustrate the extraordinary pres-
sure thrown on the accounting staff, it may be mentioned that
the ordinary yearly expenditure in the Buildings and Hoads
Branch of the Public Works Department in the North-West-
ern Provinces and Oudh on works and repairs is about 39
lakhs of rupees, whilst between October 1896 and September
1897 over 134 lakhs were expended on famine works, exclu-
sive of tools and plant and establishment.
Prom the beginning and subject to the paramount
duty of saving life the chief objects aimed at by the Executive
officers were, first, the exaction of a fair task; and secondly,
the securing of the punctual payment of the wages earned,
A suitable return for the wages paid was invariably insisted
on unless the recipient was altogether unfit to labour. A
task, light at first in the ease of weak persons, was pre-
scribed and, after warnings, enforced by a system, of fines first
on the digger and, if that did not prove to be effectual, on
the carriers also. Eecourse might also be had to a penal
ration of cooked food or, in extreme cases of recusancy or
malingering, to removal to a workhouse. In regard to
payments of wages it was found, during the Bundelkhand
famine of 1896, that payments twice or three times a week
to the labourers were more convenient for all concerned than
daily payments. But in 1897 daily payments were preferred.
The reason is that in 1896 the numbers on relief were com-
paratively few: they worked nearer their homes; the grain-
dealers knew them better; and their credit was not altogether
exhausted. Moreover in 1896 a large staff of trained Public
Works subordinates was available for employment within a
limited area: and upon the honesty of this staff reliance could
be placed. In 1897 the permanent departmental staff went
but a small way to supply the necessary control: temporary
men were engaged regarding whose probity there was not the
same assurance : the vastly increased numbers on relief pre-
vented the grain-dealers from giving credit to individuals
whom they did not know. All these circumstances combined
to render daily payments necessary, and daily payments there-
fore were generally made from an early stage of the operations*
and in activity, zeal, watchfulness of the interests of the
Government, and humanity towards the people left nothing1
to be desired. The Lieutenant-Governor desires to acknow-
ledge the great obligation under which they have placed this
Government.
At an early date special provision was made for
the punctual preparation of the accounts. The Govern-
ment of India, responding to an appeal from this Govern-
ment, deputed some senior officers for the purpose, and
aid was also procured from the Irrigation Branch of the
Public Works Department. Extra clerks were engaged, and
the divisional accounts were gradually brought up to a fair
standard of punctuality. To illustrate the extraordinary pres-
sure thrown on the accounting staff, it may be mentioned that
the ordinary yearly expenditure in the Buildings and Hoads
Branch of the Public Works Department in the North-West-
ern Provinces and Oudh on works and repairs is about 39
lakhs of rupees, whilst between October 1896 and September
1897 over 134 lakhs were expended on famine works, exclu-
sive of tools and plant and establishment.
Prom the beginning and subject to the paramount
duty of saving life the chief objects aimed at by the Executive
officers were, first, the exaction of a fair task; and secondly,
the securing of the punctual payment of the wages earned,
A suitable return for the wages paid was invariably insisted
on unless the recipient was altogether unfit to labour. A
task, light at first in the ease of weak persons, was pre-
scribed and, after warnings, enforced by a system, of fines first
on the digger and, if that did not prove to be effectual, on
the carriers also. Eecourse might also be had to a penal
ration of cooked food or, in extreme cases of recusancy or
malingering, to removal to a workhouse. In regard to
payments of wages it was found, during the Bundelkhand
famine of 1896, that payments twice or three times a week
to the labourers were more convenient for all concerned than
daily payments. But in 1897 daily payments were preferred.
The reason is that in 1896 the numbers on relief were com-
paratively few: they worked nearer their homes; the grain-
dealers knew them better; and their credit was not altogether
exhausted. Moreover in 1896 a large staff of trained Public
Works subordinates was available for employment within a
limited area: and upon the honesty of this staff reliance could
be placed. In 1897 the permanent departmental staff went
but a small way to supply the necessary control: temporary
men were engaged regarding whose probity there was not the
same assurance : the vastly increased numbers on relief pre-
vented the grain-dealers from giving credit to individuals
whom they did not know. All these circumstances combined
to render daily payments necessary, and daily payments there-
fore were generally made from an early stage of the operations*