DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0109
(' 99 )
the following passage from the report of Mr. Palmer, Super-
intending Engineer of the Allahabad Circle
“ The organization had to register these vast numbers of people;
form them into gangs and parties; find and keep them in work ; keep
them going with tools and baskets; measure their work ; pay them daily ;
draw and distribute their drinking water, and disinfect every well they
approached; continuously force them to observe the simplest rules of
sanitation; provide a number of them with shelter; run up field hos-
pitals ; attend to their wants and shift them to new ground in epidemics ;
and, finally, to bury or burn the dead. They were in such vast num-
bers, and so large a proportion had temporarily broken with their
village life, that it was necessary to look after them in every detail. In
addition to these duties a large proportion of the children had to be fed ;
and at one time over 40,000 children were receiving two cooked meals a
day, prepared and distributed at 283 different places scattered over an area
of over 15,000 square miles.”
Still the system proved stronger than the strain upon
it.
To control the vast multitude (which, as already
stated, reached 1,325,950 people in the end of Eebruary),
to direct the professional and general management of the
works, to regulate payments, and to supervise the administra-
tion of gratuitous relief to dependants and the maintenance
of sanitary precautions, the staff, including officers of the
rank of Upper Subordinates, consisted of 136 officers, depart-
mental and military, classed as follows:—
Chief Engineer ...
• e # e i »
1
Superintending Engineers
... ...
4
Divisional Engineers
8
District and Assistant Engineers
, , ,
44
Military Officers lent by the Commander-in-Chief
20
Upper Subordinates
... 9 « 9
26
Visiting Inspectors
• « • 9 9 9
Total
33
136
The subordinate agency when at its greatest strength
consisted of the following officers who worked under the
controlling staff mentioned above :—•
77 Lower subordinates.
652 Work agents (answering to Lower subordinates).
274 Naib tahsildars (Officers-in-ckarge).
104 Ditto (not Officers-in-charge).
142 Hospital assistants or compounders.
The smallness of this controlling staff is noteworthy.
It will appear later on that the cost of establishment was only
Es. 3,77,844, or less than 3 per cent, on the amount of wages
paid.
The period, 1st March to 15th April 1897, marking the
continuance of the spring harvest, exhibited a diminution in
the numbers of persons on the works in all districts except in
some of the Allahabad division; and in most districts the
decrease was permanent. The chief incidents of this period
were the dispersal of the relief workers in the Allahabad
the following passage from the report of Mr. Palmer, Super-
intending Engineer of the Allahabad Circle
“ The organization had to register these vast numbers of people;
form them into gangs and parties; find and keep them in work ; keep
them going with tools and baskets; measure their work ; pay them daily ;
draw and distribute their drinking water, and disinfect every well they
approached; continuously force them to observe the simplest rules of
sanitation; provide a number of them with shelter; run up field hos-
pitals ; attend to their wants and shift them to new ground in epidemics ;
and, finally, to bury or burn the dead. They were in such vast num-
bers, and so large a proportion had temporarily broken with their
village life, that it was necessary to look after them in every detail. In
addition to these duties a large proportion of the children had to be fed ;
and at one time over 40,000 children were receiving two cooked meals a
day, prepared and distributed at 283 different places scattered over an area
of over 15,000 square miles.”
Still the system proved stronger than the strain upon
it.
To control the vast multitude (which, as already
stated, reached 1,325,950 people in the end of Eebruary),
to direct the professional and general management of the
works, to regulate payments, and to supervise the administra-
tion of gratuitous relief to dependants and the maintenance
of sanitary precautions, the staff, including officers of the
rank of Upper Subordinates, consisted of 136 officers, depart-
mental and military, classed as follows:—
Chief Engineer ...
• e # e i »
1
Superintending Engineers
... ...
4
Divisional Engineers
8
District and Assistant Engineers
, , ,
44
Military Officers lent by the Commander-in-Chief
20
Upper Subordinates
... 9 « 9
26
Visiting Inspectors
• « • 9 9 9
Total
33
136
The subordinate agency when at its greatest strength
consisted of the following officers who worked under the
controlling staff mentioned above :—•
77 Lower subordinates.
652 Work agents (answering to Lower subordinates).
274 Naib tahsildars (Officers-in-ckarge).
104 Ditto (not Officers-in-charge).
142 Hospital assistants or compounders.
The smallness of this controlling staff is noteworthy.
It will appear later on that the cost of establishment was only
Es. 3,77,844, or less than 3 per cent, on the amount of wages
paid.
The period, 1st March to 15th April 1897, marking the
continuance of the spring harvest, exhibited a diminution in
the numbers of persons on the works in all districts except in
some of the Allahabad division; and in most districts the
decrease was permanent. The chief incidents of this period
were the dispersal of the relief workers in the Allahabad