Relief
Having been criticized for the badly bungled relief effort during the Orissa famine of 1866, British authorities began to discuss famine policy soon afterwards, and, in early 1868, Sir William Muir, Lieutenant-Governor of Agra Province, issued a famous order stating that:
"every District officer would be held personally responsible that no deaths occurred from starvation which could have been avoided by any exertion or arrangement on his part or that of his subordinates."
The Government of British India organized famine relief works in the British territory of Ajmer and in neighboring Agra Province of British India. In Ajmer, Rs. 49 lakhs were spent in the relief effort, Rs. 5 lakh in revenue remission, and Rs. 21 lakhs in a new scheme for agricultural credit. In Agra, another Rs. 30 lakhs were spent in relieving 29 million units (i.e. one person for one day). The princely states of Rajputana, however, provided very little relief: only Udaipur State spent Rs. 5 lakhs. Consequently, the immigration from the princely states into British India in the later stages of the famine began to overwhelm British efforts, and, in spite of Sir William Muir's newly defined responsibility for each district officer, the resulting mortality was great. It is thought that over 1.5 million people died all over Rajputana during the famine.
Read more about this topic: Rajputana Famine Of 1869
Famous quotes containing the word relief:
“The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This self-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the world’s affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. “I don’t go to question the good Lord in his wisdom,” runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, “but I jest cain’t see why He put valleys in between the hills.””
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“[I]t forged ahead to become a full-fledged metropolis, with 143 faro games, 30 saloons, 4 banks, 27 produce stores, 3 express offices—and an arena for bull-and-bear fights, which, described by Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune, is said to have given Wall Street its best-known phrases.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in travelling in a stage- coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.”
—Washington Irving (1783–1859)