No. CCXCVIII.
EXACTION OF TASKS ON RELIEF WORKS.
By J. A. WILLMORE, Esq. C.E., Exec. Engineer.
The difficulty experienced in exacting tasks from the different classes on relief works has been very clearly shown in Mr. Elliott's Report on the Mysore Famine, and as no details are there given, it may be of use to those who may bereafter have charge of such works to know how it was carried out by the Engineer officers, with a very fair amount of success in the Lucknow Division.
We had nothing like the supervising staff allowed in Mysore, which (Chap. V., page 72) appears to have consisted of a Civil officer for each work for general duties, and for the actual work, a Sub-Overseer for every 1,200, an Overseer for every 2,400, and a Sub-Engineer or Assistant for every 4,800 coolies; here, there were no Civil officers attached to works, and the staff for each work consisted of a Public Works officer in charge, and a Civil Subordinate such as a Peshkar, Schoolmaster or other avail- able person to make payments, so that all classing, ganging, hutting, conservancy and the thousand and one details of a relief work had to be attended to by the Public Works officer.
Only one work in the Division was in charge of an Assistant Engineer, all the rest being under charge of Overseers and Sub-Overseers, who as a rule worked most creditably, one native Overseer having had at one time as many as 10,000 people on his work, from the bulk of whom tasks were exacted, and that they were fairly treated is proved by the fact that most of bis people accompanied him from one work to another 20 miles off, when the first was completed. 119
