BANKURA. the total
Four
sum placed
relief
7s. 5d.
85
at the disposal of the Relief
The
depots were opened.
a cwt. in January, to
i8s.
Committee was ;^3044.
price of coarse rice rose from
8d. in August,
and ;^i,
is.
4d. in
In 1874-75 drought was the occasion of another famine in District. Energetic measures were at once taken on the
September.
Rankura
appearance of distress ; 28 relief centres were established, and a ^10,000 was placed at the disposal of the District Relief Com-
first
sum
of
Roads were constructed to give employand liberal grain and takdvi advances were made to the cultivators. Abundant harvests in the two succeeding years soon restored the District to prosperity, and prices of grain mittee for gratuitous
ment
relief.
to the able-bodied,
speedily returned to their ordinary rates.
—
Commerce and Trade, etc The principal manufactures of Bankura and cotton fabrics. Bishnupur town contains a large weaving population, and is noted for the prettily embroidered silk scarfs and fine cloths of silk and cotton there manufactured. Plates, cups, etc., of a kind of soap-stone, are also carved at Bishnupur by the local stone-cutters the stone, which is brought from Manbhum, is of a grey colour, close-grained and compact, and easily cut. The District manufactures suffice to meet the local demand, and a considerable surplus is left over for exportation to other Districts and to Calcutta. The chief articles of export are rice, oil-seeds, cotton, and silk cloth, silk cocoons, and lac the imports are English piece-goods, salt, tobacco, .
District are silk
The
exports are considerably more valuable than the and coin is consequently accumulating in the District. Trade is carried on chiefly by means of permanent markets, and also through the medium of fairs. Bankura is well supplied with roads, and the transit of light loads by carts or pack-bullocks is easy in the cold and hot weather, though many of the common cart roads and tracks become impassable during the rains. spices, eta
imports,
Administration
.
— The
District
administrative
consists
staff
of
a
Collector-Magistrate, Joint-Magistrate, Assistant Magistrate, 3 Deputy Magistrates, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Civil Surgeon, etc. Since
Bankura was constituted a separate Collectorate revenue has steadily increased.
and the total the revenue had increased to ;^4 o,67o,
_;^i7,5ii
in
civil
in 1835-36, the District
In that year the
total
revenue amounted
expenditure to ;^8oo6
to ;^5o,736,
and the
civil
1860-61, the revenue had further risen to
by 1850-51,
expenditure to
^60, o’] 2, and
the civil expenditure to ^^19,426; while in 1870-71, the total District revenue amounted to ;!^69, 130, and the civil expenditure to ^25,441.
During the
thirty-five years, therefore,
between 1835-36 and 1870-71,
the District revenue increased by 72 percent., and the civil expenditure by 2 1 7 per cent. Since the last-mentioned year the District area has
undergone considerable change, owing
to transfers to
Bardwan on the
