Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/43

 This is a fair sample of the injurious results of a policy which entrusts district works to irresponsible provincial agency; irresponsible, because the local authorities are powerless to interfere, while the departmental authorities—sublimely indifferent to such petty undertakings—see only the neatly tabulated entries in the official return, and these they complacently pass as quite en regle. Besides the embankment and some new barracks in the jail, the only other original work that has been executed by professional engineers during my tenure of office in this district, is the bridge, which, as already mentioned, fell down a few months after it was finished. In the extensive series of improvements, which in the course of five years have converted a mean village into a handsome town, the department has had no hand whatever, except that it greatly delayed their commencement by representing to the Government, with stupendous effrontery, that the result would be "an eye-sore."

Facts will never run off so smoothly as mathematical abstractions, and, therefore, to avoid friction, it is generally found advisable to adhere to the latter. The district officer signs these fancy documents by scores at a time, in duplicate or triplicate, at the top or the bottom, on the face or the reverse, in the blank spaces indicated by the engineer, and can only hope they are technically correct; for the purposes of actual check he keeps a simple statement of his own, which may be very unscientific, but is as least intelligible. About the middle of the month, when the returns have all been despatched and objections answered, the European Engineer feels a little at leisure, and drives out to see the bridge, or road, that may be in progress, gives a few hurried instructions, which he cannot stop to see carried out, and returns into the station, where he presents his bill for travelling allowance, at the rate of eight anas a mile. If there were only simple returns, such as the Magistrate himself could keep, without the assistance of a trained accountant, the engineer might be a native, who could hire for a couple of rupees an ekka or a pony that would take him to the remotest part of the district, where he could spend a day or two in the leisurely inspection of work, finding all the accommodation he required in some neighbouring village. His pay also would be counted by tens of rupees instead of by hundreds; and, as his supervision would be more continuous, there would be more of day-labour and less necessity for the employment of contractors, middle-men and munshis. These are the only people