Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/95

 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