Read the following excerpts carefully and answer the questions that follow:
“For the regulation of nuisances of every description”
By the early nineteenth century the British felt that permanent and public rules had to be formulated for regulating all aspects of social life. Even the construction of private buildings and public roads ought to conform to standardised rules that were clearly codified. In his Minute on Calcutta (1803) Wellesley wrote:

It is a primary duty of Government to provide for the health, safety and convenience of the inhabitants of this great town, by establishing a comprehensive system for the improvement of roads, streets, public drains, and water courses, and by fixing permanent rules for the construction and distribution of the houses and public edifices, and for the regulation of nuisances of every description.

(a) How does Wellesley define the duty of the government?

(b) What was the work done by the Lottery Committee?

(c) How did the threat of epidemics give an impetus to town planning in Calcutta?

Solution

(a) Wellesley felt that the duty of the government was threefold in nature:

(i) The government had to provide for the health, safety and convenience of the people.

(ii) For this purpose roads, streets, public drains and water supply had to be improved.

(iii) Construction of houses and public buildings had to conform to standardised rules and regulations.

(b) The Lottery Committee helped to raise fund for town improvement through public lotteries. It got a new map of Calcutta made so as to get a comprehensive picture of Calcutta.

Its major activities included building roads in the Indian part of the city and clearing the river bank of encroachments.

(c) The government believed that there was a correlation between living conditions and the spread of disease. Therefore densely built-up areas like the working people’s huts or bustis were demolished. The city’s poor-workers, hawkers, artisans were forced to move to distant parts of the city.