§ MR. SUMMERS (Huddersfield)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India if any, and, if so, which, of the relief works that have recently been undertaken in India in presence of famine are directed to provide for the storage of water, or otherwise to alleviate the effects of drought?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. CURZON,) Lancashire, SouthportThe Government has received no detailed list of the particular relief works being carried out in different parts of India. Under the Famine Code a programme of works is drawn up for every district and annually revised; and these programmes would include all such tank and irrigation works as could be undertaken with advantage to the district. In the Madras Presidency Lord Wenlock has from the first commencement of scarcity laid immense stress upon the deepening of old and construction of new wells, to which the energies of his Government have been consistently directed. As early as September, 1891, he reported that 2,800 new wells either had been made or were in course of construction, and these figures have since been greatly increased. Some difficulty is, however, 1336 experienced in the rapid extension of wells, owing to the preference of natives seeking employment on relief works for other forms of labour, even on a lower scale of wages, and in some cases to the more highly-trained labour that is required.