§ SIR. SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the difficulties encountered in the famine relief of the large Province of Chota Nagpore owing to the absence of railway communication over an area of 21,000 square miles, with a population of over four millions; and whether any and what steps are contemplated for opening up railway communication throughout t he Province, both for facilitating famine relief and developing the mineral and agricultural resources of the district?
§ THE SECRETARY or STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON, Middlesex, Ealing)I am aware that there was at one time some difficulty in connection with the supply of food to Palamow, but I have heard of no other cases of difficulty in connection with the famine administration of Chota Nagpore. There is a line of railway 110W under construction in the Province of Chota Nagpore by the extension southward of the East Indian Railway system from Moghul Serai to Gya, and eventually to Palamow. Proposals are also under the consideration of the Government of India for the creation of branch lines northward into Chota Nagpore in connection with the Bengal and Nagpur Railway Company's system, which already traverses a portion of the Province.