30
(o] selling grain or jaggery wholesale or storing grain or jaggery
for the wholesale trade ;
(p) manufacturing jaggery or stigar-eandy.
27. It is within the power of municipal chairman to prohibit any of
these manufactures or trades within the limits of his municipality, or
within three miles of such limits, except under licence. Similar powers
are given in the Local Boards Act to presidents of taluk hoards. It is
open to the chairman, or taluk hoard president as the case may he, io
impose such conditions as the interest of public health may demand, and
to refuse altogether to grant licences for the location of such trades and
manufactures in areas where they arc a menace to the public welfare.
It is unnecessary to point out that the locfition of s ach trades or nmnu-
factures in a densely populated area is likely to encourage the increase
of the rat population and to endanger the residential quarters in the
vicinity to an outbreak of plague.
28. Grain bazaars and wholesale grain godowns are usually situated
in the most densely populated a.reas of the towns and villages. From
the point of view of trade, this may be most convenient, but, as regards
prevention of plague, it is perhaps the worst possible arrangement which
could be imagined. Municipal councils and local bodies should make it
their policy to restrict the building of wholesale grain stores to specified
areas, which are not densely populated and which are not likely to
become so. The sites for these should be conveniently situated for
railway and road traffic and for traders.
29. A similar policy is needed in regard to other trades specified in
Schedule V of the District Municipalities Act which are dangerous to
the public health by reason of the stimulus they afford to rat-breeding.
30. (6) Rat-prooßng.—In granting licences municipal chairmen and
taluk board presidents are empowered to insist on what conditions they
think fit. They may insist that no grain for wholesale trade is stored
anywhere within their jurisdiction in a godown which is not rat-free.
It is for them to decide whether or not they will avail themselves of the
provisions of the law which enable them to safeguard -the population
within their jurisdiction. Local bodies may also undertake the con-
struction of bazaars and godowns of their own, and this is of special
importance in areas where foci of infection are known to exist. The
construction of suitable rat-proof godowns as well as of retail bazaars
should prove a remunerative investment for local bodies provided they
maintain, by an effective use of their licensing powers, control over the
location of private godowns. The grant of conditional licences for grain
bazaars and for godowns used for the storage of grain in localities
which are densely populated should enable the local authorities, by
adding to and stiffening the conditions year by year, to effect a steady
improvement in these ' plague spots ' without undue irritation. In a
few years the traders would probably find it more convenient to rent
the godowns-built by the local body, and they should be encouraged to
do so in every possible way. In any case storage of grain in densely
populated areas should not be permitted except in rat-proof godowns,
and wholesale grain stores should under no circumstances be utilized
for purposes of human habitation. Here again what applies to grana-
r-ies applies with ecjual force to other trades and industries specified in
Schedule V of the District Municipalities Act.