NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
33
Part IV—Rule 96. ]
the Collector or officer authorized as aforesaid may, by a
notice posted on some conspicuous part of the building or
place, require the owner or occupier, if actually residing in.
the building or place, or the tenants or the actual occupants
thereof, to abate, as prescribed in the notice, the overcrowd-
ing within twenty-four hours by reducing the number of
lodgers, tenants or other occupants of the said building or
place, and, in default of compliance with the requisition in
the said notice, may summarily eject all the inmates or occu-
pants, or reduce the number of the same in such manner and
to such extent as may appear necessary.
Abatement of
nuisances.
96. The Collector or an officer generally or specially
authorized by him in writing in this behalf may, when he
considers necessary, enter upon any premises, whether situ-
ated in a municipality or not, at any time during daylight and
summarily execute any work required under, or summarily
abate any of the nuisances described or indicated in, sections
186, 220, 221 and 228 of the District Municipalities Act, 1884,
or sections 99 and 101 of the Local Boards Act, 1884.
Closing of
places used
for supply,
preparation,
&c., of arti-
cles of food
and drink.
97. The Collector of the district or any officer specially
authorized by him in this behalf may close any shed used for
accommodation of animals whose milk or milk products are
sold by the owner or his agent, and any place used for the
supply, preparation or storage of articles of food and drink
in infected localities or in the immediate neighbourhood of
infected houses, and may direct the removal and, if necessary,
the destruction of all articles of food and drink found in such
places.
Restrictions
on the wash-
ing of
clothes.
98. The Collector of the district may prescribo that no
person undertaking for hire the cleansing of clothing or other
laundry process within an infected area shall store or wash
or otherwise deal with clothing except at such places and at
such times and under such, conditions as he may direct.
Closure
of plague
hospitals and
camps.
99. No hospital, suspect camp or observation camp shall
be closed without the special orders of the Collector, and
until the receipt of such orders the municipality or the
district board shall maintain such places in efficient repair.
If there have been no actual or suspected cases of plague
therein, the Collector may allow a health camp to be closed
after ten days, and a village or town or section of a town in
which no death or fresh case of plague has taken place for
ten days after the recovery or death of the last case to be
reinhabited as soon as it has been thoroughly disinfected,
E
34
[Part V—Rule 100.
Part V.—Penal Provisions.
Penalty foi
breach of
ragulations.
100. Any person disobeying or contravening or refusing
to submit himself to any regulation made under the Epidemic
Diseases Act, 1897, or obstructing any measure which, has
been taken by Government, or which any authority, or officer
appointed under competent authority to carry out such
regulation, has been required or empowered to take under
any such regulation, shall be deemed to have committed
an offence punishable under section 188 of the Indian Penal
Code, and shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to six months
or fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or both.
101. The plague regulations being orders formally made
and issued by Government under the Epidemic Diseases Act,
no sanction is required as a condition precedent to prosecution
for disobeying them (Judgment of the High Court in Criminal
Appeal No. 551 of 1899).
102. If the Police have reason to believe that a person is
evading the plague regulations by giving a false name or a
wrong address, they can act under section 57 of the Criminal
Procedure Code, and detain the person until satisfied that
they have got his true name and address. Failing inform-
ation as to the person's true name and address or the
execution of a bond, the Police should without delay forward
him to a Magistrate.
Part VI,-—Miscellaneous.
Administra
tive staff.
103. (1) For the purposes of these regulations the general
control of all measures connected with plague is vested in the
Collector of the district unless Government shall in any case
otherwise direct, and all officers of Government, of local
boards and of municipalities shall obey and carry out the
Collector's orders.
(2) In subordination to the Collector the following
classification of plague authorities will be observed :—
(a) Plague officers including the following : divisional-
officers (special or otherwise), Assistant Collectors (extra or
otherwise), the district medical and sanitary officer, additional
medical officers, chairmen of municipalities when specially so
appointed by Government and any personal assistant to the
Collector and any one specially so appointed by Government ;
(6) Assistant plague officers including tahsildars and
deputy tahsildars (ordinary or special), chairmen of municipal
35
Part VI-Rule 104.]
councils who have not been specially appointed to be plague
officers by Government, and such other persons of known and
approved character and responsible position as the Collector
may specially appoint.
Jurisdiction
and powers
of plagne
officers.
104. The Collector may, from time to time, assign to
plague officers and assistant plague officers jurisdiction over
such local areas, and confer on the latter officers such powers
as he may deem fit. The plague officers shall have the powers
of assistant plague officers and such additional powers as
may be conferred by Government.
105, The employment on plague duty of Government
officials of the medical and police departments should be
restricted as much as possible and. volunteer agency should
be utilized as much as possible to assist in carrying out plague
measures. Whenever practicable, public and private hospitals
and camps may be placed in charge of native practitioners.
Police officers should not hold enquiries into suspicious cases
of plague. Small representative committees of the inhabitants
may be appointed in various parts of a city to co-operate
with the authorities and to bring to their notice matters
requiring attention or inquiry.
106. As far as circumstances permit, Hindus should be
employed in-those parts of a city where Hindus predominate
and Muhammad ans where Muhammadans are in a majority.
Officers of all grades should show the greatest courtesy and
consideration to the people, and should interfere as little as
possible with their habits, feelings and religious prejudices.
Where subordinate native agency is used, it is absolutely
necessary that Europeans should be appointed as supervisors
over small and convenient units.
Military
Officers.
107. The following procedure should be adopted in
obtaining the services of military officers for plague duty :—
I. A Local Government or Administration requiring
an officer or officers for plague duty will apply to the Govern-
ment of India, in the Home department, detailing the number
of officers required, and where and when they should be
ordered to join. Such applications shall always be accom-
panied by an intimation whether the officer should bring horses
with him.
II. The Government of India will then address the
Adjutant-General in India, who will issue instructions under
the orders of the Commander-in-Chief to one or more Com-
mands to supply the officers wanted, the Government of India
being at the same time informed of the instructions issued,
36
[Part VI-Rule 108,
III. On learning from the Adjutant-General's depart-
ment from what Command the officers asked for will be
supplied, the Government of India will inform the Local
Government or Administration concerned, and all further
correspondence in reference to the individual officers detailed
by Commands, or their replacement, should they for any
reason revert to military duty, will be conducted between the
Local Government or Administration and the Lieutenant-
General Commanding.
IV. When the officers selected have joined their appoint-
ments, the Lieutenant-General Commanding will communicate
their names to the Adjutant-General's department, and their
services will then be placed at the disposal of tile Govern-
ment of India.
V. It is not considered desirable that a military officer
should remain absent from his regiment on plague duty
for more than a year at a time. The Lieutenant-General
Commanding has therefore instructions to arrange with the
Local Government for the relief by a substitute of any such
officer who has been employed on plague work for over a year.
VI. When an officer's services are no longer required,
he should be directed by the Local Government or Adminis-
tration to rejoin his regiment, the Lieutenant-General Com-
manding and the Government of India being at the same
time informed, and the latter will then replace the officer at
the Commander-in-Chief's disposal.
Troops.
108. No officers of the Indian Medical Service or the
Royal Army Medical Corps lent for plague- duty should be
permitted to revert to military duty without the previous
sanction of the Government of India.
109, The use of troops for plague purposes should be
avoided as far as possible and their employment should be
confined to disinfection when local labour is not available.
Before being sent on plague duty, the sepoys should be
inoculated and each of them should be supplied Avith two
suits of white drill, one pair of boots, and two white turbans ;
they should not wear military uniform or carry arms
while so employed. The sanction of Government should be
obtained before requisitioning them, but where the employ-
ment of troops has once been sanctioned, the men may be
changed without reference to Government, arrangements
being made for the relieving detachment to be inoculated
before being despatched to plague work.
Plague
measures in
Cantonments,
110. In Cantonments, the military authorities are imme-
diately responsible for carrying out the plague measures, and
37
part VI—Rule 111.]
collectors should delegate to them the necessary powers under
the plague regulations.
Broach of
plague re-
gulations by
troops and
pensioners.
111. By Command Order, No. 687, dated 18th November
1898, all ranks in the Madras Command have been directed
to obey the plague regulations, and any infringement of them
is punishable as a military offence. Military pensioners have
been warned (Superintendent's circular No. II, dated 14th
December 1898) that any disobedience or wilful neglect of the
regulations or obstruction offered to any official on plague duty
Avili be treated as a breach of the good conduct required by
Government as a condition of the continuation of their
pensions, and that any pensioner being guilty thereof will bo
liable to have his pension stopped forthwith and the same
reduced or permanently withdrawn.
Duties of the
railway staff.
112. The following are the duties of the railway officials
under the plague regulations :—
(1) To prevent passengers from infected areas from
alighting at any station other than an inspection station, and
to insist on their proceeding to the inspection station if it is
suspected that the passengers are evading inspection by so
alighting.
(2) To see with the aid of the platform police that
passengers alighting at a railway station do not leave the
premises except by the proper exit.
(3) To see that the railway tickets issued in an infected
area and the fresh tickets issued to persons from infected
areas who re-book are punched or clipped as prescribed.
(4) To stop all passengers presenting plague-punched
tickets from infected or notified stations until their names
and addresses have been taken down and they have been given
passports either by the plague official appointed for the
purpose or at smaller stations by the station staff themselves.
(5) To disinfect railway carriages from infected areas
and carriages in which persons suffering or suspected to be
suffering from plague have travelled.
(6) To take steps for tracing and destroying rats that
may arrive from infected areas concealed in the goods
imported.
(7) To pub up a notice in all railway carriages inti-
mating that passengers from infected parts should take out
passports at stations of, destination.
(8) To lock the carriages before the arrival of the train
at the inspection station.
(9) To detain the train until the medical inspection
is over.
58
[Part VI—Rule 118
(10) To see that no passenger is permitted to leave
his carriage until the arrangements for his examination are
complete.
(11) To give every assistance to the medical officers
conducting the inspection in order to minimise the detention
of trains.
(12) To carry out the instructions regarding the trans-
mission of the names and addresses of passengers.
(13) To afford every facility towards the working of
the plague regulations generally.
Plague staff
entitled to,
and bound to
give, one
month's
notice.
113. (1) In the absence of a written contract to the
contrary, every inspector, assistant inspector, maistri, peon,
watchman, cooly, scavenger or other menial servant employed
to do duty in connection with plague shall be entitled to one
month's notice before discharge, or to one month's wages in
lieu thereof, unless he is discharged for misconduct or was
engaged for a specified term and is discharged at the end
of it. Similarly every supplier of coolies or other menial
servants shall be entitled to one month's notice before his
coolies are discharged.
(2) No such inspector, assistant inspector, maistri,
peon, watchman, cooly, scavenger or other menial servant
shall, in the absence of a written contract authorizing him so
to do and without reasonable cause, resign his employment
or absent himself from his duties without giving one month's
notice, or shall neglect or refuse to perform his duties or any
of them. In like manner no supplier of coolies or other
menial servants shall withdraw his coolies without giving one
month's notice.
Detention of
public ser-
vants.
114. An officer not being on leave who is prevented from
discharging his duties through segregation 011 account of
plague may be treated as on duty on full pay. In the case
of an officer who is segregated While returning from leave and
thus overstays his leave, the period of detention may be
treated as duty on half-pay. Officers who are suffering from
plague should be dealt with in accordance with the ordinary
rules.
Mode of
disinfection.
115. Whenever disinfection is prescribed by any of these
regulations, it shall be carried out in accordance with the
general principles laid down by Government and such subsi-
diaryinstructions as may be issued by the Sanitary Com-
missioner or, in respect to management of hospitals, by the
Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras,
Compensa-
tion.
116, When in the exercise of the powers conferred by' or
under these regulations any damage or loss is caused, no
39
Part VI-Rule 117.1
person shall be entitled as a matter of right to claim any
compensation, but the Collector of the district or any person
authorized by him may award compensation at the cost of
local, municipal or provincial funds as the case may be, and
shall do so when the loss would fall upon people in very poor
circumstances, to whom it would be a great hardship to bear
it, or may, in such cases, provide other necessary articles in
the place of those destroyed or damaged and debit the charge
to the proper funds.
Supersession
of district
board or
municipality
by Collector
in emergen-
cies.
117. The Collector of a district may, in case of emergency
or to save delay, provide for the execution of any work or the
doing of any act which a district board or municipality is
empowered or required to execute or to do in accordance with
these regulations, and the immediate execution or the doing
of which is in the said Collector's opinion necessary for the
safety of the public, and may charge the expense of executing
the work or doing the act to the local board or municipality
concerned.
Contents of
certificates,
passes, &c.
Their im-
proper use
prohibited.
118. Any certificate, passport or pass granted under these
regulations shall contain an accurate description of the person
named in it to prevent, so far as possible, its being used by
another person; nor shall such certificate or passport or
pass given to any person to enable him to go from one place
to another or for any purpose be used by any other person or
for any other purpose.
Segregated
or detained
persons
bound to obey
directions
given to
them.
119, Every person segregated or detained under any of
these regulations shall obey the directions issued to him by
the officer in charge of the place of segregation or detention
and shall not leave such place except with the written permis-
sion of the said officer, who may take such steps as may be
necessary to enforce this prohibition.
Canal boats,
subject to
same
regulations
as buildings.
120. (1) A canal boat shall be subject to all the regula-
tions applicable to buildings ; and passengers by a canal boat
shall he subject to interrogation, inspection and detention in
the s me manner as passengers by railway.
(2) in order to prevent the spread of the infection of
the plague either by or to a canal boat, the Collector of the
district or any officer generally or specially empowered by him
in this behalf may require such boat to alter its moorings or to
stop during its passage and moor in such position as such officer
may indicate, or may direct that it desist from plying until
such time as may be stated in a notice placed on a conspi-
cuous position of the boat,
40
[Part VI—Rule 121.
Privileges
granted to
inoculated
persona.
121, (1) Persons who hold certificates that they have been
inoculated by M. Haffkine's process, shall be entitled to the
following privileges, provided such certificates bear a date
not earlier than six months and not later than ten days
previously :—
(a) Unless suffering from, or suspected to be suffer-
ing from, plague, they shall not be liable to detention at any
railway or road observation camp when travelling, except for
such period as may be required to disinfect their baggage and
clothes, if those are considered suspicious.
(b) They shall not be liable to take out passports and
present themselves daily for observation for ten clays after
arrival from a plague-infected place, or from any place noti-
fied by the Governor of Fort St. George in Council for the
purposes of these rules ; but they may be observed at their
own residence and shall, with this view, be bound when
required by any plague officer to give their names and
addresses for the next ten days.
(c) Inoculated persons who have been living in an
infected house or have otherwise been exposed to plague
infection shall not be liable to be segregated, but may be
required to evacuate the infected house and to have their
clothes and personal effects disinfected. When, however,
all the occupants of a house have been inoculated, neither the
patients nor the other inmates of the house shall be required
to be segregated, provided arrangements are made to the
satisfaction of a plague officer for the disinfection of the house
and' its contents, and for the prevention of the spread of
plague to the neighbouring dwellings.
(2) The inoculation certificate shall be in the form
shown in Appendix II—F. But when in a certificate issued
under authority, the thumb impression has not been
taken, other satisfactory evidence of identification may be
accepted.
Inoculated
persons bound
fco produce
their inocu-
lation certifi-
cates and
make an im-
pression of
chnrab-niarke,
122. Every inoculated person who is exempted from
segregation, detention and observation under the preceding
Eule 121 shall be bound, when called upon to do so by the
officer mentioned in Rule 3, to produce the certificate showing
that he has been inoculated by M. Haffkine's process, and
also to make 'an impression of his thumb-mark for the
purpose of identification.
Note.—Further information regarding Inoculation is given in Note (5)
in Appendix I.
- 41
Part VI-Rule 1230
Plague
reports
and returns,
123. When a case of plague, genuine or suspected, is first
discovered in any place, not declared infected, the Collector or,
in his absence, any gazetted officer at the head-quarter station
of the district, shall immediately telegraph the fact to the
Secretary to Government, Local and Municipal department,
to the Sanitary Commissioner and to the Surgeon-General.
This telegram shall state whether the case was indigenous or
imported, if the latter whence it was imported, how the case
was discovered, and any other further particulars, with dates,
which appear necessary. Within 24 hours (if possible) of the
despatch of this telegram a special report in the form pre-
scribed in Appendix II—0 shall be despatched to Government
and to the Sanitary Commissioner. A similar course shall be
followed with each subsequent case up to and including the
third case. Names of hamlets should not be telegraphed, but
only the names of the villages to which such hamlets belong.
Provided that no special report of imported cases need be
forwarded from railway inspection stations, unless the medical
officer in charge considers that there are special points
requiring notice, e.g., the detection of a case from an area
hitherto unnotified, or the occurrence of attempts at evasion
of plague rules*
124. After the first three cases have been reported in
accordance with Rule 123 special reports in the form given in
Appendix II—0 regarding indigenous cases need not be sub-
mitted, but a special report of each imported case shall be
forwarded without delay to the Sanitary Commissioner, who
will transmit it to Government with a copy of any remarks
thereon which he may have issued.
For the purposes of these rules, cases of plague among
contacts who have not been, within the preceding fortnight,
in an infected place should be treated as indigenous and not
as imported,
125, All attacks and deaths should be telegraphed daily
by Collectors to Government, the Sanitary Commissioner and
the Surgeon-General in the form communicated with Plague
Commissioner's Proceedings, No. 357, dated 8th February
1899. Nil telegrams are not required. All Collectors should
also send daily telegraphic reports of plague to the medical
officer of the Ceylon Government stationed at Tuticorin
whenever plague cases occur in their districts. The cost of
these telegrams and of similar telegrams sent by Government
will be debited to the Ceylon Government by the Accountant-
general.
F