171
North-West
Provinces and
Oudh.
975. The Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, N.-W. P. and Oudh,
states:—
Our staff of Veterinary Assistants is still too small to. cope effectually with outbreaks of cattle diseases in a
large area like N.-W. P.
We had 17 Veterinary Assistants at the beginning of the year, 3 were added during the year, thus we had 20
Veterinary Assistants on the 31st March 1898 paid from the Provincial funds. Out of these twenty, 6 were deputed
for service with the Tirah Field Force. In addition to the above twenty, 3 were employed by the District Boards,
Sitapur, Partapgarh, and Bara Banki.
The Veterinary Assistants from the following districts were deputed to the Tirah Field Force in December
1897:—Dehra Dun, Shahjehanpur, Agra, Bulandshahr and Hardoi. Veterinary Assistants belonging to Dehra Dun
and Agra have rejoined.
For 48 districts we have 20 Veterinary Assistants which is quite inadequate.
The undermentioned Veterinary Assistants were sent on special duty to deal with cattle diseases in other
districts:—
Veterinary Assistant belonging to Etawah to Banda, May 1897.
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Shahjehanpur to Faizabad, May and June 1897.
Rai Bareilly to Jaunpur, May to August 1897.
Etawah to Jalaun, July to September 1897.
Sultanpur to Benares, October and November 1897.
Banda to Ghazipur
do.
Etawah to Hamirpur, November 1897.
Rai Bareilly to Benares, February and March 1898.
As District Officers naturally dislike having their Veterinary Assistants removed, the Local Government has
now ruled that the cost of deputation of Veterinary Assistants including their pay should, in the absence of any
arrangements betweeen the Boards to the contrary, be borne by the Board of the District in which the services of
these Officers are from time to time employed, and that except in cases of extreme urgency a Veterinary Assistant
attached to a District Board should not in future be transferred without consulting the Board of the district to and
from which the transfer is to take place.
The system of sending Veterinary Assistants out of their own districts is unsatisfactory for the reasons I have
previously given (vide my last year's report), but it will have to be done until we have a man in each district.
When available a Veterinary Assistant was sent to the district where disease was reported as prevalent.
Punjab.
976. The Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, North Punjab,
states:—
I cannot give any information regarding the work done by the Veterinary Assistants beyond showing the
number of animals treated, and to say that the total number of animals castrated by them shows again a falling off,
490 against 540 last year. I presume the falling off is due to a want of supervision over the Veterinary Assistants,
and their taking no interest, and lacking energy in the performance of their duties.
977. The Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, South Punjab,
states:—
While on tour I personally examined thirty-three Veterinary Assistants. These men I classified as:—
Very good
Good
Fair
Bad
Very ignorant
Total
1
17
6
7
2
33
The very good man is Abdul Aziz in charge of the Veterinary Dispensary at Amritsar. The very ignorant
men are Amir Khan an old Salutri at Hansi, and Ghulam Irtza, a man with no qualifications, who called himself a
Salutri. This man has lately been engaged by the Hissar District Board. I saw him when at Hissar, he was wearing
a medal and informed me he had been up to the front. He was shown a pony which was very lame on the near
fore leg from sprained tendons which were much thickened and inflamed. He was unable to tell me either the leg
the pony was lame on, or the cause of the lameness.
On looking at the list of the Veterinary Assistants which I have examined during the past touring season the
chief thing which strikes me is that there is great waste of power from want of organization and supervision.
Though I have classified the men in the above manner it would perhaps have been more correct to have classed
the good men as fairly good. But it is not the fault of the Veterinary Assistants that they are not better men.
They leave the various Veterinary Schools well taught but they are not long enough at these institutions to get
the Veterinary knowledge they have gained ground into them so that they will retain it in after years when they
get their diplomas, they are sent to a tehsil or district without instructions as to how they are to work, and without
any one to supervise and guide them who has any knowledge of the disease of animals and the result of this is they
find they get along best by doing as little as possible, and in a very short time they forget nearly all they learnt.
There should, however, soon be some improvement in these respects as a system of registration, with remarks as to
character and qualifications has been started by the Principal, Lahore Veterinary College, and all Veterinary
Assistants and their work will soon be known.
Baluchistan.
978. The Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, Baluchistan, reports:
There were employed this year the following Salutris paid from District Funds.
1
2
3
Levy
do.
Police
Salutri
do.
do.
at Peshin.
at Thal Chotiali.
at Quetta.
These men only castrated 60 animals in all against 234 last year. No explanation is given.
The Veterinary Assistants have yet not been employed in the agency paid from the District Funds to enquire
into cattle diseases, hence no returns referring to investigation and prevention of cattle disease, are prepared.