3
to find one's way in a straight course. The houses are built of mud, and only
about one-fifth of them have tiled roofs, the remainder being constructed of mud.
They are very badly ventilated, and have but few windows. Generally speaking,
the doors, which, in some instances are mere holes in the wall about 3 feet square,
afford the only communication with the external air. Such were seen in Mahar
- w a d a , n e a r t h e M u n g u l w a r G a t e . S o m e t i m e s a n o p e n i n g h a s b e e n l e f t i n t h e
mud roofs to allow of the escape of smoke, but this means of ventilation is not
universal.
11. Towards the street, except in the main thoroughfares, where goods are
exposed for sale in shops, the house-wall presents no opening, but access is given
by a door, on passing through which, an enclosed space is found, and on either
side of this the dwelling apartments are built, an open space or chouk being left
in the centre.
12. Ahmednagar was declared a city municipality, under Act VI of 1873,
on 4th September 1874. There are thirty-one commissioners, nine of whom are
appointed ex-officio, and the remainder are nominated by Government. Out of
this electoral body, eleven members are annually chosen to form a managing
committee, over whom a chairman presides.
13. A halalcore cess was imposed in 1869, but I learnt with surprise that
some 40 or 50 houses are allowed to be exempt from its provisions. This is en
- t i r e l y w r o n g . P u b l i c s e r v i c e o u g h t t o b e e n f o r c e d , w i t h o u t e x c e p t i o n , o n a l l t h e
inhabitants, as is done in Bombay, although any person might be permitted to
have the exclusive service of a municipal halalcore by paying the full rate for
his services, and a slight additional sum to cover the cost of supervision. That
this course is necessary in the city is clear; for, as I chanced to see in the privy
attached to the Khoja Shureef Haveli, which is served by a private halalcore,
there was no basket, but decomposing nightsoil was spread over the platform
to the depth of 3 inches, in which there were worms, and which was flowing over
the ground at the back.
14. It is stated there are 2,000 privies in the town. These are sometimes
situated inside the walled enclosure, but are too often built into the wall of the
house, and are, in these cases, cleaned through a trap door opening on to the public
street; whilst in many instances the owner of a house has erected a private privy
on the ground outside the wall of his house, and between it and the curbstone of
the adjacent street. From all these privies, as well as from the bathing-places,
urine and ablution-water find their way by means of a drain or trench cut in
the earth, and sometimes are discharged into the roadside gutter or an absorbent
cesspit, or frequently into a small earthen vessel, which soon gets choked up,
when its liquid contents are thrown over the surface of the compound or road.
15. There are also about 20 wadgas, or enclosures surrounded by a mud
wall, the surface of which is composed either of the bare ground, or else a raised
stone-laid platform is built on the edge, of which the inhabitants of a certain
number of houses to which the wadga belongs, sit, to perform the offices of
nature. The ablution-water soaks into the ground, or finds its way into the road
-side gutter by means of an earthen trench.
16. An accurate register of the number of persons using the privies and
wadgas is kept for the purpose of the halalcore cess, and it is stated that 2,852
families, consisting of 12,280 persons (of whom 10,335 pay the rate for privies
and 1,945 the wadga rate), are provided with accommodation inside the city.
In addition to the above, the municipality has erected the following necessaries
inside the city, and the wadga rate (6 annas per head per annum) is charged on
all persons making use of them. In Anundi Bazar a necessary containing 25
seats for men and 25 for women, or a total of 50, which, at a census taken on the
4th August, was found on that day to have been used by 1,400 persons. In