NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
31
Sanitary
restrictions
with.
regard to
funeral
processions
and burials.
81. (1) The Collector of the district may make rules—
(a) prescribing the route which shall be taken by a
funeral procession from the place of death to
the grave-yard, burning ground or other place
for final disposal of the corpse, and the places,
if any, at which such procession may halt on its
way for funeral prayers, ceremonies or other
purposes ;
(b) for enforcing burial in certain places or at a
certain depth, ordinarily not less than six feet ;
(c) requiring that the bathing of persons attending
the funeral shall be conducted at a place
prescribed by him.
(2) He may also prohibit the burial or burning of
corpses of persons reasonably supposed to have died of the
plague in or upon ground other than ground specially assigned
by him for such purpose.
(3) When a person dies of plague elsewhere than
within the limits of a hospital, no one shall touch the corpse
except those who undertake the necessary duties of preparing
it for the funeral. The dead may be dressed for the grave by
their own relations or in whatever manner may be customary
among the class to which they belong, but such persons shall
disinfect themselves according to the orders which may be
issued by the Collector in this behalf.
Persons
leaving
an infected
place should
obtain pass-
ports.
82. The Collector may direct that every person wishing
to leave whether by road or rail an infected or notified town,
village or area with the view of residing in another town,
village or area, whether infected or not infected, shall, before
doing so, apply to and obtain from such officer as may be
appointed in this behalf passports in the form shown in
Appendix II-A ; provided that no passport shall be issued
to any person suffering or suspected to be suffering from
plague, or to persons who have so lately suffered from plague
as to be in an infectious state or who are likely from recent
contact with cases of pneumonic plague to be infected or to be
in an infectious state ; and the said officer may always require
and in case of contacts shall require, before granting a pass-
port, that all clothes and other articles which are proposed to
be taken away shall be disinfected in such manner as he or
superior authority may direct.
Explanation.—A convalescent cannot be considered to be
free from plague infection until the expiry of one month from
subsidence of acute symptoms of the disease, or one week from
the complete healing of a bubo.
3
82
Other kinds
of passports,
83. In lieu of the passport prescribed under the last
preceding rule or to meet the case of frequent, journeys to an
infected or notified town, village or area, the Collector may
issue or permit to be issued other kinds of passports, namely—
(1) A general pass in the form shown in Appendix II-B
covering frequent or daily journeys by road or boat from a
specified village, but not journeys by rail nor residence outside
the affected area or specified village.
(2) A general pass in the form shown in Appendix
II-C covering frequent or daily journeys by rail from a speci-
fied village, but not residence outside the affected area or
specified village.
(3) A general pass in the form shown in Appendix
II-D covering visits to a periodical market.
General
passes.
84. General passes in Forms B and C may be given to
agriculturists and others having occasion to make daily or
frequent journeys to or from an infected area, and may be
given for a specified period, but they will not cover residence
outside of the infected area, otherwise than in the village
specified in the pass. In the case of agriculturists, if the
officer granting the pass is satisfied that it is necessary for the
whole family to go and work in the fields, a single pass may
be given for the family, but in the case of railway journeys a
separate pass in Form C shall be issued to each individual.
General passes should be given freely, and in the case of agri-
culturists working in the fields need not be revoked even should
a case of plague occur in the family of the pass-holder. In the
case of persons who regularly visit weekly markets in adjoin-
ing non-infected areas and return to the infected or notified
place within a period not exceeding 24 hours, a permanent
pass in the form given in Appendix II-D should be issued.
Intimation of the grant of such passes shall be duly communi-
cated to the officers concerned in the non-infected area, and
a register shall be maintained in the form shown in Appendix
II-G of all permanent passes issued.
Special
passes.
85. Instead of the passport or passes referred to in the
last three rules a special pass in the form shown in Appendix
II-E may be issued permitting persons to leave inhabited areas
of an infected or notified town or village and reside on fresh
sites approved by an officer authorized in this behalf. Such
passes may be granted for households, provided that the name
and description of each person covered by the pass is entered
therein. The ofíicer issuing the pass may always require,
before the pass is given, that all clothes and other articles to
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be taken away shall be disinfected in suck manner as he or
superior authority may direct. Persons holding these passes
shall not be allowed to return to the inhabited area except
under such restrictions as the said officer may from time to
time require or until the pass shall haye been cancelled by
him and until all clothing and articles to be taken back with
them shall have been disinfected.
85-A. Persons who have been in immediate contact with
plague patients and to whom a passport under Rule 82 has not
been granted, shall be placed under surveillance under a pass
in the form in Appendix II-E1.
Establish-
ment of pass-
port-issuing
offices.
86, At convenient spots within, or in. the proximity of,
the inhabited area of an infected or notified town or village,
the Collector shall establish one or more offices for the issue
of passports and passes and shall notify by tom-tom the
locality of such office or offices at such intervals as he shall
consider sufficient to inform the inhabitants of their purpose
and position.
86-A. As long as plague is confined within narrow limits,
an infected place must be regarded as requiring as much
protection as any other place against fresh importations of
infection, and all persons who may come from a second centre
of contamination or from a railway station which in conse-
quence of its proximity to such a second centre has been
notified by the local Government, should be furnished with
passports if not already provided with them under Rule 82
and be kept under surveillance. But a person who comes to
an infected place from a railway station which has been
notified in consequence of its proximity to that place does not
require a passport and if any passport had been issued at such
station, it shall be recovered by the local authority of the
place of arrival and forwarded to the officer Who issued the
passport. On the other hand, a person who proceeds to such
a railway station from the place which is infected shall take
out a passport though if he returns to the infected place
within ten days the passport may be given up on his return
and further inspection is unnecessary.
86-B. Whenever under the provisions of Rule 82 or Rule
86-A, a fresh passport is issued to a person already holding
a passport the officer issuing such fresh passport shall recover
the old passport and transmit the same to the officer by whom
it was issued, the issue of the new passport being noted on
the old passport,
a*
34
Duties of
passport-
issuing
officers.
87. It is the duty of passport-issuing officers not merely
to issue passports to those who apply for them, but also to
trace persons who have evaded or infringed the passport
rules.
Evasion of
rules.
88. Any person evading or infringing these rules shall
be prosecuted, unless the Collector sees reason to the contrary,
and any such person, whether prosecuted or not, shall be
placed under the passport system as soon as the evasion is
discovered.
88-A. All Government or railway officers or pensioners
on salaries or pensions of Rs. 100 or upwards per mensem,
all deputy tahsildars, all medical officers, all title-holders, all
special or honorary magistrates, all members of district
boards, taluk boards or municipal councils shall be exempted
ex-officio, from the necessity of taking out passports or
passes. A certificate of exemption should be issued on
application to every such person in the form given in Appen-
dix II-H1. The certificate should be signed by the Collector
of the district in which the applicant permanently resides.
In the case of residents of the Madras City it should be issued
by the President of the Corporation of Madras or the Health
Officer or under their orders. In the case of railway officers
on salaries of Rs. 100 per mensem and upwards whose head-
quarters are at Bangalore and whose public duties necessitate
frequent journeys to stations in this Presidency, the certificate
will be granted by the Collector of the Civil and Military
station, Bangalore. The certificate will be in force throughout
the Presidency, but will be liable to be revoked as soon as
the holder ceases to possess the qualification entitling him
to exemption.
The special exemption shall not cover the clerks and
servants of the officer exempted nor the members of their
families, who shall be liable to observation under the ordinary
rules ; nor shall the exemption confer any immunity from
disinfection of the person and effects of the officer himself
when he has been in immediate contact with a plague patient.
Examption
from rules
requiring
passports
and passes.
88. The Collector or President of the Corporation of
Madras (for the city of Madras), as the case may be, shall
have power also to exempt from the necessity of taking
out passports or passes the following classes of persons, and
the Collector of the Civil and Military station, Bangalore,
shall have similar power in respect of the classes specified in
G.Os., No. 1637 P., dated 26th December 1904, and No. 632 P.,
dated 25th May 1905 ;—
35
(] ) Railway, Postal or other Public servants of such
grades as may, from time to time, be determined by Govern-
ment. Reference on this subject may be made to Appendix
II-H.
(2) Any person with regard to whom there are no
reasonable grounds for suspicion of infection.
Any misuse of the exemption certificate will entail its
summary withdrawal. The certificate will remain in force
till the end of the financial year in which it is granted, but
the Collector, the President of the Corporation of Madras,
or the Collector of the Civil and Military station, Bangalore,
as the case may be, may cancel it at any time without assigning
reasons. Certificates granted under this rule shall be in force
throughout the Presidency.
Observation
camp to
protect a
town or
large village
threatened
with plague.
90. When there is a town or large village in the vicinity
of an infected area, the Collector may "establish a camp of
observation at such town or village and may order detention
and disinfection in such camp of all suspected persons coming
from the infected area without passports or passes. He may
appoint special places where markets may be held and may
prescribe limits beyond which it shall not be lawful for
persons bringing articles for sale from or to an infected area
to pass.
Use of public
conveyances
by plagne
patients
prohibited.
91. No owner, driver or person in charge of a public
conveyance shall carry any person suffering from the plague ;
nor shall any person suffering from the disease enter or be
taken in a public conveyance.
Infected
houses not
to be let until
disinfected.
9«. No person shall let, or show for the purpose of letting,
a building or part of a building in which he knows, or has
reason to know, that a person has suffered or is suffering
from the plague, without having such building or part thereof,
and every article therein likely to retain infection, disinfected
to the satisfaction of the medical officer appointed by the
Collector in this behalf.
Destruction
of infected
huts or sheds.
93. If the Collector of the district or an officer generally
or specially authorized by him in writing in this behalf is of
opinion that the destruction of any hut or shed is necessary
to prevent the spread of the plague, the Collector or such
officer as aforesaid may summarily take measures for the
destruction of such hut or shed and the materials of which it
is constructed.
*
Disuse of
buildings
unfit for
human
habitation.
94. If it appears to the Collector or an officer appointed
by him in this behalf that, in view of the prevalence of plague
within his jurisdiction, any building within such jurisdiction,
36
intended or used as a dwelling, is in so insanitary a con-
dition as to be unfit for human habitation, he may summarily
cause the same to be vacated, and may prohibit, by a
written order, the further use of such building as a dwelling.
After such prohibition no owner or occupier of such building
shall use or suffer the same to be used for human habitation
until the said officer gives written permission in this behalf.
Abatement of
overcrowd-
ing.
95. When any building or place is, in the opinion of the
Collector or an officer generally or specially authorized by
him in writing in this behalf, so overcrowded as to make the
inmates or occupiers specially liable to an attack of plague,
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 situated
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 prescribe 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,
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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 ha.ve 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 it«
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.
Part V.—Penal Provisions.
Penalty for
breach of
regulations.
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.
Note.—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
Ko. 551 of 1899).
101.
*
*
*
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 informa-
tion 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.
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(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 ;
(b) Assistant plague officers including tahsildars and
deputy tahsildars (ordinary or special), chairmen of municipal
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.
103-A. The Collector may fine or suspend subordinates
of the Government medical department who are employed on
plague duty within his district, but against such punishment
there shall be a right of appeal to Government through the
Surgeon-General. Before passing any order regarding the
punishment of a medical subordinate, the Collector shall
consult the district medical and sanitary officer. A copy of
every such order shall forthwith be communicated to the
Surgeon-General who shall be entitled, in any case in which
he considers that the fault ascribed to the subordinate is one
which touches his professional conduct only, to require that
the order shall not be carried into effect pending reference to
Government. No appeal to the Government will be enter-
tained unless preferred within three months from the date of
the order appealed against.
103-B. The Collector may grant casual or privilege leave
to subordinates of the Government medical department whose
services have been lent to local boards or municipalities for
plague duty. Intimation of the application should, however,
be made to the Surgeon-General before privilege leave is
sanctioned. Leave of all other descriptions such as furlough
or sick leave is granted bv the Surgeon-General.
Jurisdiction
and powers
of plague
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.
104-A. Subject to the Collector's approval and general
control, the officer in whom the immediate control over the
39
plague staff employed in a municipality vests may appoint
fine, suspend, or remove from plague duty any member of
that staff except a medical subordinate. The chairman of
the municipal council shall not exercise any of these powers
merely by virtue of his office as chairman or on the ground
that the staff is paid out of municipal funds. He can only
exercise these powers to the extent to which the control of
the staff may have been vested in him by the Collector under
Rule 104.
104-B. The order of any Collector dispensing with the
services of a temporary plague subordinate shall have gen-
eral effect throughout the presidency. The Collector's order
of suspension or dismissal shall be final with regard to
officers lower in rank than that of certificated sanitary in-
spector. Certificated sanitary inspectors shall have a right
of appeal to Government. The appeal shall be forwarded
to Government through the Collector apd the Sanitary
Commissioner.
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 Muhammadans 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 Gov-
ernment of India, in the Home department, detailing the
number of officers required, and where and when they