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VI(ZA)GNETTES

The first District Collector of Indian Origin in the district, Bhagwandas, was a strict disciplinarian. He was a nightmare for the bus owners as they were heavily fined for flouting rules. He would wear khaki shorts and a half-sleeved white shirt and wait near the ‘gedda’ (stream) near the Komarthi Village in his jeep. He would intercept all the over-crowded buses and overloaded trucks and fine them on the spot. The bus owners popularly called him as ‘Bassula Bhagvandas’.

(Contributed by B.V. Ramamurty)

Sir Arthur Cotton is credited with bringing an agrarian revolution in the Godavari districts. He was motivated to do something for the districts after the then Governor of Madras M.E. Grant Duff lamented that ‘people perished for want of the wa ter that flowed in abundance at their feet.” Having got a clearance from the government for the Godavari Anicut project, he started the work in April 1847. It took five long years to complete the work.

Ten thousand labourers, five hundred carpenters and as many smiths were employed. It was completed at a cost of Rs.15 lakhs on March 31, 1852. It was hailed as ‘the noblest feat of engineering skills which has yet been accomplished in British India’. The Godavari district, which stood at a poor 13th among the 22 districts of Madras Presidency, leaped to 2nd place and Cotton’s irrigation works increased the state’s revenue by 25 per cent.

(Centre of Policy Studies)

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