Muzaffarpur Town
Muzaffarpur Town
In 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Head-quarters of Muzaffarpur District, Bengal, situated in 26° 7' N. and 85° 24' E., on the right bank of the Little Gandak. The population, which was 38,241 in 1S72, increased to 42,460 in 1881 and to 49,192 in 1891, but fell in 1901 to 45,617, of whom 31,629 were Hindus and 13,492 Muhammadans. The de- crease of 9 per cent, at the last Census is to a great extent only apparent ; and, but for the exclusion of one of the old wards from the municipal limits, and the temporary absence of a large number of people in connexion with marriage ceremonies, the town would probably have returned at least as many inhabitants as in 1891. Roads radiate from the town in all directions.
A considerable trade is carried by the Little Gandak, the channel of which, if slightly improved, would carry boats of 20 tons burden all the year round. Muzafiarpur was consti- tuted a municipality in 1864. The income during the decade ending 1901-2 averaged Rs. 70,000, and the expenditure Rs. 62,000. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 83,000, including Rs. 30,000 derived from a tax on houses and lands, Rs. 16,000 from a conservancy rate, Rs. 3,000 from a tax on vehicles, and Rs. 13,000 from tolls. The incidence of taxation was Rs. 1-6-1 per head of the population. In the same year the expenditure also amounted to Rs. 83,000, the chief items being Rs. 3,000 spent on lighting, Rs. 3,000 on drainage, Rs. 29,000 on conservancy, Rs. 6,000 on medical relief, Rs. 11,000 on roads, Rs. 17,000 on buildings, and Rs. 1,400 on education. The town is clean, and the streets in many cases are broad and well kept. It contains, in addition to the usual public buildings, a large new hospital, a dispensarj', and several schools, some of the best of which are supported by the Bihar Scientific Society and the Dharmasamaj. In 1899 a college, teaching up to the B.A. standard, was established in Muzaffarpur through the generosity of a local zannndar.
The building is large, and the college is in a flourishing condition. The District jail has accommodation for 465 prisoners, who are employed chiefly in the manufacture of mustard oil, castor oil, daris, carpets, matting, aloe fibre, coarse cloth, and dusters. Near the court buildings is a lake formed from an old bed of the river. To prevent the river from reach- ing it, an embankment has been thrown across the lake towards Daudpur ; but in spite of this the river has cut very deeply into the high bank near the circuit-house, and, unless it changes its course, it will probably in time break through the strip of land which at present separates it from the lake. Muzaffarpur is the head-quarters of the Bihar Light Horse Volunteer Corps. At the time of the Mutiny of 1857 a small number of native troops who were stationed here rose, plundered the Collector's house, and attacked the treasury and jail, but were driven off by the police and najlbs and decamped towards Allganj Sewan in Saran District without causing any further disturbance.
2021: India’s most unliveable city?
Atul Thakur, March 11, 2021: The Times of India
Muzaffarpur in Bihar, where I spent most of my workfrom-home, has finished last in the recently released Ease-of-Living Index. It trails 61 other cities that have a population of less than 1 million. I am neither outraged nor surprised, and do not expect anyone else to be in this old municipality.
An “easy” place Muzaffarpur isn’t, but one thing it teaches you early is to take it easy. I learned this the hard way after spending two hours to buy rations, soon after arriving there last October. Annoyed by my “eternal whining”, my parents politely suggested that such outrage was misplaced in Muzaffarpur.
Like most small towns in North India, Muzaffarpur gets no marks for in-city mobility. Bhagwanpur Chowk (intersection of NH22 and NH102), about 2km from my parents’ home, is perpetually jammed. Juran Chapra (hospital hub), station road, Saraiyaganj and Motijheel (both markets), also test your self-control. My friends from Uttarakhand say distances in pahar (hills) are measured in hours, not kilometres. The rule applies in Bihar as well. Whether it’s a doctor’s appointment or a flight out of Patna, you must make your plans with hours in reserve.
There’s a simple rule of thumb for the speed-breakers you may encounter in Muzaffarpur – they get bigger and more numerous as the road quality worsens. The legal aspect of marking territory by making a huge speed-breaker in front of your house on a public road is beyond the purview of this report.
While you grapple with the traffic, the pervasive stench from Muzaffarpur’s open drains assails your nose. The city’s drainage, laid in 1895, is now a 137.2-km-long network touching most of the municipal area of 30sq km. Of this, only 9.4km, or 7%, is covered. The remaining network has 116.6km of pucca open drain and 11.3km of kutcha open drain. Both are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and sore residents sometimes call Muzaffarpur ‘Machcharpur’. You have heard of land sharks, but Muzaffarpur also has ‘drain sharks’. In municipal wards 16 and 18, I saw houses built over drains. At one place, two such houses built on public drains have tilted like the leaning tower of Pisa.
The third expansion of the government’s Smart City Mission included Muzaffarpur and Patna in 2017. For Muzaffarpur, the government proposed to spend Rs 1,580 crore on projects aimed at making it a ‘smart city’. “Not one of those projects has been implemented so far,” a municipal official, who didn’t wish to be named, said. Sitting in the sprawling municipal office built in 1938, the official blamed lack of departmental coordination and frequent transfers of senior bureaucrats for this failure. “Does it look like a smart city from any angle?” asked Chandan Kumar, who lives in Ward 2.
The anger echoed at Pani Tanki Chowk as well, where Shiva ji Mahto and Lakshman Mahto laughed at the mention of ‘smart city’. The crossing is named after a huge water tank that appears to have been built during the British era. The city probably had piped water even in the pre-Independence days. Its present decay might be largely caused by mismanagement and unregulated growth.
