Power to impress labour in emergency.

(1) Whenever it appears to the Executive Engineer, or to any Sub-Divisional Officer acting under his general or special orders in this behalf, that, unless some work is immediately executed, such serious damage will happen or continue to any canal as is likely to cause or continue to cause serious public injury or serious interruption of the normal course of irrigation, and that the labour necessary for the proper execution thereof cannot be obtained in the ordinary manner in time to prevent such injury or interruption or to remedy it within a reasonable time, the Executive Engineer, or any Sub-Divisional Officer acting under the said orders, may by public proclamation by beat of drum, require every permanent holder and occupier of irrigable land resident in any village within five miles of the place where the work is to be executed, and every agricultural labourer employed by them, to attend in person at such place and to carry out such duties as may be allotted to them. (2) If, in the opinion of the Executive Engineer, or of any Sub-Divisional Officer acting under the said orders, the amount of labour likely to attend in pursuance of an order under sub-section (1) is not sufficient, he may at any time in like manner and subject to the same conditions, issue a like order requiring the attendance of all persons resident within five miles of the place where the work is to be executed. (3) The rates or wages to be paid for such work shall exceed those current in the neighbourhood for similar work, and any person attending in compliance which the proclamation shall be paid for the whole period during which he is thereby prevented from following his ordinary occupation. (4) No person shall be required to carry out any duties under this section for which such person is unfitted by reason of age, sex or bodily infirmity.