Read the passage and answer the following questions:

The threat of epidemics gave a further impetus to town planning in the next few decades. Cholera started spreading in 1817 and in 1896 plague made its appearance. The cause of these diseases had not yet been established firmly by medical science.  The government proceeded on the basis of the accepted theory of the time: that there was a direct correlation between living conditions and the spread of disease.  Such views were supported by prominent Indian merchants in the city, such as Dwarkanath Tagore and Rustomjee Cowasjee, who felt that Calcutta needed to be made more healthy.
Densely built-up areas were seen as unsanitary since they obstructed direct sunlight and the circulation of air. That was why working people's huts or "bustis" became the target of demolition. The poor in the city - workers, hawkers, artisans, porters and the unemployed - were once again forced to move to distant parts of the city. Frequent fires also led to stricter building regulations- for instance, thatched huts were banned in 1836 and tiled roofs were made mandatory.

Why was the Lottery Committee established in Calcutta in 1817?

To carry on the work of town planning in Calcutta.

The correct answer is Option 1 - To carry on the work of town planning in Calcutta.

After Wellesley's departure, the work of town planning was carried on by the Lottery Committee (1817) with the help of the government.
The Lottery Committee was so named because funds for town improvement were raised through public lotteries. In other words, in the early decades of the nineteenth-century raising funds for the city was still thought to be the responsibility of public-minded citizens and not exclusively that of the government.
The Lottery Committee commissioned a new map of the city so as to get a comprehensive picture of Calcutta. Among the Committee's major activities was road building in the Indian part of the city and
clearing the river bank of "encroachments". In its drive to make the Indian areas of Calcutta cleaner, the committee removed many huts and displaced the labouring poor, who were now pushed to the outskirts of Calcutta.
The threat of epidemics gave a further impetus to town planning in the next few decades. Cholera started spreading in 1817 and in 1896 plague made its appearance.