Executive Officers’ Bill

WE have purposely refrained from expressing any opinion before now regarding the Punjab Executive Officers’ Bill, the text of which appeared in our issue of July 22, because, in the first place, we were anxious to avoid a hasty expression of opinion in regard to a matter of such importance, and secondly there was clearly no occasion for hurry. Now that the bigger municipalities have begun to consider the measure, and one or two have already considered it, we find it incumbent on ourselves not to make any further delay in giving our opinion on the subject. But before we do so, it is perhaps as well to state that this is not the first time that a proposal of this kind has been made, and that when it was made some years ago, the most enlightened opinion in the province was found to be opposed to it, partly because an Executive Officer was then regarded as a somewhat expensive luxury which it was neither necessary nor desirable for municipalities, with their limited resources, to indulge in, and partly on the ground that under the conditions in the municipalities at the time, an Executive Officer, though nominally a servant, would really be the master of the rate payers. There was ample reason for this fear, not only because public opinion was then admittedly weak and apathetic, but because the experience of some of the bigger municipalities, in which the Secretary — a somewhat humbler functionary than the Executive Officer — was a member of the ICS or some other permanent Service whose services had been lent to the municipality pointed to no other conclusion.