Rai Bahadur’s resignation
THE resignation of Rai Bahadur Milkhi Ram of the membership of the Lahore Municipal Committee and his statement of the causes which led him to take that step, have attracted public attention in a pointed manner to the affairs of that body. It will be remembered that numerous complaints are made of corruption and mismanagement in various departments of the municipality, which led to Owen Roberts making a strongly worded but brief indictment in the Punjab Legislative Council on March 24. Indicating a serious defect in the Municipal Committee, Roberts said it was not at all a competent body to administer public funds. Milkhi Ram’s resignation, coming on top of this, puts the last straw on the camel’s back and calls for an immediate enquiry. It is time, as we said the other day, that the matter was promptly looked into and steps were taken to safeguard the civic interests of the inhabitants of the capital city of the province. The complaints made against the municipal administration are fairly numerous, but we shall draw attention here to a few of the principal ones. There is, in the first place, a serious grievance against the communal policy adopted in the municipal service which is stated to have adversely affected the interests of all non-Muslim employee in general and of Hindus in particular. In the higher ranks of the Public Works Department alone, it is stated, at least four Hindus, each one of whom had a distinguished record of long service to his credit, were either made to resign or had themselves to leave because their posts were brought under reduction.
