The Indian Municipality and Some Practical Hints on Its Everyday Work

name is legion writes a series of letters to the local papers to expose the defects of the administration and to prove how easy it is to remedy them ; and even the official from the AccountanGeneral's office who comes to audit the yearly accounts thinks it incumbent upon him to give the Commissioners the benefit of his views on such subjects as the number of inches of metal to be placed on a r [...] The Commissioners administer the Act under the general supervision of the Divisional Commissioner and the District Magistrate who are empowered to intervene in cases where the Commissioners exceed their legal powers or where their action is likely to lead to a breach of the peace or to endanger the health or safety of the public. [...] General responsibility of the Chairman—His duty to the Ratepayers— His duty to the Commissioners—His duty to the Staff— The position of the Viee-Chairman General responsibility of the Chairman. [...] It is impossible for a staff to work satisfactorily under a number of separate masters ; and in the interests of the staff and of the municipality generally it is the Chairman's plain duty to constitute himself the sole judge of the merits or demerits of particular municipal servants and even at the cost of incurring unpopularity among the Comissioners to insist on keeping the control exerc [...] Now in the nture of things these provisions cannot be made definite and prcise lifter the manner of an engineering specification ; and if each case of non-compliance with the terms of the contract reported by the inspecting officer and disputed by the contractor is investigated on its merits a good deal of troublesome work will be thrown on the higher officers of the municipality and the