Page 97 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

Chapter 6

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The Local Government Department existed in the district at the time of
independence, and was headed by an Assistant Director then. It was
massively reformed in 2017, and a Deputy Director was posted at the district
level. In addition, 4 Assistant Directors were posted at tehsil level for the first
time. At present, the sanctioned staff strength for the district office is 20
whereas 7 seats have been sanctioned for each tehsil office. There are 111
union councils and as many secretaries. The functions of the union councils
include registration of deaths, births, marriages and divorces. The union
councils are also responsible for the cleanliness as well as provision of clean
drinking water in their respective jurisdictions.
The first local government institution, the District Board, was established in
Muzaffargarh in 1887 under the Punjab District Board Act 1883. It had 30
members amongst whom 20 were non-official and 10 were official members.
The membership was enhanced to 40 in 1909 owing to the addition of the
Tehsil Layyah to the district; of this 28 were non-official and 12 were official
members. There were local boards in the 4 tehsils too, but those were
abolished in 1913. In 1923, elections were introduced and the constitution
of the District Board was set as follows:

Ex-officio 6
Nominated 6
Elected 24
Total 36

The first general elections were held in 1924. The Deputy Commissioner was
the ex-officio chairman of the District Board, whereas the vice-chairman was
elected annually. The activities of the District Board extended to Education,
Medical, Public Health, Agriculture, Veterinary Services, and
Communications. The system continued till the year 1959 when it was
replaced by the Basic Democracies system. Under the system, 87 Union
Councils, 7 Union Committees, 6 Town Communities, 2 Municipal
Committees, 4 Tehsil Councils and 1 District Council were established. The
details of the membership were as follows:

Elected Nominated Official Total
District Council 10 10 20 40
4 Tehsil Councils 93 35 40 168
2 Municipal Committees 7 4 3 14

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