After the water has entered the watercourses the canal officials have nothing to do with its distribution. The people arrange among themselves a system of turns, each person taking the water for a certain number of “pahars”--a pahar is a watch of three hours--or fractions of a pahar. The zilladar can however be called in by any person who has a dispute with his neighbour. If the matter is not settled the person aggrieved can lodge a formal complaint and a canal officer then tries the case, and if necessary punishes the offender. In former days it was usual, in some places, for no regular turns to be fixed for the distributaries, orders being issued regarding them from time to time. The weak point about any such plan is that in the event of the controlling officer delaying, owing to any accident, to issue an order, no one knows what to do. Orders were also sometimes issued to zilladars giving them discretionary powers in distribution. No one would now issue such orders. The essential principle is to remove power from the hands of the subordinates. The working of the main channels by turns and the construction of outlets of such a size that they never require closure, has resulted--in places where such matters are attended to--in the absolute destruction of such power.[32] The only way in which a zilladar can injure anyone is to say that water is not in demand. This would however result in damaging the whole of the villages in his charge. He is not likely to do this. [32] In the printed form lately in use in the Punjab for reports on zilladars, one of the questions asked is whether “his arrangements” for the distribution of water are satisfactory, as if that was still considered to be the zilladar’s business. In case the supply is wholly or partially interrupted owing to a breach or an accident at the headworks, or other cause, one particular branch or distributary may lose its turn or part of it. If its loss is not great it may be best to allow the turns to take their usual course, but otherwise they should be temporarily altered in such a way as to compensate the channels which have suffered.