No meddling in local govt affairs

Union parishad chairmen and members yesterday demanded the government take effective measures to keep lawmakers and other politicians from meddling in the affairs of local government institutions.

In many cases, lawmakers and chairmen of district councils and upazila parishads irrationally try to influence union parishads' activities. They even try to exercise their power to get development projects awarded to their selected contractors, said UP chairmen and members at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.

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As a result, it becomes difficult to ensure accountability and transparency of actions taken by UPs, thus affecting the overall development in unions, said elected representatives of more than 500 UPs under the banner of Self-governed Union Parishad Advocacy Group-Bangladesh.

A UP should be given the power to coordinate all the development in its area, and be kept free from bureaucratic tangles, said Swapan Das, president of the group as he read out a written statement.

Recently a trend has been observed that the government suspends UP chairmen and members on political consideration, showing different excuses, though they have been elected by the people.

There should be a legal framework to ensure that no elected representatives of UPs can be suspended until they are convicted by the court, Swapan said.

The government has raised the amount of honorarium of UP chairmen to Tk 8, 000 and UP members' to Tk 5,000. But still the amounts are insufficient.

“We demand a rational and further raise in our honoraria,” the group's president said.

The UP chairmen and members also demanded establishment of a local government commission to coordinate overall activities of different local government institutions.

At the press conference, they placed a 17-point demand for strengthening UPs, the lowest tier of local government bodies.

“We will continue discussing with the government to realise our demands. If discussion fails, we will be compelled to wage a movement,” Swapan said at the venue.

The group's General Secretary Firoz Siddique and coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarker also spoke at the programme.