Reduce control on local govts
Speakers urge govt
Speakers at a discussion yesterday urged the government to reduce its control on local governments for strengthening and establishing the latter's autonomy.
They also recommended curbing the authoritativeness of the government officials over implementation of development activities by the local governments to ensure their accountability to the local government representatives.
The conference, “Strengthening democratic local governance: An investigation into the roles and authorities of local governments in Bangladesh”, was jointly organised by Unnayan Shamannay and Centre for Urban Studies at a city hotel.
Though there are enough laws to strengthen the local governments, they are not implemented, preventing them from working independently, they said.
Advocate Sultana Kamal, former adviser to a caretaker government, said the government is duty-bound, as per the constitution, to establish the local government as an autonomous and effective administration to cater for the needs of people.
The government lacks the “political will” to strengthen the local government. Good governance will be ensured when the local governments are empowered through implementation of the laws according to the constitution, she said.
Lawmaker AKM Mozammel Haque said the government officials spend a lion's share of the small amount of the national budget, allocated by the government for the local governments, without any consent from the local representatives.
Each unit of the local governments should be allocated a specific amount of the national budget to carry out development activities which they deem necessary, said Mozammel, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Land Ministry.
Fifty percent of what is collected, usually the taxes, by the local administration should be provided to the local government to extend their services to the people, he suggested.
Prof Sarwar Jahan of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology said the government must decentralise its administrative activities by strengthening the local governments to develop the country's economy.
Dr Mahfuz Kabir, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, presented a paper, “Leveraging the periphery: Effective decentralisation at upazila and union parishad”.
Kabir said the local governments must be allowed to extend their capacity over development works out of the government's control otherwise they can not be autonomous and effective.
Former University Grants Commission chairman Nazrul Islam conducted the conference where Shamim Al Razi, general secretary of Municipal Association of Bangladesh, and Mahbubur Rahman Tulu, president of Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum, spoke.
Urban planner Salma A Shafi presented a paper on the scenario of the pourasava and different local government representatives of the country took part in the conference.
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