What's the distance between a Union Parishad (UP) and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) under which the former operates?
This scribe's two-hour search to get the exact figure of the Ups on the website of the LGRD Ministry proved fruitless. Then after a dozen attempts made to locate the appropriate official in the LGRD Ministry, the figure of 4,552 UPs was available.
It can not be argued that the UPs have more potentials than the Upazila Parishads to help the government attain Vision 2021 when the country is projected to attain middle-income status. In fact, the UPs can effectively serve as launching-pads for faster economic growth of Bangladesh. A UP is at a stone's throw for millions of Bangladeshis who are living in rural and urban areas. The elected representatives including Chairman live by their side, always available to address their problems.
But sadly, the UPs are not getting the required funds. Take the instance the Nayergaon North Union Parishad in Chandpur district. One cannot simply move there along the rural roads that contain countless potholes here and there, hindering smooth movement of villagers with rice, potatoes, vegetables and other crops and fishes to the market places..
The Union Health Centre, if fully staffed, could have stopped rural patients in thousands from incurring huge expenditures to go to Dhaka or district headquarters and receive expensive treatment in hospitals and clinics.
There could have been hundreds of small manufacturing units and cottage industries in the UPs across the country, given the necessary facilities. These could have employed hundreds of thousands of people now flocking to Dhaka and other cities for livelihood.
Despite odds, the UPs have already shown their vast potential as real change agents from partial implementation of the Prime Minister's dream project of 'Digital Centres' located in UP offices.
On Tuesday, the capital saw a grand 'Digital Centre Entrepreneurs Conference' at the National Parade Square. Some 11,000 entrepreneurs of over 4,500 'Digital Centres', previously known as 'Union Information and Service Centres (UISCs)', joined the conference.
The digital centers now provide over 200 e-services to the rural people. Some four million students are being imparted education through 23,500 multimedia classrooms. The digital centres in the Union Parishads are also offering outsourcing and training facilities for youths through which they could gain more skills and raise their incomes.
But the plight of UP chairmen and members is yet another drag on efficient functioning of the parishads. One chairman said he gets a paltry Tk 1,500 as monthly honorarium while a member gets only Tk 750 a month. These small amounts of money surely prevent both chairman and members from travelling to villages under their jurisdiction. "What they do now is that they visit the UP offices once or twice a week as a part of a ritual and remain busy with their own struggle for bare survival," said Abul Kalam, an inhabitant of village Masundia under the Nayergaon North Union Parishad.
The situation of the UPs across Bangladesh is as dismal as the lack of vital statistics in the LGRD Ministry itself. It is now time to reverse the trend and make these grass-roots level bodies truly effective to help the country attain prosperity in real terms.
arjayster@gmail.com
