Upazilas (sub-districts) have great potentials to become growth centres. The upazila system, which was introduced in 1982 but scrapped in 1991, was revived in 1998. As an upazila lies near a cluster of villages, it serves as a busy market place full of farm produces transported from different rural areas for their onward movement to district headquarters. As a result, farmers get the opportunity to get fair prices for their products.
The upazila is run by an elected council called the upazila parishad, comprising a chairman, a vice-chairman and a woman vice-chairman. All three are elected through direct popular election. Union parishad chairmen within the upazila are considered as the members of the porishad. The central government has transferred 17 subjects to upazila parishads. First Class government officials are posted there and the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) serves as the administrative head.
The upazila is the second lowest tier of the country's administration with the union being the first at the grassroots level. Local governments overseeing development works at the upazila and the union levels, if given power, have the potentials to serve millions of rural people in an effective way. This is because they are at the village level, having interaction with the common people every day.
In fact, an effective system of local government is important for both political and economic reasons. It shares power and promotes the accountability of local public services. It also helps to fit those services to local needs and preferences.
It is really encouraging to see great enthusiasm about the coming upazila parishad election. Elections to 102 out of 487 upazilas will be held on February 19. The elections to other upazila parishads will be held on expiry of their tenure. The last election to 479 upazila parishads was held on January 22, 2009. The tenure of more than 100 upazila parishads is set to expire in February. Around 223 upazila parishads will complete their tenure in March, 35 in April, 85 in May, 18 in June and the rest between July and September this year.
According to the Upazila Parishad Act 1998, the tenure of an upazila parishad begins from the day the first meeting of the elected council is held. This is why, though elections to the parishads were held at the same time, the expiry dates of the upazila parishads will vary. As per the electoral laws, polls to the upazila parishads are held within 180 days before their tenure expires. With the addition of nine more upazila parishads in the last five years, the Election Commission now will have to hold polls to 487 upazila parishads which have around 80 million voters.
The first upazila parishad election was held in 1985 and then in 1990. After a long break, the last election was held in 2009, just three weeks after the ninth parliamentary polls.
A total of 651 candidates will contest for the posts of chairman in the polls to 98 upazila parishads slated for February 19 and 24. Besides, 612 more will vie for vice-chairman posts while 357 for women vice-chairman posts in the first phase of the election, according to the EC.
In fact, good governance means exercise of political power to manage a nation's affairs. It is all about how people are ruled, how the affairs of the state are administered and regulated -- in relation to public administration and law.
Good governance addresses governance for the people and by the people, transparency and accountability in administration, efficiency, timeliness and equity in public service delivery, availability of resources and finance, pro-people planning and budgeting, development of socio-economic affairs including improvement of law and order situation, and ensuring social justice. These aspects of governance cannot be practised without a decentralised local government system.
The local government system was introduced in this part of the subcontinent in 1870 through the 'Choukidari Panchayet Act'. Many reforms took place but most of the reforms had narrow political motives resulting in a fragile local government system. Even during democratic regimes, many of the administrative and local government reform committees/commissions worked to produce reports manifesting the then government's desire, like the Huda Commission (1992) and Rahmat Ali Commission (1997). The 'Administrative and Services Reorganisation Committee' headed by late Professor Muzaffar Ahamed Chowdhury, known as 'Chowdhury Committee' (1972), and to some extent the 'Khan Committee' (1982) and the 'Nurun Nabi Chowdhury Committee' (1996), produced high quality empirical findings and recommendations.
Sadly, many of their recommendations were not implemented. The 'Chowdhury Committee' is noted for the reform of field administration as well as local government, focusing on Articles 9, 11, 59 and 60 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The committee recommended transformation of then sub-sub-divisions to districts, and abolishment of the divisional unit from local government structure. It focused on a three-tier local government, consisting of union, thana and district, and the district was addressed as the focal point of administration.
Though the Chowdhury Committee (1972) emphasised extension of the work of ministries and agencies to thana level, the Khan Committee (1982) empowered thana level of local government in many cases. The report of the Chowdhury Committee was not published for the people. Though some reports have been published, proper action has not been taken.
Although the upazila system has been restored, the elected representatives have not been empowered by the Dhaka-based administration to work as per local needs. That is why many upazila parishad chairmen and vice-chairmen and leaders of different political parties blame lawmakers and bureaucrats for making the local bodies weak and ineffective. They demand that the upazila parishad be made autonomous.
It is hoped that the upazila parishads will be given powers as per the local government laws to implement the government's development plans. The members of parliament (MPs), who have been made advisers to these elective councils, should also see to it that these councils could really serve the local people as per their hopes and aspirations. This is because the upazila parishad is at a stone's throw from villages at a time when the MPs live in Dhaka, far away from their constituencies, being heavily engaged in law-making process in parliament.
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