Past mayors of Dhaka city did demand an authority for themselves over the all utility service providers for the sake of better coordination in the matters of ensuring improved civic amenities and reducing the hassles the Dhakaites faced very often.
One past mayor, belonging to the ruling Awami League, had earned wrath of the relevant minister for raising the demand for introducing metropolitan government system in Dhaka city. His immediate successor, elected from rival BNP, also stuck to the demand. But he too could not make any headway.
On Monday last, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) issued a circular asking the chiefs of utility service providers in Dhaka to attend general meetings of the two city corporations and implement decisions of the meeting.
The chiefs were also asked to inform the city corporations about the progress made in the implementation of the decisions.
In fact, the PMO circular has only reiterated what is demanded under the section 49 (15) of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009. According to the provision of the law, chiefs of providers of utility services such as gas, power, water and electricity, are required to attend the general meetings of the city corporations.
But, in reality, according to a newspaper report, chiefs do not attend such meetings and usually send junior level officers as their representatives. Moreover, these entities ignore most decisions taken at the meetings for those are not legally obligatory on their part.
The truth is every utility service provider does their work in Dhaka city the way they like. The city corporations also do not behave differently; they too prefer to uphold their so-called independence.
The laissez-faire approach on the part of all parties is visible very well in the development activities involving the roads, lanes and by-lanes of Dhaka city.
The utility service providers are often seen engaged in digging roads only days or weeks after they were repaired or carpeted afresh by the city corporations. The former do deposit certain amount of money with the city corporation concerned for repair of the roads. But the fact remains that, in most, cases, the roads are left in deplorable conditions for months together, causing serious sufferings to their users.
Water-logging is another problem that needs effective coordination among the city corporations and the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA). It is the responsibility of the two city corporations to keep surface drains along roads, lanes and by-lanes clean to make way for the rain or waste water flow into the Dhaka WASA-maintained bigger canals or drains. None of these organisations has been doing justice to their duties and responsibilities and the failure is largely responsible for serious water-logging problems in some areas of Dhaka city.
The DWASA is more concerned about water supply job which is less troublesome compared to the maintenance of sewer system in Dhaka. A large part of Dhaka has no sewer system and residents use the surface drains to get rid of sewer or waste water. There is no indication that the DWASA would ever introduce efficient sewer system in those areas.
Given the past experience, it is hard to predict the outcome of the latest PMO circular on the issue of better coordination among the city corporations and utility service providers. It could produce some positive results initially. But the possibility of its losing effect after some days cannot be ruled out.
Moreover, the city corporations themselves are reportedly not serious about holding general meetings once in a month in accordance with the relevant law. After assuming office in May 2015, the two mayors were supposed to hold at least 24 general meetings. The Dhaka South and North city corporations held only five and six meetings respectively.
The heads of a total of 27 utility service providers and other government agencies, councillors and officials concerned are required to attend the monthly general meetings of city corporations. Such a large gathering is not anyway suitable for building effective coordination on any issue. The ministry of local government should find some other ways to involve the real stakeholders in the matters of coordination in ensuring improved services for the residents of Dhaka city, which is the most densely populated city in the world.
Moreover, the two city corporations are yet to get the dynamism they need to improve their performance. Their standing committees, headed by councillors, responsible for overseeing different important city matters are reportedly not active. If the city corporations themselves are not willing to act according to the needs of the citizens, it is no use of pressing the demand for exercising some authority over others in the name of coordination or anything else.
