Experts against amendment to Upazila Parishad Act

FE Report Experts on local government bodies underscored the need for empowering public representatives more instead of administrative executives for ensuring an effective Upazila Parishad. They called upon the government not to bring any changes in the Upazila Parishad Act-1998, which will contradict with the Constitution further creating gap among the lawmakers, UNO (Upazila Nirbahi Officer)s and members of the Parishad. They made the plea at a roundtable organised by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) at CIRDAP auditorium in the capital Monday where chairman of different upazila parishads, lawmakers and members from the civil society took part. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Col (retd) Shawkat Ali, MP, was the chief guest in the discussion where participants requested the parliamentarians not to amend the law in line with their proposals. According to the draft proposals, the UNO will act as the chief executive of an upazila while the elected chairman will be made an executive. Chairmen of various upazila parishads said the key local government body is not getting an expected boost due to lack of political commitment resulting in creating lack of confidence among them over its future. They said they have seriously been neglected in their institutions as lawmakers and administrative executives played the key role ignoring chairmen and other members. "We have no official responsibility in the local government body. Even, there is no role for the public representatives in the process of fund disbursement," President of Bangladesh Upazila Parishad Association Harun-Or-Rashid Howlader said. Mr Howlader, chairman of Dumki Upazila Parishad of Patuakhali, said practically the upazila chairman has no role to play. "It should not be accepted at all. It must be changed as people gave them the responsibility to work for the socio-economic development of the parishad," he added. Syed Razzak Ali, chairman of Jhalakathi Sadar Upazila said he does not know anything about the budget of his area as he has no budget-related officers. "The UNO has spent the budgetary allocation in consultation with others. It's very frustrating," he said. Local government expert Professor Tofail Ahmed said there is no necessity of changing the law. "The government can resolve much-talked about problems across the table," he said. Local government expert Badiul Alam Majumder criticised the bill, which is supposed to be passed by the House Monday, saying that administrative executives will establish their supremacy in the local government body by using such a law. "It's not law of a civilised country. It should be scrapped immediately for the sake of democracy," he demanded. The speakers also sought coordination among the stakeholders in the local government body. Among others, former minister and student leader ASM Abdur Rab and TIB chairman Hafizuddin Khan also spoke on the occasion. UNB adds: TIB Programme Manager M Habibur Rahman and Nahid Sharmin presented working papers in the discussion. The speakers put forward 12 recommendations to overcome the problem and make the Upazila Parishads truly effective; otherwise, they said the country's development cannot be ensured. They said power has been centralised instead of the opposite, though people are the owners of power in a democracy. They also said Upazila Parishad can be a mini-parliament.