In April 1972, I was appointed as the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the then Jamalpur sub-division of Mymensingh district. I was the first SDO appointed by the Bangladesh government. I took over charge of the sub-division from Mr. Mannan Bhuiyan who was appointed by the Pakistan government. Jamalpur sub-division at that time comprised the present districts of Jamalpur and Sherpur. Actually Sherpur was a thana of Jamalpur sub-district. People of Sherpur were generally averse to any dominant role of Jamalpur Sadar though it was the headquarters of the sub-division. They would give an impression that no one from Jamalpur, except the SDO, was worth talking to for any specific purpose. The reason was that Sherpur was economically less depressed than Jamalpur and inhabitants of the area were visibly more solvent than those of Jamalpur.
I did not have a fair idea about a sub-division before joining the civil service of Pakistan (CSP). I was brought up in the district headquarters of Noakhali. It was a rural town. Our life by and large revolved around this town. Having passed the matriculation examination (SSC) I moved to Dhaka College, Dhaka. Here also our life was confined to college, university premises and selected areas of Dhaka city. The names of Dhaka and Noakhali were too well-known to me, but I had no idea about the size, shape and configuration of the districts, physical setting of the sub-divisions and their headquarters, their semblance and contrast with the district headquarters. I heard that a young CSP sub-divisional officer (SDO) administered the area. I was very eager to see such an officer. The desire to see such an officer in his workplace was not fulfilled before I became a CSP officer. Some of our teachers in the university having been encadred as CSP officers got the charge of the sub-divisions. I did not have any chance to visit them in their sub-divisions during my student life.
The first sub-division I saw was Hangu in Kohat district to which I was attached as a probationer Assistant Commissioner during my training in Lahore Academy. The SDO in the sub-division was Saidullah Jan, a young CSP officer. He was a bachelor; my batch mate and classmate Saiful Huque and I stayed in his official residence which was a cute bungalow in a picturesque setting. Our routine job was to attend SDO's office every day, observe the SDO at work and learn work in the process. The most interesting part of our job was to accompany the SDO during his tour to different tehshil (former thana or present upazila of Bangladesh). For the first time it dawned on me that sub-division comprised too big an area to be administered by a young SDO. His supervision of administration and development work of such a big area perforce had to be superficial.
Having completed my training in Lahore I came back to East Pakistan and was posted as Assistant commissioner in Jessore. Wali Bhai was the SDO of Magura at that time. In a few days Kamal Siddiqui (Kamal Bhai) was appointed as the SDO of Narail. Both of them were closely known to me from student life; we belonged to the same student party and had similar politico-cultural affinity. I visited them in the sub-divisional headquarters but not accompanied them to any thana headquarters. We also did not discuss with them the size, shape, configuration, economic activities of the thana. My indifference about the life in a thana might have been responsible for this omission.
Right at the beginning of the liberation war I wriggled out of district headquarters to the sub-divisional town of Narail to join the war under the leadership of Kamal Bhai, the SDO, Narail. I naturally become his second in command. Kamal Bhai started work with a lot of gusto, but after three days he left for Dhaka to join his family. He did not return to Narail. The responsibility of sustaining the movement devolved on me. We could hold on for a few days only to retreat to interior areas of the sub-division. During this time I had to move from place to place along with my decimated group. In the process I got a practical idea about the size and landscape of the sub-division. I also moved around Jessore Sadar, Magura, Jenidah besides Narail in connection with organisational work. It now clearly dawned on me that sub-division was a very large unit to administer intensively.
Having worked for sometime as the SDO of Jamalpur it evidently occurred to me that it was not possible for me to nurture intensively such a big sib-division. During my whole tenure I could visit some thanas only once, not more than that. My visit was limited to a few selected organisations. May be, I joined some formal meetings or ceremonial functions. I carried out some inspection work at the police station and a few government or semi-government institutions. I did not really embark on comprehensive development of the sub-division or a particular thana. My working hours were fully consumed by such routine work as maintaining law and order in about a dozen thanas of the sub-division, disposing cases in my court, supervising the daily work of the sub-divisional jail, municipality and some other organisations, joining cultural functions and social events as the chief guest or the president, general supervision of the quotidian work of Circle Officer (Development) and Circle Officer (Revenue). There was no time to craft a well-considered plan for a smaller area like a thana based on a comprehensive survey of the area.
Within a year I was promoted as the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mymensingh, the biggest district of the country. It spanned from Bhairab, Bajit Pur, Astagram in the south-east to Garo Hill to the north. To the west it spread up to Dewanganj and Sharishabari. The district comprised five sub-divisions and more than thirty development and revenue circles. In my view, it was well-neigh impossible for one Deputy Commissioner to plan and implement any development or welfare programme for the district as a whole. I now felt it more intensely that the unit for effective administration at the field level was a thana (present upazila). The area and population of the upazila import such ideal characteristics to upazila. It can truly be developed into an ideal habitat through careful infrastructural planning and social engineering. An officer of the rank of SDO could effectively hold the charge of this unit. I took time to discuss the idea with my peers and senior colleagues. They, by and large, concurred with the idea.
The idea got currency in the beginning of the 1980s, soon after General Ershad assumed state power. He introduced upazila system in the country with the bold, sincere and expert support of the then Cabinet Secretary Mahbubuzzaman. Some of the erstwhile CSP officers, who served as SDO, were also posted as Upazila Nirbahi (executive) Officers (UNO). The upazila system was thus launched with gusto and enthusiasm. This heralded a paradigm shift in the administrative regime of the country, nay the whole of the sub-continent. No elected person was in charge of the upazila to start with; the UNO acted as the Chairman. It was widely publicised that each upazila would be a mini-state.
Introduction of upazila would be meaningless without an elected chairman to head it.
Unfortunately election of the chairman became a headache for the government. It turned out to be a big political issue. All opposition parties firmly believed that Ershad would get his stooges elected as chairmen through manipulation and vote rigging. He would cede a few positions to opposition parties only to lend legitimacy to the whole scheme. They boycotted the elections out of this apprehension. Elections to upazilas that were held on May 22, 1985 were thus unilateral, not participated by any opposition party though technically upazila elections are not contested on party line. There was a widespread rumour that the opposition would vehemently resist the elections to render them fraught with violence. As a result, no law-abiding peace-loving citizen dared participate in the elections. Only some desperate persons with dubious background seized the opportunity to get elected without any genuine contest. They were not respectable from academic or social point of view. Officers at the upazila level were not ready to lend their allegiance to the chairman. They would not unhesitatingly comply with his instructions. As a result, upazila parishad or upazila administration did not take off the way it was planned.
Upazila elections were held once more during the tenure of General Ershad, again without participation of the opposition parties. The outcome was also similar. Restructuring upazila administration under the leadership of an elected person was stymied right from the beginning. Upazila parishad was annulled immediately after the democratic government came to power in 1991. As a result, upazila was reduced to a directly administered unit of the central government under the leadership of the UNO. Deputy Commissioner of the district and the Commissioner of the division became the supervising officers.
The regime that came to power after 1996 national elections enacted a new upazila law to restore the upazila system. The system was restored but elections to upazila could not be held during their tenure. It took about a decade to hold upazila elections at last in January 2009, thanks to the bold steps taken by the then Election Commission. The quality of elections was acceptable, no question was raised. Citizens in general expected that the elected chairmen would play a crucial role in developing upazila as an effective local government institution. Unfortunately members of parliament (MPs), the lawmakers, stood on the way. They decided to hamstring the parishad by undermining the position of the chairmen. They imposed their position in the affairs of the upazila by amending the act; Upazila parishad was subdued again. It is in trance with no sign of recovery.
Upazila elections are being held after the regular interval of five years. All parties are enthusiastically participating in the elections. Party symbols are not used in the elections. So the credentials of the candidates are getting higher weight in voters' choice. Citizens expect that appropriate candidates may be elected this time. Autonomy of the upazila parishad will be established only if the elected chairman and vice-chairmen can work independently without interference from the MP, Deputy Commissioner and officials of the Local Government Division. This warrants amendment of the existing law which, in turn, hinges on benign intention of the government. Citizens so earnestly expect to see the uninterrupted flow of that benign will from our top leaders. In the absence of the benign mindset we will revolve around the vicious circle of sub-optimal performance. Upazila will remain a distant dreamland in the foreseeable future.
Dr. Saadat Husain is a former Chairman of the Public
Service Commission.
saadathusain@yahoo.com
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