Ineffective municipalities

Most of the municipalities were set up after 1990, and the majority of them are performing poorly. So the idea of extending an important tier of the local government down to the upazila level has failed to attain its prime objective--creating civic amenities for more and more people. It could also have been effective in containing the migration of rural people to the urban centres.

The PERC has recommended that government grants should be suspended for the municipalities, which will fail to realise 75 per cent of the municipal taxes. The suggestion was made with 14 other recommendations aiming to streamline the municipal administration as a whole. The performance of the newly set up municipalities has been so disappointing that even the question of shuttering several' of them down has been raised. At the same time, the PERC believes that the process of setting up new municipalities should remain suspended for five years.

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However, the issue is far from simple since the idea of raising the number of municipalities is not bad in itself. As an economist has pointed out, the decision-makers must attach due importance to the development factor in assessing the utility of a municipality. The municipal bodies having the potential to grow into a centre of development should not be a burden on the government. But if such bodies were set up with political motives, then the whole purpose of strengthening the local government administration will be defeated. The criterion for a municipality to justify its existence should be its development potential, not political importance.

The government should enable the municipal bodies to become self-financed organisations. The first task is to take stock of their assets and liabilities. Then the government should provide infrastructural support and finally the municipal bodies have to be integrated within the framework of national economy.