Editorial
AL's one year in office
Local government neglected
THE coalition government of the 14-Party Alliance led by the AL has completed one year in office today. It's only natural that one would take stock of its performance, particularly because of the fact that the alliance government was voted to power with a huge majority.
Overview of the last twelve months of the government of major issues have been done in the special supplement and other pages of today's issue of this paper; in this column we shall therefore restrict our focus to only one matter that we consider to be of great import for the country that of the local government.
At the risking of sounding obvious let us reaffirm the fact that for Bangladesh the local government system is the cornerstone of not only participatory democracy but also of economic development and good governance. It would ensure bottom up planning and direct participation of the people whose well being is so inextricably linked with the outcome of the development activities in the process of planning and execution.
Needless to say, the constitution also provides for a strong local government system, and which the AL in its election manifesto had pledged to strengthen by decentralising power and making the three tiers of local government more powerful. Thus, given the way the UZ elections were held last February, and the proposed reintroduction of the UZ Parishad Act 1998, although with some changes, one cannot be faulted for thinking that the AL has reneged on its commitment to make the system stronger.
We are disappointed to see that even after 10 months the UZ Parishads have remained non-functional. The functions of the Chairman, Vice Chairman and woman Vice Chairman have not been finalised as yet, and while women representation has been ensured not so their empowerment. Although the tenure of the city corporations and union parishads has expired two years ago, elections to these bodies have not been held as yet.
It is a pity that sheer expediency on the part of the government to appease the parliament members by giving them mandatory advisory power (except of course in the municipalities) has created conditions that we feel may very well undermine, if not cause the collapse, of a perfectly efficient system. In this regard we cannot but take issue with the remarks of the minister for LGRD that the government has taken steps to ensure fair distribution of power between the MPs and the upazila parishads. We feel that it is not the question of balance of power but of giving the due powers to the parishads.
We note the LGRD minister's recent comment to his British counterpart that the UZ parishads are to be made functional in three months. One would hope that it would happen but with seeds of conflicts between two tiers of elected representatives, one the MP and the other the Upazila Chairman duly removed.
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