Editorial
Local government bodies
Ensure their full functional freedom
The government move to revoke the powers of the Members of Parliament over upazila parishads is quite in keeping with the generally accepted plan of ensuring more functional autonomy for the local government bodies, of which the upazila parishad is an important tier. In fact, the local government system is the corner stone of participatory democracy and the more it enjoys operational freedom, the greater will be the decentralization of power.
MPs as lawmakers have many important functions to perform which in popular perception were never performed satisfactorily, at least in the recent past. The members belonging both to the treasury bench and the opposition were expected to offer constructive criticism and suggestions on governance issues through the parliamentary committees. But the MPs failed to make their presence felt and the parliament lost it vibrancy and efficacy. There was also a noticeable tendency among the MPs to abstain from parliamentary proceedings. In short, parliament seldom witnessed lively discourses on national issues.
However, the MPs exerted considerable influence on the upazila parishads in their constituencies. This in practice meant that they could not rise above presenting themselves as local leaders. And the local bodies became a mere extension of the MP's sphere of activities. The result has, of course, not been good. The powerful MPs and ministers exerted their influence on the decision making process to have more funds allocated for their respective constituencies, which violated the principle of equitable allocation of funds among the constituencies. It is good news that the cabinet has approved in principle an ordinance that will put an end to this practice.
The local government issue has to be placed in the right perspective in order to ensure democratisation at all levels. The local government representatives are elected by people and as such they have to be given the powers to make decisions independently for the development of their respective areas which may include matters like self-financing, education, utility services and even law and order. We believe the local bodies will work a lot more efficiently, once they do not have go by the diktat of the MPs.
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