Local Governance & Development of Bangladesh

Prof.Syed Ahsanul Alam

01.Introduction: In the recent years both nationally and internationally the issues of local government has come to the center stage of development discourse. This is more pronounced in the case of Bangladesh. It has been observed that the development initiatives of the past decades at the national and more so local level could not achieve the desired results of bringing about qualitative changes in the life and livelihood of rural people. These development initiatives were mainly planned and implemented by the bureaucratic apparatus of the national government. Though some of them was implemented at the initiatives of the local government (LG) institutions, but these initiatives were again subjected to the control of the bureaucracy (Hussain, 2000). Of many reasons, ineffective or poor governance at the local level has been cited as the single most important factor for failure of such development initiatives. Local government in Bangladesh plays an important role in initiating and implementing development programs; disputes resolution or providing judicial redress through village courts to local disputes to the people at the grassroots level. But the local bodies have always been subjected to the domination of the bureaucracy and the national level politicians, since the inception of the system. Again, until recent changes, women had only symbolic representation in the form of nominated member in local bodies. The above suggests that the governance at the local level, for obvious reasons, lacks broad based participation, transparency and accountability. 02.Present Status: Bangladesh has a considerable long tradition of local government. The structure and the functions of the local government have been involved in consonance with socio economic and political transformation of the country. Nevertheless the Bangladesh constitution(Article 9,11,59 and 60) made provisions for establishing local government

as an inseparable organ of administering state affairs to safeguard democratic values and to secure economic and social justice. The 4(Four )articles of the constitution together constitute the supreme source of all laws, ordinances and rules relating to the local government system of the country. Yet there exist some conflict of laws and also conflict of interest among local representatives posing a threat for sound policy execution for establishing strong local government system in Bangladesh. 03.Local governance and sustainable development in Bangladesh: Many development Scholars attributed the dismal economic performance of many countries to the problems of governance and especially the weakness of local governance. It is widely accepted that sustainable development cannot be achieved without powerful local government delivering service to citizen at the grassroots level .This is more true in a country like ours where the fruit of democracy cannot reach the grass root level with centric administration. Achieving sustainable economic development through powerful local government is a common issues for a over populated country like Bangladesh. This importance of decentralized governance is increasing in any democratic country. So in the present socio eco political context of Bangladesh empowered local government is a crying need and pre requisite for sustainable socio economic political development of Bangladesh. Taking all these facts in consideration this section makes a point of empowered local government which shows greater potentials in achieving developed targets through improved system of local governance at the local level.

04.Stake holder s participation in governance: Development initiative cannot be imposed from the top. It is impractical to think that such initiatives from the central administration will be materialized. Necessity is the mother of invention so local level necessity and priority can only be ascertained at the local level with participation of local people and their representatives. So we should not forget that the doctrine By the people ,of the people and for the people holds valid at local level too. Priority setting and all local dev planning at local level should be done by stake holders to ensure their participation in the execution process. Grass root citizen should be given the right to participate in the decision process of development planning and execution program.

05.Empowering local government in Bangladesh: Delegating power to local governments is an age old demand of the people, civil society,intellegentia and some political quarters. Various steps were taken in the past to strengthen the existing local government institutions in the country. But due to conflict in policy and vested interest local government bodies like Union Parishad, Upazilla Parishad, Zilla Parishad, Municipality and city corporation remained effective as development organs of the government. What does devolution of power to the local government really mean? And what good delegation of more authority to the local government would do to the nation and its citizens? Are not under the democratic parlance the elected representatives of the legislative assembly enough to look after all the needs of the citizens? The history of states and central governments show that local level institutions predate the central governments. Since the classical antiquity to the colonial times in the recent past, it was through imperial conquests that new countries and territories were occupied or annexed by kings and emperors where a central government was imposed from above. Those central governments, in most of the cases, did not represent the people they ruled or governed. The governments at the centre were always looked upon by the subjects they governed as aliens whose main job was to collect tolls by force and crush any attempt to defy the orders of the central authority ruthlessly using brute force. People who were thus ruled had nothing to do with such governments situated at remote capital. But how did the people at the grass root level living in the villages and townships solved their day to day problems locally? At every place on earth whether ruled by any central authority or not, people had their own institutions where people would meet and discuss to solve their problems. These people's institutions were the precursor of local governments in the modern sense of the term. The emergence of national governments in the post-renaissance Europe brought a new dimension to the central governments. The governments at the national capitals could no more be termed aliens, for the rulers whether democratically elected or not belonged to the same stock of people, speaking the same language and being heir to the same culture of the people thus administered. But then again such national governments did not do away with the necessity of local governments. In fact, central governments could never replace the importance and need of the local government institutions in the lives of the people. The purpose of the digression above on the subject of central and local governments is to show that historically, local government institutions are more ancient than central authorities and that they are real people's institutions in their own right. Returning to our own context in Bangladesh, it would be found that our society has a

long tradition so far as local governments are concerned. Even during the British colonial period people would elect their representatives at the union boards or union councils with great enthusiasm. In our own union parishad elections, turn-out of the common people is very high. This is for the simple reason that the elected representatives of these bodies remain within their reach and are accessible to them whenever the need arises. But traditionally the central governments that came here in turn did never allow the local government institutions to grow the way they should have. As a result of this attitude of the central government, people have been gradually alienated from the process of decision-making and the situation also left its negative impact on the development activities at the local level. The high powered committee formed by the immediate past caretaker government submitted its recommendations on devolution of power to the local governments to the government. 06. Some Steps to make local government effective: =>Putting an end to the interference of the members of Jatiya Sangsad in the affairs of the local government. =>Increasing participation of women in local level decision-making by increasing their reserved seats from 30 to 40 and, finally, after three terms, with five years' tenure for each term, in office, phasing out the quota system for women's seats altogether. =>The newly recommended structure for the local government bodies will have three tiers for the rural areas (union parishad, upazila parishad and zilla parishad), and two tiers for the urban areas (municipalities and the city corporations). =>Ensuring transparency and accountability in the decision-making of the local government institutions, enhanced participation of the people in the day to day business of these bodies and pooling more resources with increased incomes for these institutions. =>To consider of setting up of an independent commission again to effectively free the local governments from the central one through disentangling them from the tentacles of politics and bureaucracy. The commission will also gradually free the local governments from the control of the ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. =>Ensure participation of qualified candidates as local government representatives on the basis of a set criteria. =>Dismantling of urban local governments like municipalities, city corporations that were commissioned without observing the minimum criteria and so on. The government should pledged to go ahead with proposed recommendations by the high powered committee for empowering and overhauling the local government system

in the country forthwith. Good governance in local government need radical reform in the local government system that has been suggested in the proposal. As has been narrated earlier, central governments vis--vis the local level ones have their separate tracks of historical evolution. Nonetheless, they have functioned in parallel. In modern democratic parlance, these two systems of people's government supplement each other. The types and systems in different countries are as varied as their histories and cultures. And as such there is no set standard for any ideal system of local government anywhere in the world. Bangladesh also needs to have its own, unique system of local government. It should be based on our own culture, history and practice. And it is through a protracted method of trial and error that such a system could be evolved.