structure of local government
There are five tiers of local government institutions – Union Parishad, Upazila Parishad, Zilla Parishad, Paurashwa and Municipal Corporation. There are 4,575 union councils, 495 upazila councils, 61 district councils (except three hill districts), 330 paurshwas and 12 municipal corporations in the country.
Local government refers to the system of local governance that works to provide services to local people, develop infrastructure, and solve local problems. For example, the responsibilities of the Dhaka North and South City Corporations include solving the problems of the city’s residents, for which they also collect taxes.
The public itself elects ward commissioners and mayors in municipal corporations through voting. In principle, there should be no interference from the central government. However, successive governments have consistently tried to maintain such control.
The Local Government Reform Commission, set up during the interim government, said in its report, “There is no substitute for an effective local government system to ensure good local governance.” It said that though seven commissions and committees have been constituted at different times since independence to strengthen local government and ensure governance at the local level, their recommendations have never been effectively implemented. It is noteworthy that the recommendations of this commission have also not been implemented to a great extent.
“No government has allowed local government institutions to develop into bodies that meet people’s needs; rather, they have sought to maintain central authority,” Kazi Maruful Islam, professor at the Department of Development Studies at Dhaka University, told Prothom Alo.
He considered local government as an ‘instrument’ of political power. There is no sign of any initiative to reverse that trend. “It is unfortunate that the provision of dismissing elected local representatives ‘at will’ is being retained,” he said. We expected a more positive role from the BNP government, which came to power with strong public support.