The city development authority, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), on March 4 opened two, out of planned four, zone offices at Mohakhali and Uttara.

A special board meeting of Rajuk took the decision on decentralisation of Rajuk functions on February 6 with objectives to expedite service delivery, enhance efficiency, prevent corruption and lessen public sufferings. But the zone offices of Rajuk are not what they ideally should have been, said experts.

Commenting on the decentralisation plan, a noted economist and environmentalist Prof Muzaffer Ahmad said the idea of decentralisation and delegation of required power have to be adopted in the Rajuk law first. Decentralisation has to be clearly defined and it must mean that a zone office has decision-making apparatus at the local level, he said.

"Our proposal has all along been that decentralisation of Rajuk must started with separation of its regulating and development roles," said Prof Ahmad.

Rajuk has to be comprised of various municipalities, he said, adding that coordination of municipal functions must be a core feature of Rajuk's decentralisation. According to Ahmad, Rajuk's functions must accommodate the role of a neighbourhood council.

A top official of Rajuk said seeking anonymity that most of the files have to be forwarded to Rajuk head office for disposal. There is hardly any case that the deputy director or authorised officer of a zone office can independently dispose of a file.

Most of the files are of different kinds approval and opinion from the law officers (magistrate and legal adviser), directors, members and the Rajuk chairman.

"Decentralisation of this kind means hardly anything for the people," said the official. "It has rather lengthened the procedure of disposal of a file than it would require earlier."

The authorities should have first developed a mechanism of independent and complete set-up before decentralising the offices, he said.

Disposal of a file, that requires permission from the head office, now takes longer than it would take when all the departments were under a single roof, he said.

But there are examples of speedy disposal with strong lobbying from backdoor.

In one example, as the Rajuk official cited, a case of four applications together for ownership transfer of flats was disposed of within two days from Rajuk.

A former secretary vehemently pursued the case and a member of Rajuk disposed it of expeditiously, he said. The file was forwarded from one of the two zone offices on June 18 by urgent messenger and it was disposed of on June 19 with opinions of all officials concerned. The four applicants included an army officer.

Such interference of political and bureaucratic big shots in the functions of Rajuk has actually been a root cause behind today's regrettable situation, said the Rajuk official.

A service seeker of Mohakhali zone office requesting anonymity said disposal of the applications is delayed due to movement of files back and forth between the zone office and the head office, making the situation more difficult and creating scopes for malpractice.

Another top official of Rajuk said that deputy director of a zone office has delegation mainly to collect service charges, return refund money and issue land use clearance at the local level. The DD has to send files back and forth to the head office for disposal of other cases.

Any file, that may require legal opinion, has to be sent to the law officer (magistrate) at the head office.

This long procedure of moving files back and forth from office to office kills man-hour, wastes resources and causes sufferings to the service seekers, said officials.

Two zone offices have been shifted without creating facilities for shifting of records and without developing required logistics, said official sources.

Chairman of Rajuk KAM Haroon said that there are matters that require permission from the chairman or member level and the zone office authorities have to obtain that permission from the head office of Rajuk.

"We cannot delegate all the power to the zone office," he said. "But we will soon start giving the service seekers a fixed date of delivery so that they remain aware of required time."

The chairman said that the authorities are going to introduce a form detailing all the prerequisites of a certain application and delivery date so that applicants do not have to come again and again to complete the applications and disposal of an application is not delayed. The span of time needed will vary from seven to thirty days, he said.

Rajuk officials in general said that there is need for adequate manpower and proper delegation of authority to the zone offices for better service delivery.

"It is true that there is shortage of required manpower for quick disposal of such jobs," said Haroon. "We will depute our law officer (magistrate) at the zone offices from next week. The officer will sit for three days a week at zone office for time being."

Regarding two other zone offices, the chairman said they have not yet got the allotment of land and office building from the public works ministry for Dhanmondi zone office but he hoped to bring it into operation by the first week of July.

A deputy director (estate), a deputy town planner and an authorised officer work full time at a zone office along with other officials and employees concerned.

Prof Ahmad said that issuance of land use clearance will remain anomalous and improper as usual, until and unless the detailed area plan (DAP) of Dhaka is put in practice.

The Rajuk was created in 1987 abolishing Dhaka Improvement Trust (DIT), with no offices in the city periphery to regulate urbanisation.

The office of authorised officer 3 and that of authorised officer 1 are yet be set up in Mirpur and Dhanmondi respectively.