They said there are vested interest groups including parliament members who do not want that the local governments become strong.

The national convention on strong local government was organised by Governance Coalition and 26 other partner NGOs at Biam auditorium in the city.

"It is the government officials who are the obstacles to strengthening the local government," said Local Government and Rural Development Adviser Anwarul Iqbal while speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the convention.

The adviser said he did not want to include any government official in the recently formed local government committee, but he finally included one joint secretary at the request of others.

"Let us see what recommendations they make," he added.

The adviser also mentioned a number of other weaknesses in the process of making the local government institutions strong.

"You are saying that the local government units will write the ACR (Annual Credential Report) of the government officials, but did not mention of educational qualifications of the local government representatives," he said.

The adviser also asked how will those employees be more efficient when union parishads cannot pay salaries of their staffs like gram police and secretaries?

"We do not need such local government institutions where the elected representatives do not collect revenues fearing that they will not get votes," he added.

He apprised that the advisory council has already approved in principle to form a 3-member panel to work in the absence of mayors in city corporations.

Speaking at the closing session, former adviser to a caretaker government Dr Akbar Ali Khan said the democratic governments and public servants do not want to help strengthen the local government.

"Appointing the administrators will not strengthen local governments, it will rather put a spot in it," he said, adding that there is no way other than establishing local governments at the district level, as it is a constitutional obligation.

The central government snatched most of the activities of the local governments, said Dr Khan, demanding that healthcare, education and local engineering should be under the control of District Councils.

He said the central government should allocate money to the local government institutions.

"As a result, the local governments will be inspired to collect more revenues," he added.

Dr Khan also suggested that the local governments should gradually employ their own officials.

The existing officials may work under deputation to maintain the continuity, and there is no legal bar in it, he noted.

Local Government Strengthening Committee Member Dr Badiul Alam Majumder said the local governments should have their own officials and financing from the central government to enjoy full autonomy.

"Local governments cannot be the extended part of the central government," he said, adding that these are the pillars of democracy and place for building future political leadership.

Prof Syed Gias Uddin Ahmed of Dhaka University said there are constitutional obligations that the officials are to be accountable to the authorities by whom they are employed.

"This issue should be looked into seriously in case of the accountability of the public servants who work under the local governments," he pointed.

Chairing the inaugural session, Dr Hameeda Hossain of Ain O Salish Kendra proposed formation of a local government commission to decide the financial and other issues of the local government.

Development becomes truly effective when local people participate in the planning process, she noted.

The convention made an 18-point recommendation that include three-layer local governments at rural level and two- layer at urban level, more reserved seats for women, open meetings at village level to ensure accountability of union parishads, curbing influence of lawmakers and amending necessary laws in this regard.

The recommendations will be put forward to the committee formed to recommend to the government for necessary reforms strengthening the local governments.

Local government expert Dr Zerina Rahman Khan, Taleya Rehman of DemocracyWatch, Mahbubur Rahman of Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum, Mohsin Ali of Governance Coalition Coordinator, Masuda Khatun of Nari Uddug Kendra, Jasemul Hasan of DFID, and Advocate Azmatullah Khan of Municipal Association of Bangladesh also spoke at the convention.