A good number of upazila parishads might have difficulty functioning properly as they will have more than one lawmaker as advisers as per the upazila bill passed on Monday.

“Due to the latest delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, more than 100 upazilas are made up of areas falling in two constituencies and so they might get two lawmakers as advisers,” Tofael Ahmed, a former member of the local government commission, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Activities of the parishads might be hindered if the advisers were at odds over any issue regarding local development, he pointed out.

There are 300 lawmakers [excluding those elected in women's reserved seats] against 482 upazilas across the country. This leaves each MP 1.6 upazilas to take care of as adviser.

The much-talked about bill, says the members of parliament will be advisers to upazila councils in their constituencies, and upazila officials shall take advice from them.

Meanwhile, the upazila chairmen's association met in the capital last night to discuss the bill.

Meeting sources said the chairmen want the prime minister to intervene immediately to resolve the issue.

If the government fails to address their concern through a gazette notification they would go to courts of law to challenge the provisions that give the lawmakers sweeping powers over the parishads.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the association's co-coordinators Harun-or-Rashid Hawlader and Badiuzzaman Badsha urged the government to take immediate measures to remove the provisions that curb the upazila parishads' independence.

Hawlader told The Daily Star, “For the sake of a strong and independent local government system, the bill should have been passed as it was approved by the cabinet.”

Criticising the new legislation, Savar upazila Chairman Firoz Kabir said, “We don't want to take the lawmakers' place, why should they [MPs] want to play our role?”

His upazila is shared between two constituencies. Of its 11 unions, three lie in Dhaka-3 and the rest in Dhaka-19.

“I wouldn't have contested the upazila election had I known beforehand that parliament would make such law,” he observed.

Firoz added that they have no problem with taking advice from MPs, but in running the councils they must pay attention to the union parishad chairmen who are members of the upazila parishads.

“What will happen if an upazila chairman refuses to follow an MP's advice?” he asked.

Gazipur Sadar is another upazila that seems much more problematic than others. It is consisted of areas spread over Gazipur-1,-2,-3 and -5. This means this upazila will have four lawmakers as its advisers.

Shahan Shah Alam, chairman of the upazila, told The Daily Star, “I don't know how I'd deal with advice from as many as four MPs.”

“The government should have avoided the situation in the interests of democracy and development,” he added.

He however said he still hopes necessary changes would be made to make the upazila parishads effective.

Talking to The Daily Star, some other chairmen and vice-chairmen said they will make their decisions in consultation with union parishad chairmen and will not bother listening to what the lawmakers say.

“In the event of disruption to development work due to lawmakers, I'd straight away inform my voters about it through public rallies,” one of them said, seeking anonymity.