DAILY LIFE BLUES
OPEN man holes are a common sight for us. While mostly, it is a public nuisance, at times it even causes accident and serious bodily harm. In this case (the picture) the concrete slab that probably cracked after a heavy loaded truck went over it, remained unattended for weeks causing serious traffic congestion in an otherwise fairly wide roadway.
We citizens feel a range of emotions from being merely bothered by this problem to feeling extreme anger at the lack of initiative by the concerned authority to repair the man hole. But who is the concerned authority? As per the law, it falls within the purview of the City Corporation to maintain and repair man holes. But as a citizen how am I to inform them? I checked both the Dhaka North and Dhaka South City Corporation web sites.
There is a lot of information there, but I could not find any help line to lodge a complaint about this. It appears for now; we have to resort to non-digital means of communication. Every locality is supposed to have an elected representative, in the form of a counselor who maintains an office within his electoral jurisdiction commonly referred to as the commissioner's office.
However, at present Dhaka city has no elected representative in the City Corporation, which is presently being managed by government appointed administrators. Nonetheless, complaints may be lodged at the respective counsellor's office or directly to the City Corporation.
The problem with the public administration of Bangladesh is that there is very little room for citizens to raise grievance. Everything happens in the usual course, following bureaucratic timelines; citizens are not encouraged to participate in the process of good governance.
In the day and age of digital communication, perhaps it is time to change the status quo. Role and function of the City Corporation should be widely advertised along with a functional helpline system for citizens to lodge complaints.
Nabil Ahsan is Barrister-at-Law.
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