Ensure transparency of local governments

It was a different day in Satkhira Pourasava when over 300 people of wards 8 and 9 and the ward commissioners, at a meeting held here yesterday, stressed on strengthening local government bodies for development of the country.
Held at the kindergarten in the town, the meeting titled, 'Elected Representatives: Face to Face with People,' was organised by Sachetan Nagarik Committee, a unit of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
Nagarik Committee joint convenor Advocate Tapan Kumar Chakrabarty was in the chair.
Lauding the local government leaders for facing people by holding such a meeting, the speakers said the move will help ensure accountability of the local government institutions. They said similar programmes will create awareness among rural people about their rights.
They blamed the ministers, parliament members and bureaucrats for interfering in the activities of local government bodies. They stressed on decentralisation of local government institutions for their transparency and accountability.
They urged the government to allocate more fund for local government institutions in the national budget so that union parishads (UPs) can undertake more development projects independently.
In his address, Satkhira Pourasava chairman Sheikh Ashraful Haque said he could not develop the pourasava as per expectation of the people due to lack of adequate fund.
Among others, Satkhira Pourasava chairman Sheikh Ashraful Haque, former Pourasava chairman Abdul Jalil, Pourasava commissioners Anis Khan Chowdhury Bakul and Safiquddowla Sagar, Prof Abdul Hamid, Dr Shushanta Kumar Ghosh, Kalyan Banerjee, Abul Kalam Azad, Trishna Chakraborty, Madhab Dutta, Advocate Mili, Nasrin Khan Lipi, Abdur Rahman and Alamgir Hossain addressed.