Upazila chairman vis a vis UNO

Photo: FAZLE ELAHI SHWOPON/ DRIKNEWS

While the upazila chairmen are struggling to make their presence felt in the upazila ambience, the upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs) seem to have taken a strategy of arm-twisting the government with a view to discouraging it from giving the Upazila Parishad a consolidated look by implementing the provisions already in place and by enacting more provisions to give it sustenance.
The UNOs' recent outburst against renowned personalities working for promotion of viable local government in the country is, to all intents and purposes, manifestation of their desperation to sideline the elected representatives at the upazila level -- the upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen.
This not only goes against the nature of their job but also affects their loyalty to the elected incumbents, irrespective of the former's likes or dislikes. The golden rule of complying with the wishes of the policy makers has also been trampled by the unexpected stance of novice bureaucrats.
The UNOs have every right to let their views be known to the government through "proper channels," a term abundantly used by the bureaucrats to justify their acts of commission or omission. However, to wage a war on the people asking for local governance sends a disturbing signal to a government that is committed to promoting democratic decentralisation in the country.
Bangladesh is a resource-poor but over-populated country inhabited by sixteen crore people, the vast majority of whom live in the rural areas. It is not possible to ensure good governance in such a hugely populated country through a three hundred-member parliament, a small cabinet and a secretariat situated in Dhaka.
There can be no alternative to decentralisation of administration in order to ensure participation of people in solving their diverse socio-economic problems by mobilising local resources. The institution of local government provides an opportunity to ameliorate the conditions of the downtrodden.
At the upazila level, there is a mix of organisations and individual players who represent different constituencies and gain their legitimacy from different sources. The existing arrangement apparently affects the upazila chairmen and their two deputies more than the other actors. Part of the reason is that they have less control over the main sources of power --funds, programmes and personnel.
The upazila chairmen lack reserved power to undertake any major function/programme without the concurrence of the Upazila Parishad. Meanwhile, the central government has sought to ensure the supremacy of the generalist by empowering the UNOs to undertake a range of functions. In fact, it is unlikely that anything will happen without the knowledge and concurrence of the UNOs.
The Upazila Parishad is a unique institutional structure in Bangladesh, where not only all government officials of different nation building departments sit together under one roof but also provides a meeting place with the local government leaders. Village leaders can air their problems and desires to government officials.
Government officials, on the other hand, can arrange their supplies and expertise according to local needs and demands. In such ways, if local problems can be solved locally, it will definitely lessen the burden on the central government.
Moreover, experience in Upazila Parishad will help the emergence of a new brand of leadership in the rural areas, who would endeavour to solve local problems of development with local opportunities by involving government officials. Therefore, national policy makers should give serious thought to making the Upazila Parishads more effective in performing their responsibilities as self-governing institutions.
The protagonists as well the civil society personalities, who have drawn the wrath of UNOs in the process of their activism in giving democratic local governance in the country a solid shape, are serving the interests of the common men, especially of the remote areas. In this country of long-drawn democratic movement, free-thinking, vigorous activism and research for noble causes are sine quo non for national development.
The abrupt eruption against the promoters might also have been driven by the UNOs' impatience to preserve their supremacy at the local level. This is also an indication of the fact that local level bureaucrats did not accept the reintroduction of the Upazila Parishad wholeheartedly. Thus, the government should take immediate measures to specify the role of UNOs at the Upazila Parishad.
Hopefully, all concerned will play a constructive role in propelling the country forward with the limited resources it has. As the government is committed to providing the people with pro-people state machinery, all the functionaries of the state should cooperate with consummate sincerity and professionalism for turning the country into a middle-income country even before the targeted timeframe.

Professor Shamsur Rahman is ex-VC, Kobi Nazrul University, Mymensing and Professor Abdun Noor is senior Professor of Public Administration, Chittagong University.