Upazila parishads shadow of govt
Upazila Parishads are nothing but “shadow of the central government” though they are called local government, said Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government.
Khan also said Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), which he terms a “mushroom” organisation, is hampering the activities of local government.
“Local government structure in our country is seriously weak. Most of the upazila parishad activities are done by the central government instead of respective parishad chairman'', he said. “In fact, Upazila Parishad is shadow of the central government.”
Khan was addressing a meeting on “budget division of Union Parishad, analysis of expenditure, and what we should do” at the National Press Club.
Democracywatch, a non-government rights organisation, arranged the programme moderated by Durafshan Chowdhury.
Criticising the past governments, Khan said no government in the past showed respect and loyalty to the constitution regarding strengthening the local government.
He added that handsome amount of money was allocated to LGED, which was supposed to be spent through upazila and union parishads.
AL lawmaker Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru criticised different union parishad chairmen who in the meeting said union parishads enjoyed a lot of freedom and could work freely during the two-year regime of the last caretaker government.
Prof Tofail Ahmed, a local government expert, said it is important to strengthen local government bodies to bolster democracy.
It was not possible for the political governments due to lack of political will, said BNP lawmaker Abul Khair Bhuiyan.
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