COMPLAINING to the prime minister that lawmakers are interfering in their work, Zila parishad administrators have demanded that they cease to be advisers to district bodies. Those MPs are said to be causing to divert a major chunk of the district's development fund to their own pet projects. It is worthwhile to note that Upazila Parishad chairmen have also been making similar complaints against local MPs since long.
This is very unfortunate. Far from lending a stronger hand towards each other in the greater interest of the development of the district or upazila, MPs and elected local government leaders are at loggerheads over utilisation of resources. Evidently, the conflict of interest between the district council administrators and the lawmakers has been hampering normal functioning of these important local government bodies.
The story is not different at the upazila down to the union council levels. Everywhere the local lawmakers have been a thorn in the side of the local government bodies. The upazila parishads are in an even worse situation, as the finance of the local government body is controlled by the government official, UNO, and not the public representative the Upazila chairman.
If the elected representatives of the local government bodies are rendered powerless in this manner at every level, then what is left of devolution of authority?
The dissipation of the local bodies during the last four and a half years cannot be rolled back overnight. But at least some semblance of workability can be infused into the system.