Upazila chairs want authority over officials

The Upazila Parishad’s chairmen on Monday submitted a seven-point charter of demands to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the chief one of which is to place all the grassroots-level government officers under the jurisdiction of the Upazila Parishads for strengthening local government administration and ensuring accountability of government officers.
They also urged the prime minister to amend several Articles of the Upazila Parishad Act.
‘We have asked the prime minister to turn an Upazila Parishad into a single umbrella administration for strengthening the local government system,’ convenor of the Bangladesh Upazila Parishad Chairmen’s Association, Harunar Rashid, told New Age after attending a workshop at the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday.
Almost all the chairmen of the country’s 481 Upazila Parishads attended the workshop titled ‘Upazila Council Management and Digital Bangladesh’. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the workshop in which three chairmen expressed the grievances of upazila chairmen who have had no work for the last 14 months.
Harunar Rashid, chairman of Patuakhali’s Dumki upazila, said they have demanded amendment the Upazila Parishad Act for fulfilment of the seven-point charter of demands, which includes placing all grassroots-level government offices, including the local administration now working under an upazila nirbahi officer and the police administration now working under an officer-in-charge, at the disposal of the Upazila Parishads.
The Upazila Parishads should be given the power to control the salaries and holidays of all government officers working there, and also to write and send Annual Confidential Reports on them. ‘They [officers] should be made accountable to the Parishads,’ he said.
They also demanded cancellation of the provisions of handing over the authority and responsibilities of Upazila Parishads to government officers. ‘The executive authority of the Upazila Parishad should always be given to an elected representative,’ he said.
The chairmen also sought amendments to Articles 25 and 42 of the Act to ensure that the MPs have to implement their development programmes through the Upazila Parishads. ‘It will help to resolve the conflict [of authority] between the MPs and the Upazila Parishads,’ he said.
The chairmen also requested the PM to amend the Warrant of Precedence by upgrading their position above ‘non-elected persons’ for ensuring their dignity as elected representatives in front of the government officers. ‘The elected and non-elected persons should be placed in separate categories in the Warrant of Precedence,’ said Harunar Rashid.
The elected Upazila Parishad chairmen are in the lowest tier of the Warrant of Precedence and are equal to the chairmen of Class I municipalities, civil surgeons, deputy secretaries of the government, superintendents of police and officers of the rank of Major in the army and equivalent ranks in the navy and the air force.
Besides, the upazila chairmen also demanded that they should be made the chiefs of the upazila committees on law and order, land, open market sale and creating jobs for the extreme poor people, which are now led by the UNOs.
Badiuzzaman Badshah of Nalitabari Upazila of Sherpur district and Abdul Majid of Saturia Upazila of Manikganj also spoke on behalf of the upazila chairmen.
Bodiuzzaman alleged that MPs have a patronising, sometimes contemptuous, attitude towards the upazila chairmen.
The Parliament on 6 April, 2009 unanimously passed the Act, making it mandatory for Upazila Parishad representatives to consult lawmakers and to accept their recommendations in implementing the development projects in their constituencies.
In March the government framed a set of rules on the responsibilities of, and financial facilities for, upazila chairman and vice-chairman, keeping field officials, including the UNOs, beyond the authority of the elected representatives.
The upazila chairman do not have any authority of appointment and disciplinary action, if needed, against the officials either deputed to, or placed at the disposal of, Upazila Parishads, according to the Upazila Parishad Chairman and Vice-Chairman (Responsibilities and Financial Facilities) Rules 2010, which has angered the elected representatives.
Sheikh Hasina has assured upazila chairmen that the government would immediately distribute responsibilities to the MPs, upazila chairmen, vice chairmen and UNOs, said the UNB.
According to the Act, the Upazila Parishad is responsible for maintaining law and order and playing the leading role in infrastructure development, agriculture and irrigation, health and family welfare, women and youth development, land, rural development, social welfare, information and culture, forest and environment and market monitoring in the area under its jurisdiction.

THE NEW AGE