Upazila parishad has turned out to be a ‘good for nothing’ body due to non-implementation of the upazila parishal law, alleged the Upazila Parishad Association of Bangladesh on Wednesday.
It asked the government to formulate a ‘charter of duties’ for the lawmakers, who are advisers to upazila parishads, by amending the article 25 of the law ‘in line with the constitution’.
The association also called on the government to hand over the budgets of 17 divisions of 13 ministries to upazila parishads and to liquidate all committees formed under the 17 divisions to empower the local government body.
‘We have held a series of meetings over the past four years with different government high officials to turn the local government body into an effective one but all our efforts have come to a naught,’ said the association’s president, Foyzur Rahman Fakir, to a press conference on the upcoming convention of upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen.
The convention will be held on January 12 in Dhaka with local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam scheduled to attend as the chief guest.
Foyzur Rahman, who read out a written statement at the conference, termed the upazila parishad law a good one. ‘But, the law has not been implemented and the local government body has thus turned out to be good for nothing.’
Foyzur, also the chairman of Mymensingh Sadar Upazila Parishad, asked the Election Commission to hold elections to the vacant posts of upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen as well as to elect women vice-chairmen without any further delay.
The association put forth a five-point set of demands to ‘make the upazila parishad an effective organisation’.
The association’s secretary general, Ataur Rahman Ata, Netrokona’s Kalmakanda Upazila Parishad chairman Golam Rabbani, and Noagaon’s Mohadebpur Upazila Parishad vice-chairman Sajjad Hossain were also present at the conference.