Commentary
District administration has no problem to act impartially
By
Sat, 9 Jun 2007, 13:50:00

Deputy Commissioners, as administrative heads of the districts, reflect the image of the government. They believe that without continued exercise of judicial and quasi-judicial powers, at least for some more time, it would be difficult to ensure smooth running of administration and implementation of development programmes in their respective areas.

As was expected, the DCs were given an understanding during their annual conference held in Dhaka late last week that complete separation of judicial functions from executive functions cannot be achieved in just one go. Steps are underway for the separation of the judiciary from the executive. But separation of the judiciary from the executive is a constituttional compulsion. It would have been more appropriate if all cooperated in achieving this end. But the political government failed to do that and the Supreme Court had to intervene directly. It is still believed that absence of judicial power even when the separation will not effectively weaken the DCs about their administrative power.

Separation and independence of the judiciary is a constitutional obligation that all past governments failed to fulfil. However, despite all the commitment and sincerity of the present government to achieve this cherished goal, an administrative system, with more than 200 years of legacy of the lower judiciary partially remaining under the control of the executive, cannot be changed overnight. Sudden withdrawal of judicial and quasi-judicial powers of DCs’ might create a vacuum and this, in its turn, might affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the district administration.

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed told the DCs at the conference that the caretaker government relied on them to implement its reform and development programmes to free the society from all sorts of corruption. The Election Commission, and the Anti-Corruption Commission, which have been reformed, are working successfully with active support of the district administration.

Adviser for Law, Justice, Information and Public Works Barrister Mainul Hosein reminded the DCs that the image of the government to a large extent depended on how the Deputy Commissioners functioned and discharged their responsibilities.

Against this backdrop, the suggestion that the DCs should visit haats, bazaars and have interactions with the people to know their living conditions and correct information about prices of essentials, of price hike and ways of addressing those is well placed.

The Deputy Commissioners head a basic local government institution which since the olden days used to perform a lot of delegated functions, like management of primary education, water and sanitation, construction and maintenance of rural roads, maintenance of haats and bazaars among others. The district administrations used to do these functions quite efficiently.

Transition to democracy at the centre in the recent part, however, led to over-centralisation of the administration instead of strengthening local government institutions and decentralisation of administration. This, in turn, weakened the local government bodies which had to run according to dictates of central ministers or MPs.

The absence of strong local government institutions not only hindered local level development activities but also adversely affected the cultural life. Due to lack of adequate local supervision cine houses, which once used to meet the recreational needs of the people, started to be used for screening vulgar movies. Strong and well-motivated DCs can help reverse the trend and reach the benefits of reform measures started by the caretaker government to the people at Upazila and Union levels.

Since electoral rolls are not ready for elections, local or national, it should be considered seriously to activate Zila Parishad through appointment of administrators.


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