The New Nation - Internet Edition

LOCAL government bodies in the country so far used internal resources for providing services to the people and for increasing facilities like roads, water supply and setting up of educational institutions. The chairman and members of an Union Parishad usually interact with the people and note their grievances and demands, before taking substantive measures. The safety of life and living, peace and discipline in rural areas are also the major responsibility of these local government bodies. 'Chowkidars' are appointed by Union Parishads for preventing thefts, dacoities and pilferage of assets of people and rural institutions. The need for upgrading the local government bodies is quite pronounced and the major need is to augment the availability of fund for development activities.

The number of Union Parishads in the country is four thousand four hundred and ninety- eight. These bodies are run by elected representatives of the people. The tenure of the elected members is five years. The elected members and chairmen adopt their annual budget and use resources for investing in different projects. But the fixation of rates by the Union Parishads and their collection remain quite ineffective. That being so, members of the Union Parishads look for allocations and grants from the national treasury. The reported increase in block allocations under the Local Government Support Project initiated in 2004 may enable the Union Parishads to meet the ever increasing demand of local people. Under the provisions of the LGSP, an average allocation of four and a half lakh Taka will be provided to each Union Parishad. For this two hundred crore of Taka has been allocated under the current budget. This block allocation may be used by the Union Parishads for meeting demands of the people for schools, medicare centres and physical facilities like roads and culverts.

The mode of transferring the fund has also been changed. Instead of processing the allocated fund through the official channels of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, it would be transferred to nearest bank branches. The chairmen of the Union Parishads may collect the allocated fund from the banks. The mode transfer of the allocated fund has thus been made simple. The use of the fund should be optimised by the Union Parishads. The geographical boundaries of the unions have been fixed in the past century. The sizes of population in the unions have increased and thus also the demand for more effective social service. Thus, the structure, power and functions of local government bodies like the Union Parishads, the Upazila Parishads and the District Councils plus municipalities have to be upgraded. The local government bodies must be made development-oriented and pro-people. The latest higher block allocation is expected to help the process.