DCs ask govt to define duties of upazila reps, officials

Deputy commissioners from across the country on Wednesday called on the government to bring an end to the conflict between the local representatives and the administrators at the grassroots level by defining their responsibilities more specifically.
At the working session on the local government ministry on the second day of the deputy commissioners’ annual conference, they recommended redefinition by the government of the position of upazila nirbahi officers in the upazila councils, said a DC.
The field officials also recommended a judicious increase in the salaries of the rural police — dafadars and mahalladars — to Tk 2,000 and 1,500 respectively from the existing Tk 1,000 and Tk 700.
‘The DCs have asked the government to define the responsibilities of upazila chairman, vice-chairman and female vice-chairman…We are framing the rules of business for the Upazila Parishads which will be placed in the next session of the Parliament for approval,’ the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful, told reporters after presiding over the session at the Cabinet Division.
He said that the position of the UNOs, who are now secretaries to the Upazila Parishads, would be redefined in the new rules that will be published through a gazette notification.
Ashraf directed the DCs, who are responsible for maintaining law and order and looking after the government’s development activities at the field-level, to show zero tolerance to corruption and crime.
‘You should say no to corruption and crime…The government will not spare anybody found responsible either for corruption or crime,’ warned the minister, also the spokesperson of the Awami League, when his attention was drawn to alleged irregularities and influence of AL leaders in the tender process.
He, however, said the government would take all measures to double the pay of the rural police because of the soaring prices of essential commodities.
Ashraf said his ministry was working on the draft Zila Parishad Bill which would also be placed in the next parliamentary session. ‘We want to activate and strengthen the local government bodies at all levels by making amendments to the existing laws.’
The DC of Tangail recommended that the UNO, who holds the rank of senior assistant secretary, should work as chief executive officer in the Upazila Parishad, not as secretary.
The DC of Rangpur told the meeting in writing that the divisional commissioners should be empowered to remove Union Parishad chairmen on charge of corruption and irregularities as the responsibility was now lying with the secretary of the local government division, and it took much time to complete the process.
In another session, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury asked the DCs to make sure that government subsidy in the agriculture sector goes to the farmers.
Matia, in response to a question, directed the local administrators to burn the adulterated fertilisers and ensure proper management of fertilisers.
Food minister Abdur Razzaque alerted the DCs, also responsible disaster management and relief work, against irregularities in the government’s social safety net programme that includes test relief and food for work.
Social welfare minister Enamul Huque Mostafa Shaheed asked the DCs to be watchful so that militant organisations cannot operate in the disguise of non-governmental organisations.
‘The government has taken steps to prevent any fraudulence and irregularities being committed in the name of NGOs…Action will be taken against fake or ineffective NGOs which operate only to serve some narrow purposes,’ Shaheed told New Age.
The three-day conference, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Tejgaon office on Tuesday, will end today. All the working sessions are taking place at the Cabinet Division.

Courtesy of NewAgebd