The government is going to include six new districts under the new Zilla budget in the coming fiscal year in a bid to strengthen the concept although it could not make any impact on targeted people in the outgoing fiscal year. Separate budgetary allocations will be shown against six new districts of Chittagong, Syhlet, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Rangpur divisions in 2014-15 fiscal year after Tangail of Dhaka Division became the maiden district under the Zilla budget scheme in the outgoing fiscal year.
The finance ministry officials said separate allocation for the districts would not be meaningful within the existing system of the central budget. They said the district administration will not be able to implement the budget due to complexity and in ab
sence of a legal framework.
Moreover, there is strong opposition to the ultimate objective of the Zilla budget from the ruling party members in parliament that could diminish the future prospect of the concept.
A brain child of the 81-year old finance minister AMA Muhith, the Zilla budget was introduced in outgoing fiscal year on a pilot basis.
Muhith while introducing the Zilla budget said the main aim of the Zilla budget was to reflect the needs and aspirations of the people living in the district and down to the grassroots level.
He expected that the opinions and programmes that would be proposed from within the district would gradually find place in the district budget in future. He hoped that this way local administration could be empowered for the development of the country’s socio-economic condition.
But the ruling party members in parliaments on a number of pre-budget discussions with the finance minister opposed the idea of strengthening the local administration.
Muhith hinted at diversion of budgetary funds allocated to the members of parliament to the Upazila chairmen in future during a pre-budget parley on May 7 in the capital.
He viewed that growth in gross domestic product could not be accelerated to more than 7 per cent without empowering the local administration.
Rafiqul Islam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of shipping, opposed the finance minister saying that such move would spell ‘disaster’ for the lawmakers.
He pointed out that the government was formed by elected lawmakers, not by the elected Upazila chairmen. Budgetary allocation would make the Upazila chairmen more important to the people than the elected lawmakers, said Rafiqul, also a former home minister.
Mohammad Tajul Islam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on power, and Mohammad Hasan Mahmud, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on environment and forest, also took part in the discussion and urged the finance minister not to entertain such idea.
Badiul Alam, chairman of Sujan, a civic group working for good governance, criticised the opposition by the members of parliaments to the planned fund allocation for Upazila chairman, saying it was very unfortunate.
He said district budget was in a nascent stage and ineffective in the absence of a legal framework. Opposition to the main objective of the district budget by the ruling party MPs would deal a blow to the new concept, he noted.
-With New Age input
