Gram Sarker will create chaos, hinder rural development

"The ruling party is going to bury the core local government tier by creating a counter- organisation and inserting its own people to ensure political dominance at the grassroots level," Fazle Hossain Badsha, central leader of Workers Party, told the seminar on local government policy reforms.

The speakers argued that the proposed non-administrative unit ill create chaos in rural development activities since the century-old UP system is doing the same work as would be done by the Gram Sarker.

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A female UP chairman from Natore who took part in the seminar told newsmen later that they have been instructed to train UP members to adjust the situation after formation of Gram Sarker. "We have nothing to do but to comply with", she said preferring anonymity.

The Local Government Initiative ARD Inc, working on local government reforms in Bangladesh, organised the seminar in collaboration with local non-government organisations.

At the seminar held at he Rajshahi Postal Academy auditorium on Thursday, ARD also made public its countrywide survey on the local government system, reflecting peoples' perception on it.

UP chairmen and members, local politicians, academicians, NGO representatives and journalists took part in the seminar, moderated by ARD Deputy Chief Dr Zerina Rahman Khan.

The participants stressed massive reforms in the local government system, changes in election procedures, empowerment of grassroots level representative bodies and non-interference by parliament members and local musclemen for implementation of local development projects.

Criticising the government move for introducing Gram Sarker, Prof Ansar Uddin, chairman, political science department of Rajshahi University, said, "This organisation (Gram Sarker) will be nothing but a body of musclemen of the ruling party."

He urged the government not to create a counter-body at the grassroots level, which may lead to the destruction of the traditional local institution.

Executive Director of the Hunger Project, Badiul Alam Majumder, urged elected representatives to resist the government move. "You will have no role once the Gram Sarker comes into being," he said.

Referring to the survey conducted by ARD, Dr Maksudur Rahman, Associated Professor of Political Science at RU, called upon the government to take steps for holding of Uazila election as early as possible.

"Democracy is meaningless without election in local tiers".

Local bodies should be given more powers for rural development, he said.

The survey, conducted over 3000 families across the country from January to June 2003, revealed that 72 per cent people wanted the Upazial to be run by elected representatives.

It also revealed that only 11 percent people, most of who are well off, get the services of UPs. Poor people virtually do not get any service from local bodies.

The respondents said the main task of UPs is to build and maintain roads, culverts and initiate other development works. UPs hardly do any thing regarding education and healthcare, they said.

Nearly 65 per cent of the elected representatives are directly involved in party politics, the respondents said. Constitutionally, they are supposed to be free from party politics.

The seminar was addressed by, among others, Dr Shahdeen Malik and Nadira Mallik.

After the seminar, the UP chairmen and members had an exclusive session to share their experiences.