Call for metro govt grows stronger

A day after the same call from urban planners and architects, civil society organisation SHUJAN yesterday proposed introduction of metropolitan government in Dhaka and Chittagong cities for empowerment of the mayor and councillors to provide better services to the citizens.
"We propose that the elected mayor will be the chief of the metropolitan administration. If the elected prime minister can be head of the whole country's administration, why an elected mayor will not be chief of the metropolitan's administration?" said Muhammad Jahangir, a member of Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (SHUJAN), in a written statement. 
In a metropolitan government, all government bodies providing services to the city people, like police and Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), come under the city corporation.
Jahangir said now the mayors and councillors were facing obstructions from the government and different bodies in taking decisions; so they could not serve the people properly. When all city service providers come under the direct supervision of the mayor, it will help the mayor take quick decisions, he told SHUJAN's roundtable titled "Metropolitan government is the only solution" at Jatiya Press Club.
Unveiling a formula for election to the proposed metropolitan government, ahead of the three city corporation polls in Dhaka and Chittagong scheduled for April 28, he said the councillors would be elected through direct votes, and then the councillors would elect a mayor.
"The metropolitan government will have a metropolitan parliament, an administration, and a court," Jahangir said.
For him, it is a major flaw in a democracy where the central government is elected under the parliamentary system and the city corporations under the presidential system.
SHUJAN Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said the constitution had given the elected local government representatives the power to govern their respective administrations and other institutions independently. "But if their power is restricted, the citizens will not get better services. So, the demand for metropolitan government must be voiced strongly," he added.
Former chairman of University Grants Commission Prof Nazrul Islam and BNP chairperson's adviser Enam Ahmed Chowdhury backed the idea of metropolitan government but said the initiative must come from the political parties after amending the existing system. 
Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder, columnist Syed Abul Moksud, architects Mobassher Hossain and Iqbal Habib, among others, also spoke.
On Wednesday, a views exchange meeting of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, Institute of Architects Bangladesh, and Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust, observed that only metropolitan government can solve the problems of Dhaka city.