LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam has snubbed the probability of holding zila parishad (district council) elections soon.
While talking to reporters after the DC conference yesterday, the Awami League general secretary said the government was considering whether the local government system needed so many wings.
He also rejected a proposal of giving the authority of removing union parishad chairmen and members to the divisional commissioners and the directors of Local Government Division.
“The government is yet to chalk out plans for holding the zila parishad elections since firstly we need to think about necessity of the councils. The government should consider whether the local government will have so many wings,” Ashraf said at the Secretariat.
The country’s 61 district councils have been run by unelected administrators, appointed by the government, since December 2011.
Asked about dissolving the district councils, Ashraf said: “This is not a matter to discuss at this level. It should be discussed at the national level.
“Having so many local government institutes can never be useful for the people. Our main local government institute is the union parishad. We have upazila parishads, municipalities and city corporations too. So why is it necessary to have district councils? What the union parishads will get if we have so many local government institutes?”
He mentioned that expenditure and misuse of money would increase if there were so many local government bodies. “So, we should think about the expenditures before forming a new local government institute. This issue should be considered before taking the political decision [about district councils],” Ashraf added.
Regarding the election to district councils, he said: “We are not pondering the issue yet. It is not right to hold the polls without fixing its authority and periphery. There are lots of districts where numbers of voters are above one crore. We have to decide first how much budget we can provide for their representatives.
“At present, we can allocate poor budget for the councils which is less than a Class-III municipality. We do not want to keep the elected chairmen of the district councils as toothless tigers. So, we have to decide about the budget of the district councils.”
Asked about the jurisdiction of removal of UP chairmen and members, the minister said: “According to the existing democratic laws, only an elected public representative has the authority to remove another elected representative.
“The government has no plan of changing it upon the DCs’ demand. The divisional commissioners and the deputy commissioners can demand so many things. But, the policymakers will decide how much they will allow.”