Emerging from a discussion with the DCs yesterday, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told reporters that the district administrators had been asked to publicise the development activities taken by the government.
“We are not saying that they will have to work like party workers. No matter which party is in power, it is the DCs duty to inform people about the government’s good works,” Shajahan said.
The minister said that the DCs have been also asked to demarcate the rivers in the country in line with a court directive and do all they can to resist encroachment and pollution.
Asked if the DCs have raised concerns about impediments created by political musclemen, the minister replied in the negative.
“It is not true that ruling party [Awami Legaue] men are always the influentials. Local goons can be influential, opposition men can also be influential,” he said.
During the three-day conference of the deputy commissioners – the top administrative officials from the country’s 64 districts – placed as many as 253 proposals but did not express any concerns.
“Just like we wanted it to be, the conference was interactive. They [DCs] talked openly. They did not express any concerns. If they said anything I would have heard it. They did not raise any concerns even in their closed-door meeting with the prime minister,” M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, secretary of the Cabinet Division, told reporters on the last day of the DC Conference 2015 yesterday.
The secretary said highest number of proposals were associated with the education, land and public administration sectors.
According to Musharraf, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the DCs to play roles beyond their boxes. “Deputy commissioners are not alienated from the society. Apart from their administrative jobs, they have many social activities. So, the DCs should play role going beyond their boxes. Civil bureaucracy is there to support the political leadership,” he said referring to the prime minister.
The PM has also stressed on ensuring housing and education for everyone, he told reporters.
Asked what the DCs discussed with their new boss – Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam – the secretary said: “The minister talked about decentralisation. It is a policy issue and also a political issue. As far as I know, the prime minister also wants this. But it would not be possible to achieve overnight. To implement this, local governments will have to be strong enough.”
In the latest reshuffle in the cabinet earlier this month, Syed Ashraful Islam, who was in charge of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD), was first made a minister without portfolio and then the first Public Administration minister since the portfolio had been renamed from establishment ministry in 2010.
Emerging from a separate meeting with the DCs, Law Minister Anisul Huq said he had the DCs’ cooperation in making the alternative dispute resolution methods work better to reduce the huge stockpile of pending cases in the courts.
“We have requested them to publicise the method among people and provide legal assistances,” he said.
