LGRD minister: Municipality council to be dissolved if they cannot pay staff

Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives (LGRD) Minister Tazul Islam on Sunday said that the government will dissolve the council of a municipality if they cannot pay their staff for 12 months.

Tazul made the statement while addressing a national policy dialogue program on “Strengthening the Urban Local Government in Bangladesh” organized at a Dhaka hotel.

Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP), a project by UNDP, and Local Government Division (LGD) jointly organized the dialogue.

The LGRD minister said: “The local government bodies can earn only 30% of their total revenue. Most of the municipalities cannot pay their staff. The central government has to finance them despite the fact that they are an independent body.”

He also said that the local government bodies are highly dependent on central government and loan of donor agencies for development projects which needs to be changed.

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Narayanganj City Corporation Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy, Sylhet Mayor Ariful Huq Chowdhury, and Gazipur Mayor Zahangir Alam participated in the dialogue.

The LGRD minister urged the mayors of city corporations and municipalities to increase revenue by creating sources and assured them with necessary cooperation.

Executive Chairman of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman presided over the meeting.

LGRD Senior Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson and UNDP Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee were present as special guests.