The Bogra district administration is unaware of the fact that four union parishads under Sariakandi Upazila have no office buildings to carry out their regular operations, causing immense sufferings to over 130,000 inhabitants.
Many activities of these unions are going on in small rented houses or shops where the elected representatives and officials cannot sit together due to insufficient space.
For this reason, service seekers must go to different places to reach the UP authorities for essential work.
The UP authorities also face problems storing government-allocated foodgrains and protecting official documents.
After learning about the ordeals, the district authorities have said they will take steps if government land can be arranged to construct permanent buildings.
In Bohail Union Parishad, the authorities rented a shop at Phulu intersection of Dharaborsha Bazar to provide services to about 45,000 people.
A member of the UP told Dhaka Tribune last week that they cannot sit together because there is no building for the office. The elected representatives and officials are forced to carry out regular activities in their own houses or businesses.
Asaduzzaman, chairman of the union, said they are having problems conducting all activities while the service seekers are also suffering.
The population of 40 villages of Chaluabari Union is more than 25,000. In the last 52 years after independence, the people did not get a UP building. At present, the activities are going on at a very limited scale in a small hut in the village of Shimultaid due to lack of enough room.
Jahidul Islam, a UP member, said the temporary office is about four kilometers away from his village. It is very difficult to cross the Jamuna River by boat every day to go to Parishad.
UP Chairman Tajul Islam Badsha said it was unfortunate that no government had ever taken any initiative to construct a permanent building of the Parishad.
No initiative has been taken in the last eight years since the Chandanbaisha Union Parishad building at Dakbungalow intersection went under the Jamuna River.
Since then, activities have been going on in a rented shop at Karitala Bazar in the adjacent Kamalpur Union, said Mahmudunnabi Hero, chairman of the Parishad. He said more than 28,000 inhabitants of the union were deprived of government services.
The population of 50 villages of Karnibari Union is about 36,000. As the Parishad does not have its own building, the activities are carried out in a small and rundown tin-shed room at Mathurapara market.
Osman Akand, a member of Ward No. 1 of that union, said they cannot hold meetings properly because they do not have their own building.
Chairman of the union Anwar Hossain Dipan said the council's activities are conducted in a dilapidated tin shed house.
“It is not possible to allow the UP secretary to sit. The village court proceedings cannot be conducted either. Moreover, valuable papers and furniture have remained unprotected,” he said.
“There is no arrangement for storing government-allocated rice. For this reason, we have to distribute the rice among people as soon as the supplies reach our office,” said the chairman.
Contacted, Bogra Deputy Commissioner Saiful Islam said they would take initiatives to construct buildings if government lands were available at convenient locations. “I was not aware that four unions of Sariakandi Upazila did not have own buildings,” he said.
