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LOCAL GOVERNMENT LAWS

Some Constitutional Obligations Ignored

by Nurul Kabir
***While legislating the laws, the ruling party has undermined the Constitution by depriving the people of electing the Gram Parishad members through adult franchise and allowing the government officials concerned, this way or other, to play a role in selecting the GP members...***
THE contents of two recently enacted legislations for setting up of local governments at village and union levels have invited bitter criticism against the governing party from various quarters, ranging from the largest opposition BNP and the Awami League s political partner in the government. Jatlya Party, to some academics of the country. SWh Apmc ruling party legfslators, especially who were Involved ' with' tne Local Government Commission that recommended a four-tier local government system a few months back, are dissatisfied with the laws passed in the last session of Jatlya Sangsad.
The laws in question have reportedly provoked four particular categories of criticisms against the government, to be more specific. Awami League — the governing party. The accusations include undermining the constitutional provisions relating to setting up of the local bodies, surrendering legitimate authority of the people to the hands of bureaucracy, ignoring certain recommendations of the Local Government Commission on the issue, and deliberately paving the way for gaining absolute political control over the grassroots level units of the administration.
To examine the first allegation that the government has undermined constitutional provisions in making the laws, we need to have a look at Article 59 of the Constitution that deals particularly with the characteristic nature of local governments.
The article reads: 'Local Government in every administrative unit of the Republic shall be entrusted to bodies, composed
of persons elected in accordance with law. The Constitution is therefore unambiguous in its directives about the local level institutions; ThWe will be local government in every administrative unit of the state, of course ranging from division level administration to that at the village level, and that local bodies will consist of elected representatives of the people. Besides, the elections to the officials of the local bodies will be held under certain laws' enacted by parliament.
In other words, there could be no administrative unit without a local government parallel to it. there could be no local government which is run by nonelected people, and there could be no election to the officials of a local government under anything other than law/s that could be enacted only by a parliament.
Now, if we examine the content of the recently enacted Local Government (Gram Parishad) Law. we find some of the constitutional obligations have been ignored by the ruling Eartv and the government eaded by Sheikh Hasina.
According to the law. the Chairman of a Gram Parishad (GP). who will work as the member of the next tier of local government Union Parishad. will be elected directly by the people through adult franchise. But the GP members, nine males and three females, will be 'elected' at a general meeting'
attended by the male and female voters of a ward under the supervision of the directing authorities concerned.
The lauahai defined directing authorities' as persons empowered by the government authorities concerned', while the government authorities concerned' could mean the ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD).
Besides, the law has authorised the so-called directing authorities, under certain conditions. to remove the members of the Gram Parishad. In case of vacancies, the government officials concerned are even vested with the power to appoint' chairmen to the GPs for a certain period .
The propositions are exactly opposite to what a democratic system demands. In a democracy. people's representatives enjoy the right to make and unmake the decision of appointing the government officials. But here, in the case Gram Parishad Law. the government officials are to choose the people's representatives.
Again, the law has kept mum on the mechanism of electing' the GP members. The LGRD minister told Jatlya Sangsad that the government would later formulate rules' as to how the members of the Gram Parishad will be elected' and what particular persons would 'supervise' the elections. The point to be noted here is that the
government has no constitutional right to formulate rules, rather It is the jurisdiction of the parliament membeta le*n act law under which the elections will be held. Because, the Constitution has said that the local governments will be composed of persons elected in accordance with law'. The vital point here Is that it is the law — not rules — in accordance with which the election is supposed to be held, and it is a common knowledge that a law could be made only by a parliament — not by government.
It is. therefor, clear that while legislating the couple of laws in question, the ruling Awami League has undermined the Constitution in many ways: By depriving the people of electing the Gram Parishad members through adult franchise and allowing the government officials concerned, this way or other, to play a role in selecting the GP members; by vesting the power of removing the GP members and appointing the GP chairmen in certain cases with the government officials: and by depriving parliament of devising the mechanism of election to a local body.
The above steps of the ruling party have understandably weakened the people and strengthened the administration, which eventually substantiate the second allegation that the government has sur-renderea some legitimate rights or jurisdictions of the
people to the hands of bureaucracy.
While doing all these things. : the ruling party has also ig-I nored certain very important recommendations of the Local Government Commission (LGC) that submitted a report to the Prime Minister in May last. The report suggested that the elected representatives of the Gram Parishad would prepare performance report" of the field level government and semi-government officials, while it opined that the elected representatives of the Union Parishad should have the right of writing Annual Confidential Reports (AC Rs) or performance report of the government officials operating at the union level.
Explaining reasons behind making the suggestions. LGC chairman Rahmat All, who happens to be an Awami League MP. had told The Dally Star that this could translate into reality the essence of what has been said in Article 7 of the Constitution . The article says, all powers in the Republic belong to the people. ... Ali argued that people could exercise their sovereignty only through their elected representatives, while the government servants are supposed to be accountable to the people i.e. the elected representatives of the people. "And this is the reason why the elected representatives in the local governments should have
the right to evaluate the performances of the government servants and write their ACRs.'
But the LGRD minister, while proposing the original bills for consideration of the parliament had Just ignored the suggestions. The cabinet that approved the bills for introducing them into parliament also failed to take the issue into consideration. Some of the LGC" members have meanwhile' made very harsh comments about the entire process through which the government leaders had got the bills passed. While talking to this correspondent. one of the LGC members even questioned "the sense of understanding the Constitution' by the cabinet members *vho approved the content of the legislations.
However, it is very difficult to comment on the last allegation that says that the government has deliberately deprived the people of their constitutional right to choose their representatives at the village level with a view to gaining absolute control' over the grassroots level local bodies. It is still an apprehension by the political opponents of the ruling Awami League. But we can say it safely, especially by analysing the past experiences, that there are scopes for a governing party to manipulate the process of selections of the Gram Parishad members when the government officials' are there to supervise" the so called election process at the village level.
. All these things, however. Justify the allegation that the governing party resorted to undemocratic exercises in making the couple of legislations.