THE Cabinet has recently approved the Gram Sarkar (GS) Bill and the government, it is reported, will introduce it for approval in the present session of the Parliament. The draft Bill apparently calls for a 15-member Gram Sarkar in each Union Parishad (UP) ward, chaired by the elected member of the respective ward. The woman member elected in reserved seats will serve as advisor to each of the three wards representing her constituency. The Gram Sarkar, it is further reported, will not be designated as a new tier of local government and thus it would not be a local government body under Article 59 of the Constitution. Rather it would be considered as an associated body of the UP. The membership of the Gram Sarkar will represent different groups of the community. They will include three women representatives, two farmers, two landless agricultural workers, one Ansar-VDP member, one teacher, one physician, one businessman, one member of cooperatives, one freedom fighter and one from other professions. The Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) will nominate the members of the GS, other than the chairperson, on the basis of a consensus of the voters of the ward. If the voters fail to reach a consensus, the UNO on his/her own will make the nomination. The terms of Gram Sarkar will be five years and each GS body will hold general meetings every six months. The UP chairman will be invited to these meetings. On the surface, the idea of Gram Sarkar is good. It is intended to harness the local leadership for mobilizing people and resources at the grassroots for solving the problems they face. Through periodic general meetings, it is also expected to ensure people's participation in decisions making that affect them. These outcomes are indeed very desirable. However, on close examinations, the concept of Gram Sarkar looses much of its attractiveness. In our present context it may even be a very self-defeating idea. It is likely to make our only on-going local government body, the Union Parishad, totally redundant. It may also institutionalise cadre-based politics at the grassroots and further spread corruption. More seriously, the whole idea is contrary to the bold commitment on local government enshrined in our Constitution, and is, in fact, a violation of its Article 59.

Constitutionality of Gram sarkar

Article 59 of our Constitution calls for elected local bodies at each administrative unit. It states, "Local government in every administrative unit of the Republic shall be entrusted to bodies, composed of persons elected in accordance with law." The purposes of such bodies are to "manage local affairs by locally elected persons." (Kudrat-e-Elahi Panir Vs. Bangladesh 44(1992) DLR, AD). The Constitution nowhere says or otherwise indicates that these local bodies are subservient to the prevailing administrative structure. In fact, the intention was that these bodies would be autonomous or parallel to the existing bureaucratic structure. By allowing UNOs to nominate the members of Gram Sarkar, the proposed Bill would institutionalise the supremacy of the bureaucracy over local government. This is clearly contrary to the constitutional commitment of autonomous local government bodies. Such supremacy, it goes without saying, will allow the bureaucracy to cause, under political pressure, all kinds of mischief. Stories of such mischief abound in case of UPs where a similar subservient relationship was created by law in violation of the Constitution. Thus, the proposed GS would perpetuate the unequal relationship between the government officials and the elected local representatives that already now exists. The 1992 judgement of Supreme Court was rather explicit about the illegality of involvement

of the bureaucracy in the affairs of local bodies. The judgement clearly stated: "If Government officers or their henchmen are brought to run the local bodies, there is no sense in retaining them as Local Government Bodies." This is an unequivocal position taken by the guardian of our Constitution, against the role of the government officers and their designated persons (termed as henchmen) in local bodies. Although the proposed Gram Sarkar is supposed to create a local government system outside Article 59 of the Constitution, it is nevertheless a local body managing local affairs at the

lowest level. We may show cleverness to call GS an associated body of the UP, but it is a distinct entity with specific functions and responsibilities and hence, we submit, a new tier of local government. The difficulty arises in this context is that there cannot be two classes local government bodies -one under the Constitution and the other outside it. The Supreme Court on Kudrat-E-Elahi Panir Vs. Government clearly stated that "this will lead to a situation not contemplated by the Constitution ... (and hence a) mischief of the Article 7(1) of the Constitution." Ironically, this was an argument used by the Court for upholding the government's The hidden scenario

Institutionalisation of Cadre-Based Politics One of the sad developments in Bangladesh over the past couple of decades is the dominance of hooligans and unsavory characters - come to be known as cadres - in our national life. Unfortunately our political system breeds such cadres. The mass entry of the rich and the owners of black money in our politics provided the much-needed lifeblood for the cadres. Government programmes and services are now in most cases used as patronage for supporting them. In the last few years, we have institutionalised the cadre-based politics, with ominous consequences, by spreading it to the grassroots. In Bangladesh, we traditionally have had a dual administrative system - the dominant bureaucratic structure and the feeble local government structure. The involvement of the Members of Parliament (MPs) in the local development activities in recent years has introduced a new element - the so-called "MP government" in our system of governance. The "MP government," composed of party functionaries and cadres, in most areas of the country now implement all local infrastructure projects and distribute relief goods. Although UP chairmen and members are required by government circulars to be the chairpersons of the implementation committees and are legally responsible for the proper implementation of these projects, they in most cases are mere bystanders. Thus much of the development and humanitarian programmes at the grassroots are now used as patronage with almost no questions asked. It should be noted that the present patronage system is run indirectly without any legal sanction. However, the situation will change with the implementation of the Gram Sarkar, as it is likely to absorb in it all party functionaries and cadres. This will give the unscrupulous elements a legal cover to continue to do with impunity what they have already been doing bypassing the UP body. This will also largely reduce the importance of chairmen in UP bodies. Thus the Gram Sarkar, if implemented, is likely to turn the only surviving local government body, the UP, a totally redundant, if not a dead, institution. This is not a very desirable scenario.

A related issue

The local government institutions are to provide a fertile ground for democratic practices, providing a strong foundation for our democratic polity at the national level. However, by providing for a system of nomination, the proposed Gram Sarkar will be counterproductive to our goal of creating a vibrant system of grassroots democracy. "Exclusion" of Women There is another serious argument against the concept of Gram Sarkar, as is presently laid out. It is instead of enhancing or strengthening women's leadership at the grassroots would be discriminatory to them. The present reservation system clearly "excludes" women from the main decision-making authority involving the UP. This is an inherent weakness of the system now in place. Designating women members as advisors to GS bodies would not solve this problem of "exclusion." As advisors, women would continue to be "outsiders" with little or no authority and responsibility other than to give advice, if and when sought. The GS body would have the option to take the advice or not. Besides, the designated role of women UP members with respect to dealing with the issue of women's repression in the proposed GS Bill, while very important, is not at present a mainstream function of local government institutions. Thus, the creation of Gram Sarkar would perpetuate women's peripheral role in our local government system and would be contrary to the goal of empowering half of our total population.

Concluding remarks

The proposed Gram Sarkar was perhaps a great idea at a different time period. However, in our present context it is likely to do more harms. It may make our present UP body totally irrelevant, if not a dead, institution. This is not good news for those who think that the UPs could be the hubs of socioeconomic resurgence of our society starting from village. Furthermore, the GS would make little contribution, if any, to introduce women's leadership at the grassroots. There are also serious constitutional issues underlying the proposal. Therefore, we respectfully request the government to reconsider the proposed Gram Sarkar Bill. Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar is Country Director, The Hunger Project-Bangladesh