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Govt plans to keep local govt men in party posts

Wants to modify ordinances to remove restrictions; LGC opposes bid to make such changes, asks govt not to give block allocation to MPs for fear of graft

SHAKHAWAT LlTON and HASAN J AH ID Tusher
The Awami League-led (AL) government is likely to bring major amendments to local government ordinances, allowing elected representatives to continue holding posts in political parties.
Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday at a meeting with the chairman and members of the Local Government Commission (LGC) hinted that the ordinances will be amended, as his party believes those were promulgated by the immediate past military backed caretaker government to depoliticise the society, meeting sources said.
The LGC however suggested that the LGRD minister refrains from amending the upazila parishad ordinance, which would allow members of the parliament to be involved in the functioning of the parishads, since the system itself has yet to begin functioning, the sources added.
It also suggested that the minister refrains from making annual block allocations ofTk 2 crore to each lawmaker for carrying out development activities in their constituencies, arguing the proposed system will end up encouraging corruption, the sources said.
In favour of its suggestions, the LGC, which is responsible for strengthening the local government system, argued that a similar system of block allocations to lawmakers did not work in India, rather it caused widespread corruption, prompting demands for scrapping it.
The immediate past caretaker government promulgated the local government ordinances making it mandatory for elected local government officials to resign from posts of political parties before taking the oaths of office, in a bid to keep the system of local government out of partisan politics and all corollary problems, according to its claim.
The provision was incorporated in the ordinances regarding city corporations, upazila parishads, and municipalities.
Back then also the AL leadership opposed the provision calling it unconstitutional and saying the provision had been incorporated as part of the military backed unelected government's design of depoliticising the entire society.
All ordinances promulgated by the unelected government must be ratified in the new parliament within 30 days of its first sitting. If the parliament does not ratify those, the ordinances will automati-cally become null and void after the 30th day.
Under the new local government ordinances, elections to four city corporations of Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal, and to nine municipalities were held in August 2008, in which AL backed
SEE PAGE 6 COL 7
FROM PAGE 1 candidates got landslide victory.
Complying with the new ordinances the AL leaders elected to offices of the local governments, resigned from their party posts before their induction in offices, with a nod from their party leadership
Although the elected local government representative of AL initiated steps to challenge the provision in the High Court back then, the party top brass refrained them from doing so with assurances that the party would take appropriate measures in time, the AL sources said.
According to the sources, although the AL leaders elected to the local governments resigned from their party posts in August last year, the party has yet to accept their resignations.
Contacted by The Daily Star yesterday over the phone, Sylher City Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, who resigned from a post in the Sylhet city unit of AL before taking his oath of office, said the party has yet to inform him about its decision regarding his resignation.
"We did resign, but we don't know whether our resignations have been accepted, Kamran said.
The upazila parishad ordinance also took away parliament members' control over the parishads.
Now, the AL-led government wants to give some of that power back to the lawmakers in connection with development projects in upazilas, by amending the upazila parishad ordinance.
The last Al government in
1998 revived the system of upazila parishads with a provision allowing lawmakers to become advisers of the parishads in their constituencies, and the parishads were made to take suggestions of the lawmakers for carryingout local development activities.
The LGC al yesterday’s meeting with the LGRD minister argued that the new ordinance should be left untouched at least for a year. If any problem arises it can be amended then, the commission suggested.
The commission also argued that the lawmakers can still be involved in upazila parishads' development activities by engaging themselves centrally in preparinga five-year national development plan, the meeting sources said.
Emerging from the meeting held in the office of the LGRD minister, Muhammad Faizur Razzak, chairman of the LGC, said the ordinances were promulgated to strengthen the system of local government
Asked whether the local government system particularly the system of upazila parishads will be weakened if lawmakers are empowered to get involved in their functioning, the LGC chairman said, "We won't want the local government institutions to become weak."
"Decisions will be taken based on the reality," he added.
After the meeting, LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said the lawmakers and upazila chairmen both should be able to contribute in local development works as both are elected represen tan ves.