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Ensuring Better Services at Grassroots Level

Active union parishad standing bodies must

Conference told

Staff Correspondent
The government should take steps to make the standing committees of Union Parishads (UPs) in the country functional for ensuring better services for the people, said discussants at a conference yesterday.
The standing committees are the major components of UPs, bottom-tier of the local government system. The 4,500 UPs across the country cannot be strong unless the committees are strengthened, they said.
Unnayan Shamannay, a research organisation, supported by the Strengthening Democratic Local Governance (SDLG) project of USAID, organised the national conference titled "Improving Services: The Role of Union Parishad Standing Committees" in the Cirdap auditorium in the capital.
As per the union parishad act, each UP is supposed to form at least 13 standing committees on different issues like education,
health, family planning, social welfare and disaster management, and agriculture, fisheries and livestock.
The committees, comprising elected representatives from the parishads, civil society members, socially respected persons and women representatives of that locality, are entitled to assist the UP for ensuring better services and resolving different problems.
However, these committees are not active in about 90 percent of the parishads because the elected chairmen and other members are not properly aware and interested about its functions and jurisdictions, said Mahfuz Kabir, consultant of Unnayan Shamannay-SDLG project.
If the chairmen and members of the parishads can be trained properly, the committees can be revived, he added.
Kabir shared different success stories achieved in the last one year by three Parishads Active union parishad
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in Satkhira after the standing committees were activated.
For example, Burigoalini Union Parishad's standing committee on women and children affairs succeeded in solving at least five issues regarding child marriage, family feud and torture on women in Shyamnagar upazila.
Besides, Bhurulia union's standing committee on agriculture, fisheries and livestock succeeded in helping people continue agro-farming in salinity-intruded land.
In Krishnanagar union of Kaliganj upazila, the standing committee on education and health resolved three disputes.
State Minister for LGRD Moshiur Rahman Ranga said a series of meeting on how to make the UPs more effective and functional should be held at the national level with the chairmen and their honorarium should also be increased.
The State Minister for Finance M Abdul Mannan, Prof Khondker Mokaddem Hossain, study team leader of Unnayan Shamannay-SDLG project, and its coordinator Shaheen-ul-Alam also spoke.