The Public Administration Reform Commission (PARC) has recommended Bangladesh be turned into a provincial administrative system with capital Dhaka be run under a Capital City Government like India’s New Delhi, which is governed by the federal government.
“A provincial governance system can be introduced dividing the country in four provinces comprising four old (administrative) divisions,” read the report submitted today to Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus by the PARC headed by Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury.
The report said the system was proposed to decentralise the service delivery system for the country’s increased population, reducing the scope for power centralization by the unitary government.
The PARC observed that the existing the administrative and local government structure appears inadequate to serve the peoples demand while the ministries require to deal with nitty-gritty details of the regional or local issues.
The PARC simultaneously recommended Dhaka be governed under “Capital City Government” following the instance of the federally controlled Indian capital New Delhi considering its population size and service delivery system.
“Like other provinces, there will be an elected legislative assembly and local government here (Dhaka) too. The purview of the `Capital City Government` can be determined by with inclusion of Tongi, Keraniganj, Savar and Narayanganj along with Dhaka Metropolitan City,” it said.
The report said the proposed system would reduce opportunities for centralizing power by the unitary government and pressures on the capital city would be reduced as well.
The Commission has also suggested scrapping of the district council system recalling that their chairmen was never elected directly by the citizens and except for a few District Council, most of them do not have a strong revenue source of their own.
“As a result, most of the district councils are not financially self-sufficient. Therefore, the district councils can be abolished. The resources of the district councils can be transferred to the proposed provincial governments,” said the report.
The PARC has also suggested strengthening the municipal bodies considering their importance while their chairmen could be elected for a fixed term by ward members, as once elected the chairmen ignore them.
The Commission also recommended strengthening the Upazila Parishad further but suggested abolishing the post of Vice Chairman of the local government unit.
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