A roundtable on Sunday recommended that a Finance Commission should be formed to improve funding for local government bodies to ensure proper decentralisation.
The roundtable, titled ‘Checks and balances of powers: decentralisation’ at a city auditorium, observed that neither decentralised development planning nor the delivery of services to the grassroots was possible without strengthening local government bodies.
It also observed that present governing system centralised all powers with the Prime Minister and there was an urgent need for balance and control of powers.
Concerned Citizen’s Group, a platform of distinguished personalities, organised the roundtable. Former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, AMM Shawkat Ali and Ahsan H Mansur, among others, addressed the roundtable.
Former caretaker government adviser M Hafizuddin Khan also attended the roundtable, where local government expert Tofail Ahmed presented a paper.
AMM Shawkat Ali said that the local government bodies would not be strengthened and empowered unless their financial empowerment was ensured.
He said that Articles 59 and 60 of the constitution guaranteed independence and effective local government system in the country, but in reality, the local bodies were not decentralised and made effective.
ATM Shamsul Huda, also convener of the group, said that ensuring decentralisation of power and strengthening the local bodies would not be possible without a strong political will. He stressed the need for making constitutional institutions effective and said that the politicians could do it.
Economist Ahsan H Mansur underscored the need for Finance Commission to improve funding for local bodies. He criticised a stipulation that made lawmakers advisers to upazila parishads and made it mandatory for the upazila parishads to accept their advice. He said it was against the constitution.
Tofail Ahmed said that interference of lawmakers in local government bodies and centralisation of powers barred the strengthening of the local government bodies. ‘Concentration of much more power not only harmful for the state, but also it is harmful for individual concerned,’ he added.
The roundtable, titled ‘Checks and balances of powers: decentralisation’ at a city auditorium, observed that neither decentralised development planning nor the delivery of services to the grassroots was possible without strengthening local government bodies.
It also observed that present governing system centralised all powers with the Prime Minister and there was an urgent need for balance and control of powers.
Concerned Citizen’s Group, a platform of distinguished personalities, organised the roundtable. Former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, AMM Shawkat Ali and Ahsan H Mansur, among others, addressed the roundtable.
Former caretaker government adviser M Hafizuddin Khan also attended the roundtable, where local government expert Tofail Ahmed presented a paper.
AMM Shawkat Ali said that the local government bodies would not be strengthened and empowered unless their financial empowerment was ensured.
He said that Articles 59 and 60 of the constitution guaranteed independence and effective local government system in the country, but in reality, the local bodies were not decentralised and made effective.
ATM Shamsul Huda, also convener of the group, said that ensuring decentralisation of power and strengthening the local bodies would not be possible without a strong political will. He stressed the need for making constitutional institutions effective and said that the politicians could do it.
Economist Ahsan H Mansur underscored the need for Finance Commission to improve funding for local bodies. He criticised a stipulation that made lawmakers advisers to upazila parishads and made it mandatory for the upazila parishads to accept their advice. He said it was against the constitution.
Tofail Ahmed said that interference of lawmakers in local government bodies and centralisation of powers barred the strengthening of the local government bodies. ‘Concentration of much more power not only harmful for the state, but also it is harmful for individual concerned,’ he added.
Source: New Age
