Chittagong Bureau

The Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), the national representative organization of the country's consumers said that it is not possible to reduce the public suffering with government bureaucrats in local government institutions.

The organization believes that by leaving the local government institutions under the control of government officials and strengthening their power, the self-governing initiative of the local people has been hindered. Cab Chittagong Divisional and City Committee expressed this opinion in a statement sent to the media on Wednesday.

In the statement, the CAB leaders said that government officials are already burdened with their responsibilities. There is no alternative to appoint a full-time administrator from the local non-partisan social workers, teachers, religious leaders and various professionals in the area to bring back the people's representative and non-partisan character.

Local government institutions will be run by local people and play a key role in solving local public grievances and problems. Although this provision is written in the constitution, when the party came to power, they used the local government institutions for their political interests. After the uprising of students on August 5, Nobel laureate Dr. When the interim government was formed under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus, they also removed the elected representatives of the city corporation, municipality, zilla parishad, upazila parishad and appointed part-time government officials in their place.

It is said in the statement that due to the election of the local government institutions on party basis, the leaders and workers of the political parties used to enter into the election war. Although the local government institutions were formed during the previous Awami League government's free-voting and farcical elections in many places, it is not possible to remedy this by appointing part-time administrators to government officials. The character and structure of the local government would have been correct if the people's representatives were managed by those who were able to manage the activities without removing the people's representatives by force and by introducing the provision of co-opting in the necessary places by appointing administrators in their place.

Local people were also not deprived of civic services.

According to the statement, various government officials have been given additional responsibilities in local government institutions, especially city corporations of divisional cities. The population of the city corporation of the divisional cities including Dhaka-Chittagong is large, it is not possible for a part-time administrator to provide civic services to this large number of people. On the other hand, the way the City Corporation, Upazila Parishad and Municipalities have been turned into bureaucratic institutions, they are no longer in the character of people's representative institutions.

Local government institutions must ensure the election of elected representatives to strengthen the local government system. In addition, the election system of local government institutions should be reformed to bring back the true public representative and non-partisan character.

The statement sent to the media was signed by Vice President of CAB Central Committee SM Najer Hossain, Chittagong Divisional General Secretary Kazi Iqbal Bahar Chhaberi, Metropolitan President Jasmine Sultana Paru, General Secretary Ajay Mitra Shanku, Chittagong South District President Alhaj Abdul Mannan, Youth GroupChittagong Divisional President Chowdhury KNM Riad and Youth Group Chittagong Metropolitan President Abu Hanif Noman.