The proposed law to make members of parliament advisers to upazila parishad might create complexities in discharging the duties of its chairman and vice chairmen as it would be tough for them to work independently ignoring pressure from ministers and ruling grand alliance MPs.
The situation will be worse for the chairmen and vice chairmen belonging to opposition parties as they will face tremendous difficulties in carrying out their duties, said experts.
It is feared that the bill placed in parliament that seeks to make the legislators advisers, if enacted, could breed discord also among the lawmakers. This is likely as many of them will be involved with the local government body as adviser while many others, who have been elected from constituencies in different city corporations, will have no such involvement.
The parliamentary standing committee on LGRD ministry, which is examining the bill, in a meeting on Thursday agreed in principle to make MPs as advisers.
Asked about this, Dr Tofael Ahmed, member of the defunct local government commission, said MPs can have a role in upazila parishad even if the provision is not included in law.
If the law provides for involvement of lawmakers with upazila parishad, then MPs elected from city corporation areas can also demand ensuring their involvement with city corporations, he said.
He suggested considering all these matters from a comprehensive point of view in the interest of a healthy local government system.
Prof Salahuddin M Aminuzzaman of Dhaka University said conflict between lawmakers and upazila chairmen is inevitable as the MPs will try to interfere in the activities of chairmen, who are empowered to carry out development work using funds allocated for upazila parishad.
He noted that municipality would be in a better position as none will be adviser to it.
He said as a local government body, upazila parishad is more important than municipality.
On the proposed involvement of MPs with upazila parishad, Dr Shahdeen Malik said this will not be good for the parishad.
“Most importantly, Article 59 of the constitution does not envisage role in local government for any other elected representatives except those who are elected for the local authority,” he said.
“By analogy, if there have to be roles for MPs in all other elected local bodies that is, union parishad, zila parishad, municipality and city corporation, this clearly will jeopardise the functioning of local authority and distract MPs from performing their main responsibilities in parliament,” said the renowned lawyer when contacted.
On the MPs from city corporation areas, who will not be involved with the local government body, he said, “It will divide the lawmakers who have a role in local government and who have not, and will create discord among them.”
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