AppId is over the quota
Shamsul Huq Zahid
The election of Dr. Selina Hyat Ivy as the first mayor of the newly created Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) last Sunday almost coincided with the endorsement given by the cabinet to an amendment bill that seeks to split the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), the largest of its kind in the country, into two. The bill now will be placed before the parliament for adoption.
The statement of object of the bill says the amendment to the relevant law was necessary to divide the DCC to facilitate proper services to its ever-increasing population.
An English Daily, quoting government officials, said it has become increasingly difficult for the DCC to provide civic amenities to more than 10 million people living within its jurisdiction.
The words 'proper services' and 'civic amenities' are, in fact vague in nature since they are not specific to the varying needs and expectations of the people who live within the areas of city corporations and pourashavas (municipalities) across the countries.
For instance, the residents of Narayanganj city voted overwhelmingly in favour of Dr. Ivy in the last Sunday's much-hyped NCC elections having varying expectations. Interviewed by the media following her election, a large number of people wanted Dr. Ivy to take effective action against extortionists. She herself in her post-election statement vowed to keep all the promises she had made during the electioneering.
Despite her total sincerity and good intention, she might find it difficult to fulfill all the promises she had made to the voters because of constraints, both legal and financial. The authority she would exercise under the relevant law and the financial resources to be available in the form of fees, taxes and grants from the government, might not be enough to meet the varying needs of Narayanganj residents.
The same has been true in the case of the DCC. There are inefficiencies and corruption, indifference etc., which have always contributed to the less-than-expected performance of the DCC. But lack of authority and financial constraints have played no small part in it. In fact, in the absence of lawful authority, the mayors, who are often described as 'city fathers', of DCC or other city corporations are unable to play any role when residents of their respective jurisdictions suffer due to the negligence of many service providers. Resources that the city corporations or pourashavas get as holding tax and annual grants given by the government are highly inadequate to meet infrastructural, recreational, educational and other needs.
The question is: how far the planned split of the DCC would help the Dhaka residents to get better civic services? Since the draft amendment bill does not incorporate any provision to sanction greater power and authority to the planned two city corporations -- one each for northern and southern parts of Dhaka city -- to ensure better coordination among the agencies responsible for providing civic amenities and services and mobilise greater volume of resources necessary to offer better services to the residents, the situation, in all likelihood, will remain the same after the split of the DCC.
Lack of coordination among various state agencies responsible for providing utility services to residents of the DCC does often create lots of problem. The situation is no better in many municipal corporations in neighbouring India. The founder of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Bangalore in India, Mr. Ramesh Ramanathan explained the state of affairs with city governance in his country in the following statement: 'Imagine a puppet whose strings are being pulled by different puppeteers: the hands by one, the legs by another and head and shoulders by a third. Sitting in the audience, the show would not look pretty. City governance in India is similar, being pulled and pushed in different directions -- sometimes even torn part -- by a chaotic urban administrative set-up".
Having problems identical to Bangladesh cities, India, which has 25 out of the world's 100 fastest growing urban areas, including Mumbai with a population of 12.5 million, is yet to choose the so-called 'split' as a remedy.
The local governments, pourashavas and city corporations included, as a matter of fact are seen as rivals rather than complements by the politicians and bureaucrats, managing the state affairs sitting at the centre.
That is why they have, deliberately or otherwise, put a blind eye to the Articles 59 and 60 of the country's Constitution and opted for their partial enforcement.
The Articles in question could be a strong basis for giving adequate power and authority to the local governments, including pourshavas and city corporations to manage and coordinate better the activities of all agencies involved in development activities in cities and towns.
The idea of city government, mooted by late DCC mayor Mohammad Hanif, a prominent and well-respected Awami League leader, did not receive a welcome response from the last Awami League government. His successor, the incumbent mayor, Sadek Hossain Khoka tried to push through the same idea. He also got lukewarm response from the last BNP government.
The idea of metropolitan government may not appear as a palatable option to the rulers but there must be a better option than splitting the DCC that might create more problems than resolving the current ones.
zahidmar10@gmail.com
Source: thefinancialexpress-bd.com
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