Md. Muzibur Rahman :
Of the people, by the people and for the people — the famous theme of modern democracy is known to all. Every democratic government wants well-beings of its people through taking various development programs and projects. For this, they take national policies by making law in the parliament, by its political, fiscal and monetary policies.
Decentralisation of administration was such a pragmatic policy of the then Hussain Muhammad Ershad’s government. Decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision making are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Decentralisation is fruitful when it brings positive outcomes to the people’s lives and livelihood and more benefits to the society as well. Ershad introduced Upazila system in his reign as a Decentralisation of administration and development. He took this initiative to make strong local government and to decentralize, gear up local development activities through official machinery and mechanism.
All government departmental offices like Agriculture, Fishery, Veterinary, Social Welfare, Education, Health and Family Planning, Land, Police, Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB), Cooperative, Financial and Non-financial institutions were decentralised within a short period of time. This decentralised process produced, demonstrated and displayed a positive result to the local people’s life and lifestyle and socio-economic environment. Many small industries, small & medium enterprise, self-help projects were grown up by the public or private initiatives around the established Upazila area. The scope of increasing employment opportunities opened up, expanded and many young unemployed workforces managed self-help jobs, business in the near areas.
Judiciary was also transferred to the Upazila for fair and speedy justice to the people and easy access to the judiciary to settle of the disputes among the peoples. This Upazila system was sustained and recognized later by the consecutive governments of Bangladesh for its universal supports, effectiveness and benefits for the common masses. Present Awami League government has focused on the villages as the main center of economic activities and development. The slogan is the “Village will be the Town”. According to the development philosophy of Awami League which is described in its Election Manifesto-2018 under section-9(d), village will be the focal point for all development activities.
The objective of this development philosophy is to reach all the civic facilities, utilities and amenities to the rural people. People will get all fundamental rights (Food, Shelter, Clothes, Education and Medical Treatment) and benefits if the villages develop through a concerted and coordinated development method. Roads and Highways will be prepared, expanded, electricity, gas and other public utilities will be increased and reached to the people easily maintaining local bio-diversities. Government believes in uniform development of all region of the country and tries its best to ensure rural development along with urban development. Modern agriculture and irrigation system will be introduced in the remote areas in the country.
As a result, agricultural production will increase to feed more people. Surplus agricultural products will be possible to export to the centre and then to export for foreign countries. More financial and non-financial institutions will be set-up in the villages and almost all the people will be possible to bring under financial inclusion. Financial literacy will be increased and people will save more for capital formation and to invest in agriculture and industry sectors. There will be a revolution of production and development activities in the rural areas. All the urban facilities will go to the rural areas so that peoples can get both the facilities of urban and rural areas. This will help to create more employment opportunities, balanced development, reduce disparities between the different incoming groups.
Rural-urban migration will reduce significantly. Local peoples (men and women) will be more empowered for their development activities. With a view to achieving the Vision 2021, the government transformed the vision into a long term perspective plan to be implemented by two consecutive Five Year Plan, the 6th & 7th. After effective implementation of the 6th Five Year Plan, now the government has prepared the 7th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) to attain the targets of the vision 2021. The key theme of the7th Five Year Plan is accelerating growth, empowering citizens through ensuring equitable income by improving income inequality. It will assist to reduce extreme poverty in a large scale. Bangladesh has tremendous success in reducing poverty among the people in the last decade. The poverty rate was 40% in 2006 whereas the poverty rate came down 31.5% in 2009 and 21.8% in 2018. (Source: Planning division, Ministry of Planning). Bangladesh’s target is to come down it (poverty rate) 0% in near future.
Rural people will get more facilities to employ themselves in various sectors and they will be able to contribute to the national economy. All government properties and interests will be protected skillfully, transparently, correctly. Government’s khas land, vested properties/enemy properties, government’s pond, khal, rivers will be protected, by the local Land Office and by the local administration. All government’s source of income will increase as tax net expansion, development of agricultural and industrial products marketing, marketing & business license, maximise utilisation of public and private land and properties, development of Hat, Bazars, village roads and communication, people’s connectivity, digital development of local government’s institutions, modernisation of agriculture & industries etc.
They (Present Awami League government) have taken this plan as a challenge of their election manifesto during the election campaign in 2018. Balance development is the crying need of our country. If we look to the developed countries like Japan, United Kingdom, United States, etc., we will find that their every village is like a small town according to their lifestyle and local development scenarios. Balanced development is now a goal of present government and it will bring a positive result in our socio-economic life in near future. Now, it is a challenge for us and we shall have to work accordingly to implement the programs successfully.
(Md. Muzibur Rahman, writes on development and economic issues, email: muzibur [email protected])
