পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (তৃতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/৫০০

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ তৃতীয় পত্র

Local Administration

 The fundamental premise on which the local administration shall be based is: good government is no substitute of for self-government. The Awami League is committed to the development of fully democratic local self-governing institutions both in the rural and urban areas. A well-developed, well-organized local selfgovernment will be essential to carry on the massive development work at all levels. Moreover, strong, efficient, and democratic local self-government, apart from educating the people in the art or government and administration, will act as a powerful bulwark against the growth of authoritarian dictatorship in the country. They will also lead to decentralization of power and authority from the centre to the local areas. This is no liberty in any state where there is an excessive concentration of power at the centre. It will also generate a real sense of participation among rural masses.

 Again, if the decisions to be made are to embody the needs of those affected by them, the latter must have major responsibility for their making. We must begin by admitting the obvious fact that all problems are not central in their incidence; to leave to the central government the decision of questions which affect only a portion of the community is to destroy in that portion the sense of responsibility and the habit of inventiveness. The inhabitants of any given area need consciousness of common purpose, a sense of the needs of their neighborhood, which only they can fully know. They then find that the power to satisfy them of themselves gives to them a quality of vigour far greater in the happiness it produces then would be the case if satisfaction were always provided by, or controlled from, without. For administration from with always lacks the vitalizing ability to be responsive to local opinion, it misses shades and expressions of thought and want which are urgent to successful government. It lacks the genius of the place. Administration from without may well provoke indignation but it cannot elicil creative support from those over whom it rules. It is too distant from the thing to be done to awaken interest from those concerned in the process of doing it.

 The problems connected with the re-organisation and re-construction of the local self-governing bodies will be: (a) the area of the local government. In the Awami League manifesto it is rightly pointed out that the existing sub-divisions will, with suitable modifications and adjustments, be converted into districts. From the point of view of population each district is too big for effective administration. The ratio between the peoples and the officers is so big that the districts have always been underadministerd. It was pointed out by the Report of the Bengal Commission, 1943. Each sub-division should be converted into a district. Each thana with suitable modifications should be converted into a sub-division. This measure is long overdue. This will obviously be a part of the long-term planning.

 (b) Democratic local bodies. Each local body, both in the urban and rural areas, shall be directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise. The number of members of each local body-District Board, Union Board and Municipality-shall be fixed after ascertaining the number of voters in each area. Efforts would be made to associate ladies with these bodies wherever possible. The elected members will elected the respective Chairman or President.