Cabinet takes decision to hold local elections on party basis

The cabinet in its weekly meeting today with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair approved the proposals of the Local Government Ministry to bring necessary amendment to Union Parishad, Upazila Parishad, Zila Parishad, Pourasabha and City Corporation acts in this regard.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Mosharraf Hussain Bhuiyan said under the amendment only the candidates nominated by registered political parties and independent candidates under the existing guidelines of the Election Commission could contest in the local government body polls with the specified party symbol in the posts of chairman and members.

The government has decided to bring changes in the local government system for empowerment of elected representatives of the grassroots level and development of political and democratic culture in the country, he said.

The cabinet secretary said local government elections in major parliamentary system of democratic countries including Britain and neighbouring India are held on the basis of party nomination.

Example of the two countries comes as Bangladesh has similarity with the administrative and political structures of those countries, he said.

All the proposals were given final approval subject to vetting of law ministry, Mosharraf Hossain said, adding that the Local Government (Pourasabha) (Amendment) Act would be promulgated as an ordinance by the President as pourasabha election is approaching and parliament is not in session.

Other four amendments would be placed in the coming session of parliament for endorsement and would come into effect from next Union Parishad, Upazila Parishad, Zila Parishad and City Corporation elections, he said.

The cabinet secretary said another change was brought in the Zila Parishad Act to include the vice chairman and female vice chairman in reserved seat in the Electoral College for election of the chairman of the Zila Parishad. In the existing law they are not included as voters in the Zila Parishad poll.

The new amendment, the cabinet secretary said, has curtailed all scopes for local elected representatives to continue in his/her position on any plea, even taking stay order from the court on election after expiry of the tenure.

The government would try to hold election regularly and in case of any complexities an administrator would be appointed for interim period, the cabinet secretary said, adding that so far the provision was included in the city corporation act, but now it would be applicable in all tires of the local government bodies.

Mosharraf Hussain said the cabinet also has given final approval to the draft of two more acts -- "Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Digital University, Bangladesh Act-2015" and Rabindra Bishwabidalaya Act-2015.

Besides, the cabinet has okayed a policy for management of the unused lands of Roads and Highways Department and a proposal for relaxing the age-limit of senior staff nurses and staff nurses for their joining the hospitals and healthcare centers under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Digital University will be a specialized public university on information and communication technology with the main objective to expedite the pace of development through qualitative improvement of IT education in the country.

Rabindra Bishwabidalaya will be established as a public university at Shahzadpur in Sirajganj district which will provide education on literature, music, drama, dance, fine arts, social science, agriculture, cooperatives, zoology and technological studies side by side with conducting research and practice on Rabindranath.

The administrative structure of the university would be like other public universities. However, the cabinet has given a new recommendation to include four Rabindra experts in its senate who teach and conduct research on Rabindranath, the cabinet secretary said.

He said the policy on land property use of Roads and Highways Department has been prepared accommodating all previous laws. Under the policy the department has to preserve the accounts of its all land property both manually and digitally. The land should be kept free from illegal occupation, but could be given lease for temporary period to any individual or organization for economic use.

The policy stipulated that the existing petrol/diesel pumps and CNG station on the land of the department would exist, but no land property would be given lease for this purpose from now on. Statue, memorial on the nation's culture, history and heritage could be constructed on the road islands upon permission of the ministry or chief engineer of the department.

The unused land could also be given lease for pisciculture, agriculture, social afforestation in addition to construction of restroom for commuters, passenger shed, truck terminal, billboard, digital banner and scroll vision.

Earlier, the Cabinet Division submitted a quarterly report (July-September) to the cabinet on implementation of the cabinet decisions. During the period the cabinet has taken 78 decisions in 11 meetings of the cabinet, of which 45 were implemented and 33 others remained under the process of execution.

At that time, three policies/strategy plan were adopted, four agreement/MoU were signed with other countries and eight laws were passed in parliament, the cabinet secretary said.