278 pourasabhas in crisis

About 85 per cent of the country's pourasabha officials and employees are not receiving regular salary and allowances. This crisis pervades the entire local government system, not just the pourasabhas alone.

Regular salary and allowances are only paid in 49 of 327 pourasabhas. The officers and employees in the 278 pourasabhas are living in misery, with arrears piling up from 2 to 65 months.

There are 35,134 officials and employees in the pourasabhas across the country. Of them 12,696 are permanent. The remaining employees are contractual. The government has provided Tk 136.7 million for the pourasabha employees in the current 2018-19 budget, which is less than 1 per cent of the demand.

The pourasabha has been recognised as an administrative unit of the government in Section 5 of the Local Government (Pourasabha) Act 2009. According to Section 91 (4A) of the Act, the pay and allowance of the municipal officials and employees are to be paid from the government fund. But there is provision to provide 25 per cent of the salary from the council's own income for the officers and employees of the union parishad, another administrative unit of the local government. The remaining 75 per cent will be government allocation.

The municipal officials and employees have raised questions over the discrimination in pay and allowances, despite the pourasabha being a similar type of administrative unit.

Although all the previous governments have set up pourasabhas for political purposes, it was never decided how they would be run.

It has been said the salary and allowances of the pourasabha officials will come from the pourasabhas own funds. But most pourasabhas do not have minimum municipal facilities such as water supply, roads, electricity and drinking water. There is also less opportunity for taxation on houses and markets. There is no income generating industry in these municipal areas. If there is no source of income, how will they pay the salaries of the employees?

Therefore, despite the lack of civic amenities, pourasabhas are established recommended by the minister, MPs and influential people. There is need to rethink the future of the pourasabhas.

There is no point to spend millions of taka every year from the government fund for these pourasabhas. We do not think pourasabhas are essential for those services which can be provided by the upazila or union parishad.

However, the matter can be discussed with the local government experts before making a final decision in this regard. If necessary, they can form a commission to make recommendations. Before that, the officials and employees of the pourasabha should be paid the wages and allowances which are over due for months.