Local govt reforms must move from 'paper to practice' without delay

Banglapress Published: 23 September 2025, 10:25 AM

Local govt reforms must move from 'paper to practice' without delay

Bangla Press Desk: Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Sunday said the Local Government Reform Commission's recommendations must be implemented as soon as possible without any delay. At the time, the Commission submitted its report to the chief adviser, calling for removing the curse of entrenching corruption from local government bodies and making them "smarter." “Let us not delay. These reforms must move from paper to practice as soon as possible,” Prof Yunus said, upon receiving the final report at the State Guest House Jamuna. Dr Yunus expressed his strong commitment to transparency and public engagement with the reform process. “We will make the full report public so that citizens, experts, and stakeholders can access and understand the reforms that are being proposed,” he said.

Dr Yunus said, “In fact, I believe these reforms should be studied in schools to build civic awareness from a young age.” The Local Government Reform Commission, headed by Prof Tofail Ahmed, submitted the report after months of consultation, research and fieldwork. “We are recommending that the Consensus Commission review and reflect on the report,” said the Commission chief. “In the first section, we focused on structural reforms, and in the latter part, we offer what we call ‘a single idea to implement a thousand others’ — a framework that ensures practical and scalable change,” he said.

“We’ve dedicated an entire chapter to the role of resource management and suggested that the Local Government Division take on a supervisory role to ensure accountability,” he said. The Commission’s report also identifies critical challenges facing urban local bodies, particularly the Dhaka City Corporation. “Departmental inefficiencies and rampant bribery remain persistent issues. From large infrastructure projects to everyday services, corruption flows through multiple layers — project-level, service-level, and inter-departmental. Unless we address these, effective governance will remain a dream,” Prof Ahmed said. The meeting was also attended by members of the Local Government Reform Commission, including Prof Dr Ferdous Arfina Osman, Abdur Rahman, Dr Mahfuz Kabir, Mahshuda Khatun Shefali, Prof Dr Mohammad Tarikul Islam, Elira Dewan, Prof Dr Kazi Maruful Islam, AKM Tarikul Alam, Helena Parveen and Mojbah Uddin Khan.

The government formed the eight-member Local Government Reform Commission in November last year. Dr Tofail Ahmed, earlier, emphasised that the role of members and councillors in local government bodies such as Union Parishads, Municipalities, Upazila Parishads, Zila Parishads and City Corporations is considered a part-time work, warranting the removal of current restrictions. “This system exists in other countries. Members and councillors’ roles are part-time, unlike the full-time roles of chairmen or mayors,” he said recently. Source: DS [Bangla Press is a global platform for free thought. It provides impartial news, analysis, and commentary for independent-minded individuals. Our goal is to bring about positive change, which is more important today than ever before.] BP/ZE

[Bangla Press is a global platform for free thought. It provides impartial news, analysis, and commentary for independent-minded individuals. Our goal is to bring about positive change, which is more important today than ever before.]