City government need of the day

During and after the mayoral election of Chittagong, this concept of local government surfaced again. Mr. ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, the Mayor of Chittagong, has been trying to convince the people and the government of this concept.

During the last Awami League government, the party he belongs, he tried to convince his party and the then government about this idea but failed. This was probably one of the plus points for Mr. Mohiuddin in the last mayoral election of Chittagong. People from all walks of life considered him as the leader of Chittagong and felt that he put the development of Chittagong above his party.

After taking oath as mayor for the third term, Mr. Mohiuddin in a press conference reiterated his intention to submit his plan of city government within two months. To justify his proposal he said that it is very difficult to coordinate the seventeen odd departments which deal with the city problems like water supply, law and order, electricity, transport, housing, telephone, sewerage, road construction, education, environmental pollution, keeping official records, such as birth and death and public health, that are at present lie beyond the jurisdiction of the corporation.

In the same press conference he said that his plan of city government would be implemented in phases. On May 1 in a seminar on "What types of towns do we want?" organized by Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA), the participants suggested formation of metropolitan government for ideal urbanisation. The keynote paper presented by Professor Nazrul Islam of Centre for Urban Studies rightly pointed out that the present Dhaka City Corporation has very little power regarding the major urban issues. The participants also suggested having a metropolitan government for effective running of our urban areas.

City government or metropolitan government connotes a particular type of local government system that is being practiced in many cities in developed countries. To achieve an overall sustainable development, the idea of city government is logical, considering the size and population growth rates of cities like Dhaka and Chittagong, and their economic, social, and political bases.

To be more specific, the reason why cities should have city governments is to learn from other cities facing relatively similar problems under similar socio-economic conditions. They have mostly the same type of problems or constraints e.g., lack of resources, minimum wages, limited capacity of staff, high-handedness, and corruption, which hinder city authorities from optimally managing their cities.

The evolution of city size distributions in our country has also played a part and thus attracted the interest of researchers over a long period of time on this problem. The existence of very large cities like Dhaka, the wide dispersion in its size also becomes a problem to ponder for policy planners and its administrators.

We notice some of the city-states like Singapore and Vatican City, with their effective urban system. In the US, municipalities are the levels of local government below that of a county. City governments are usually administratively divided into several departments, depending on the size of the city. Though cities differ in the division of responsibility, the typical arrangement is to have the following departments handle the following roles.

Most US corporations and municipalities are governed either by Council-Manager government or by Mayor-Council government. In the council-manager form of government, an elected city council is responsible for making policy, passing ordinances, voting appropriations, and having overall supervisory authority in the city government. In such a government, the mayor (or equivalent executive) will perform strictly ceremonial duties or will act as a member and presiding officer of the council. The council will hire an administrator who will be responsible for supervising government operations and implementing the policies adopted by the council. The administrator serves the council, usually with a contract that specifies duties and responsibilities.

Mayor-Council government is the most commonly used. In the Mayor-Council form, the mayor plays the chief administrative duties with the officials depending upon the elected city council. The council may appoint officials and must approve of mayoral nominations. The council also exercises primary control over the municipal budget.

A third form, the City Commission government, which was once common, is not being practiced now. Most cities formerly governed by commission having switched to the Council-Manager form. Some consider the City Commission as a predecessor of the Council-Manager form.

The government must also think and evaluate the current situation of city administration in our country and take steps to reform their responsibilities by forming city government in a stepwise manner with appropriate rules and regulations that will ensure success. It is also very important and essential that the capacity building for city government should take place side by side, otherwise the whole concept will not materialize.

City governance is not about creating governance within a government. Simply creating a new powerful institution, it is to develop the effectiveness, coherence and legitimacy of the present one. To make more effective it should be law-based and rule-based. City government should be multi-level governance, implicating all levels of authorities. City governance will require reforms to be undertaken and efforts made both at national and international levels. In order to be legitimate, the city government has to be democratic and participatory in nature. It allows different stakeholders to play effective roles in different aspects of city developments.

Looking at cities as its natural and built environments, it is essential to have a rational management system for sustainable growth and living. Effective management and appropriate use of it for cities can be systematized, and a range of approaches and tools can be used to assist cities adopt such sustainable practices through city government. The present government can look into it positively and can form a task force to materialize the concept of city government and how to implement it in future. One of the guiding principles to change urban systems should be the realistic need of the people living there that go with the fiscal reform and good planning.

The author is a Professor, Department of Geography & Environment, Jahangirnagar University.