Face to face with people's representatives

Partial view of a 'Face to face' meeting at Demra union of Pabna district

Though UP is the nearest government to the poor, but many suspect UP is an ineffective institution. There is little dynamism in its activities as it is also sunk in the sea of prevailing corruption and is confined in the orders of the central government.

Strong and effective local government is now a demand of the mass people for the sake of democracy, poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. Though all governments after the independence have given emphasise to strengthening of local government, but unfortunately almost no realistic and effective steps have been taken so far in this regard. UP as a local government institution has many roles to play. But it remains still in the dark for the common people. They seldom can know how much are they being deprived of their rights as this institution remains just not accountable to them.

Samata, a national development organisation engaged in land reform activities, has been working since 2002 in Pabna and Rajbari districts to make the institution of UP strong and accountable. One of its activities is 'Face to Face Meeting with People's Representatives'. Already this lively programme has been able to create excitement among all concerned and has been appreciated too by sections of administration. One of the chief characteristics of this programme is that common people directly ask chairmen and members different questions relating to their problems and demands, and elected chairmen and members, under the situation have to respond to their queries. So far this programme has been organised in 19 UPs in 7 Upazilas of Pabna and Rajbari districts.

Elected representatives have heard the problems of their voters and simultaneously they have also expressed their limitations. Focal point in this context is that poor people's right to express their opinion has been established through this programme. There are lots of deprived people who had never got a chance to see their chairmen before. It has happened many times that, UP chairmen have been embarrassed as they failed to give befitting answer to the questions raised by such people.

Participation of landless rural women is another brighter feature of this programme. A great number of them have participated beside the male participants. They, also asked questions without any reservation and sought replies.

Through this exceptional programme, transparency and accountability of different UPs in Pabna and Rajbari districts have been ensured to some extent. Because, people have questioned on different burning issues like, why VGF, VGD cards were not properly distributed, why corruption was alleged in road construction, why steps had not been taken to distribute khas land and on many other vexing issues. Samata hopes this face to face dialoguing between UP representatives and their voters will be replicated all over the country. Then the common people will enjoy much more opportunities to know about the roles and responsibilities of UP representatives and about their own rights.

Md. Abdul Kader is Executive Director of Samata