| Local govt ordinance and commission not to be passed LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said the government is considering introducing village courts to relieve the formal courts from the burden of unimportant cases. After meeting with UN Assistant Secretary General Ajay Chhibber, he said "The formal courts are suffering from backlog of cases many of which have derived from trivial issues. If village courts can dispose of trivial cases, the courts will be able to concentrate on the serious cases." In a query whether country's judicial system will be affected by introduction of village courts, he said petty family matters and minor land disputes which fall under the category of civil cases will be settled by village courts but no criminal case will be heard by those. But who will be appointed to those courts have not been finalised yet, he added. It may be mentioned that last alliance government led by BNP took initiative to establish village courts but the attempt was foiled as the higher court declared it illegal and stayed the decision. LGRD Minister gave an intimation that much-talked about Local Government Commission to regulate local government system will not come into being as local government ordinance providing for such commission will not be approved by the parliament. He ruled out allegation that local government ordinance is going to be cancelled for curtailing powers of MPs to interfere in the local government activities and development projects under their respective constituencies. "Local government ordinance will not be approved by the parliament not because of it being in conflict with the powers of MPs, rather the ordinance will not be endorsed simply because it was promulgated by the caretaker government beyond authority," he added. Only three categories of ordinances involving public interest, finance and election will be ratified by the parliament, he said, adding "As per above parameter 54 ordinances will be passed while 68 ordinances including that of local government will be cancelled." Ashraful Islam said local government will be governed by the local government ordinance 1998 which was adopted during the previous Awami League regime. But there will be some modifications in this ordinance to include the posts of vice chairman (male) and vice chairman (female) of upazila as they have been already elected in recently held upazila polls. He stated that all offices under various ministries at the upazila level will be coordinated and brought under an optical fibre network with financial support of UN as discussed with UN delegates. Meanwhile, former adviser of CG Sultana Kamal coming out of LGRD Minister's room said she along with foreign delegates of Chittagong Hill Tracts related international commission urged the minister to take step for full-fledged implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord and they are hopeful of a significant progress in the matter within five years while the minister underlined the need for securitisation of laws in this regard. |
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