The deputy commissioners (DCs) are not being able to discharge administrative duties without fear and rising above political harassment and threats. They wanted to bring the matter to the notice of the prime minister with reference to the recent altercations between DCs and MPs as well as other public representatives in some districts. Not only the non-cooperation of public representatives, the D
Cs wanted to get back the judicial power citing sufferings of the common people over pending cases. They wanted to stress on ensuring the qualitative standard of the projects by giving supervising authority to the DCs or UNOs. They also wanted to urge for doing something to protect agricultural land. But due to the censorship imposed by the cabinet division it was not possible for them. The DC conference is arranged very much for informing the highest authority of the field level problems and prospects. This conference is a 250 years old platform for informing the president, prime minister and ministers of the situation at grassroots level. DC conference is a forum for them to give directives for equitable developments. The current years DC conference ended on Thursday. The three-day conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. At the inaugural session of the conference at PMO three DCs and a divisional commissioner made formal speeches. Although 20 more DCs participated in the discussions, those were a part of the open talks. The three DCs who took part in the discussion are those of Rangamati, Madaripur and Panchagarh. All these three had sent their written statement to the cabinet division earlier. They were not allowed to read out some important portion of that written statement. The written statement of Panchagarh DC dealt with the non-cooperation of public representatives. In the draft statement he mentioned that the support and cooperation of the honourable public representatives are necessary for maintaining law and order and enforcing law. But in the recent times exception to this has taken place which is not desired at all. He drew the kind attention of the prime minister so that the government officials and employees can make the development efforts of the elected government successful by enforcing state law with transparency and without fear. The statement of DC Panchagarh also included the issue of projects. At present various anomalies are going on in project management. Projects are undertaken where these are not necessary. These projects are undertaken on political ground. There are different allegations over these projects. He proposed for handling over these projects to DCs or UNOs. Besides referring to the shrinking of agricultural land day by day he stressed on stopping construction of unplanned dwelling houses. He said, “In this county of limited land and huge population the agricultural land is shrinking gradually.” It is demand of time to control construction of unplanned houses on the agricultural lands. For the purpose, a policy guideline should be adopted to use land in upazila and district areas. Such guidelines are needed for public and private housing projects. The conference emphasised the need for constructing high-rise buildings for housing, official and commercial enterprises. Referring to case backlog, Rangamati DC said the number of criminal cases prior to separation of the judiciary on November 1, 2007 was 5,68,000 and it rose to above 9,27,000 on December 31, 2013. He said the criminal cases increased by 11 percent in every year. If the cases continue to increase at the current rate, total number of criminal cases will stand at 14,11,000 by 2021 and 26,21,000 by 2041. He said the backlog of cases will pose a threat to establishment of good governance in the country. The DC, however, could not articulate the administrative cadre officers’ main demand for getting back judicial power. In his censored speech, he said “On the basis of my experience in the field-level administration for two decades, I can say that some legal authority of the DCs should be enhanced for the interest of good governance.” He said it is necessary to empower the District Magistrates to take a case into his cognizance and send it to the appropriate court for trial. Quoting section 190(4) of the Cr.PC, he said the government can vest the power on the executive magistrates to take any case into its cognizance. The government can do that by issuing a gazette notification without amending any law, he said adding “Trial of the case taken into cognizance by the executive magistrates will be in the hand of judiciary.” The deputy commissioner also spoke on the need for settling land disputes in Chittagong hill tract areas. He said common people locked in conflict with department of forestry over the issue of land. As survey of the lands and other related procedure are yet to be held there, land disputes are being surfaced. He said almost every tribal family has land dispute with department of forestry. If the land disputes are resolved, 25 lakh people there will get rid of this problem. He could not speak about Chittagong Regional Parishad and Hill Tracts District Parishad. On the other hand, Madaripur DC was able to raise the demand for risk allowance for the magistrates but he could not speak about getting back judicial horn. When contacted, Rangamati DC said the cabinet division can edit their speeches either before presenting those to the PM. It is learnt that the DCs had been enjoying an opportunity to hold personal meeting with the PM during their conference till last year. But this year, there was no scope for personal meeting. Even, their opportunity to speak during open discussion was censored. The DCs were cautioned before hand not to say anything before the PM.
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