Municipal reform
A Hussain, Dhaka
The government is neglecting the review of the city corps and municipalities. Urgent reforms are needed immediately to improve the amateurish services (DS editorial Sept 18). The management is outdated, considering the exponential urban growth rates, and migration to the cities. One reason is the absurd centralization of public services (cling like leeches to power, without the motivation to use it in public interest, at least 90 per cent). The Municipal training institutes (too few in number) have also to be modernised and expanded, with more technical bias. The elected (political) heads need more orientation and management and administrative expertise. Nepotism in tendering and contracts have to be curbed. On the whole the municipal services are not very transparent (high systems losses). Start has to be made with the daily operation and maintenance services cannot keep pace with the growth rates of the cities. The municipal taxes may be raised slightly to provide better services. In short, there is no scientific municipal culture in Bangladesh. Some think tanks have to pay attention to the garbage, roads, and drain industries! Lastly, there is no one-stop coordinating agency in the big cities. Too many cooks spoil the broth. For example, remove the duplications between Rajuk and DCC in Dhaka metro. How long this divide-and-unruly system will continue? Noise makers cannot work silently in the background, and they remain agitators and canvassers, through bad habit cultivated wrongly. Freedom is not licence.
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