Dr Dora Rapold, ambassador of Switzerland, in her speech as the chief guest emphasised the need for a strong local government. "In Switzerland local government is working side by side with the national government. All sections will have to work simultaneously to construct strong local government in Bangladesh," she said.

The seminar was organised by Rupantor, an NGO and USAID on importance of local government.

Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to caretaker government said, " Although the local government is given priority in our constitution, it is being neglected. Local government is not the servant of national government; it is a sovereign government. It is our great misfortune that we are yet to have a strong local government in the country."

"From our past experience we see that non-elected governments gave the local government top priority but elected governments neglected it. Political governments gave promises of upholding upazila parishad but did not take effective steps.

"Democracy does not mean sovereignty of politicians; it is the sovereignty of people. If democracy is to be strengthened then local government should be given importance. It is also important to eliminate poverty," he said.

Roger De Carlson, mission director, USAID said, "USAID is working to strengthen local government in this country. Already we have helped activate Municipal Association of Bangladesh (MAB) and Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum. The work done by Rupantor has helped Union Parishads wealth by 50 percent."

Some proposals were given at the seminar. Among them were government orders and circulars should not go against the constitution; members of parliament should not be involved into the local government and development programmes; women empowerment should be given importance; incumbent leaders should be given individual offices, local government staff should be trained at NILG, BARD and RDA; the fund for health and education should be given directly to the local government; salary of the staff should be increased; new laws should be introduced to divide revenue between national and local government; an autonomous body should be introduced to handle financial stuff. It should be given the necessary power.

Dr Rezaul Haque, team leader, democracy and governance, USAID was the coordinator of first work session.

Advocate Azmatullah Khan, president, MAB, and Mahbubur Rahman Tulu spoke at the seminar. Dr Selina Hayat Ivy, Prof Dr Tofail Ahmed and Prof Mohammad Khan were panel discussants.

Qamrul Islam Siddiqi, former chief engineer of LGED, was coordinator of second work session. Dr Ashok Sarkar, director of public welfare in India, Tri Bikram Pande, executive director, CPREC, Nepal and Ram Balak Singh spoke at the seminar. Prof Amirul Islam Chowdhury, Dr Salahuddin Aminuzzaman and Taleya Rahman, director, democracy watch were panel discussants.

Debprasad Jana and Dr Shibraj Lohani local government specialist of India and Nepal spoke at the seminar. Swapan Guha, chief executive of Rupantor, gave the welcome speech.