Bill tabled for union parishad law

Bill tabled for union parishad law Star Online Report The government today placed a bill in the parliament proposing enactment of a law on union parishads, the lowest tier of the local government system. The bill placed by LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam came up with some new ideas including one for introduction of ward assembly system. According to the proposed bill each of the wards of a union parishad will have a ward assembly, which will be consisted of voters of the ward and it will hold meeting in open space at least thrice in a year. The ward assembly will discuss and review the problems the area facing and play a role in implementation of the government's various schemes. The assembly will also scrutinise the authenticity of the beneficiaries from the government welfare programmes including old age allowance and subsidies. The assembly will also work to prevent child marriage, dowry, acid violence and try to resolve all other social problems and the decisions will be taken on majority’s opinion. However the bill was placed over six months after the country’s around 4,500 union parishads run without any law. It was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on LGRD ministry for scrutiny and place report in seven days. The past caretaker government repealed the then union parishad ordinance and promulgated a new one. But the ordinance ceased to have effect, as it was not ratified in the parliament within the timeframe stipulated in the Constitution.