Local government in Bangladesh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 8 Divisional Commissionerates
- 64 District Councils
- 495 Sub-district Councils
- 4,573 Union Councils
- 329 Town Councils
- 12 City Councils
| Local government in Bangladesh | |
|---|---|
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| Category | Unitary state |
| Location | Bangladesh |
| Number |
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| Populations | 3,212 (Union Councils) – 36,054,418 (Divisions)[citation needed] |
| Areas | 9 km2 (Union Councils) – 7,468 km2 (Divisions)[citation needed] |
| Government |
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| Subdivisions | |
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 Bangladesh portal |
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There are 8 divisions and 64 districts in Bangladesh, each district further subdivided into upazila (lit. 'subdistricts'). The area within each subdistrict, except for those in metropolitan areas, is divided into several unions, with each union consisting of multiple villages. Direct elections are held for each union (or ward), electing a chairperson and a number of members. In 1997, a parliamentary act was passed to reserve three seats (out of 12) in every union for female candidates.[1] Following elections in the 2014–16 period, 25.2% (14,763/ 58,543) of councillors were women, up from 23.4% in the 2011–13 period.[2]
In Bangladesh, the rural and regional local government have four tiers:
- Divisional administration
- District administration
- Sub-district administration
- Rural, Municipal and City councils
The Divisional Commissioner is the administrative head of a division. The Divisional Commissioner is appointed by the government from a Senior secretary of the B.C.S. Administration Cadre. The role of a Divisional Commissioner's office is to act as the supervisory head of all the government offices (except the central government offices) situated in the division. Divisional Commissioner's are given the direct responsibility of supervising the revenue and development administration of a division. The Divisional Commissioner is assisted by the several Additional Divisional Commissioners, Assistant Divisional Commissioners and other bureaucratic officials.[3][4][5]
District administration
District Council (or Zila Parishad) is a local government body at the district level.[6] The Bengali word parishad means council and zila parishad translates to district council. The Deputy Commissioner (popularly abbreviated to "DC") is the executive head of the district. The Deputy Commissioner is appointed by the government from a Joint secretary of the B.C.S. Administration Cadre. But Zila Parishad has a different setup from the DC office. Currently, the Chairman of each District Council is an appointee from the Central Government. An officer ranked Deputy Secretary works as the Chief Executive of the council. The District Council, being the highest tier of Local Government, is supposed to be an autonomous and the supreme body to look after the overall development activities in district level. But in practice, it is merely a setup confined with few charitable works.
Sub-District administration
Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO, or Upazila Executive Officer; Bengali: উপজেলা নির্বাহী কর্মকর্তা) is a non-elected administrator in Upazila. UNOs are Senior Assistant Secretary of Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS). They act as executive officer of the upazila under the elected posts. Each Upazila Parishad (or council) has a chairman, a vice-chairman and a woman vice-chairman. All three are elected through direct popular election. Union Parishad chairman within the upazila are considered as the members of the porishod. The post of a woman vice-chairman was created to ensure at least one-third woman representation in the all elected posts of the local government. On 22 January 2010 the first election in 18 years of Upazila Porishod was held.[7] One-third of the seats in the Upazila Parishad are reserved for women.[2]
