Draft law prohibits municipal mayors to remain in office at end of tenure

The Cabinet on Monday gave final approval to the draft of the Local Government (Pourosova) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 aiming to strictly follow the system of holding local government polls at the end of five-year tenure.

The approval came from the virtual cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The prime minister joined the meeting from Ganabhaban while other cabinet members were connected with the meeting from the secretariat, reports UNB.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam, while briefing reporters after the meeting, said that sometimes it was seen that at end of the tenure some municipal mayors go to court and get restrictions on holding the next election.

He mentioned that by this way some chairmen stay in office for more than five years and even 15-16 years taking the scope of a clause in the existing law that stated that the present chairmen will remain in the chair till the next election.

 “To stop this practice the government has made this amendment in the 2009 law,” he said.

The proposed law said that after the five-year completion the government will be able to appoint an administrator either from the government services who has administrative experience or any other eligible person.

 “The appointed administrator will remain in the post for a maximum of six months and elections have to be held by this time,” the cabinet secretary said.

The meeting also decided to make the eligibility for the enlistment of any new municipality pourosova which have a minimum of 2000 persons per kilometre, which is now 1500 per kilometre.

It changed the name of 'pourosova member' to 'pouro executive officer'.

From the meeting, it was decided that the proposed law will include another clause that mentioned that if any municipality fails to pay salaries and other wages of its officers and employees for 12 months the government can abolish its status as a municipality.

The cabinet meeting gave approval of the draft of the Essential Services Act, 2021 integrating Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1952 and The Essential Services (Second Ordinance), 1958.

After the passage of this proposed law, the cabinet secretary said, the government will be able to declare any service essential when it will be necessary.

He said that the essential services will be included post, telecommunications, internet service, ICT, digital services, mobile financial services, digital financial services, power generation and distribution-related services, railways, passenger and goods transportation through water, road and airways.

Khandker Anwarul said that the government can declare this essential status for a maximum of six months.

After the declaration, there will be no strike; shut off and lay off in that service.

Any breach of this law will be punishable and if any labour does that he or she will be fined from Tk 25,000 to Tk 50,000 and six months imprisonment or both.

For the owner, the punishment is Tk 100,000 maximum or one-year imprisonment or both.

For an illegal strike, the punishment will be expulsion from the job, six months imprisonment or Tk 25,000 fine or both.

If anyone instigates to breach the law, that person will be fined Tk 50,000 or one-year imprisonment or both.

The cabinet also approved the Chittagong Division Development Board Ordinance, 1976 (repeal) Act, 2021 which will abolish the existing law as per the directives of the court that said all laws enacted during the military regimes will be scrapped.

The cabinet secretary said that the meeting also discussed the offers from some African countries including South Sudan to take lease agricultural land and produce agricultural products.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the foreign ministry, agriculture ministry and commerce ministry to look into the matter quickly and explore the opportunity.

She also asked to find out more markets for the country’s agricultural products.

In this connection, she mentioned that Scandinavian countries have welcomed Bangladesh’s vegetables.

The government has allotted two acres of land in Purbachal to the agriculture ministry to establish an international standard laboratory to test and give certificates to the outgoing products of the country for expediting export.

The meeting also discussed the delay in resuming classes at universities in the country.

The cabinet secretary said that the education minister informed the meeting that the resumption of class in any university depends on the decision of its syndicate.

She also said that the delay in reopening academic activities in the universities might be occurred due to the bad condition of student dormitories as those were under lock and key for more than one and a half years.

She also said that the government has already announced two public examinations and those will be held at the right time if the situation goes like the present condition or improved further.

“There will be no problem in holding examinations if there is no sudden deterioration in the situation,” the cabinet secretary said.

The PM also asked the health ministry to explore the technical side to give vaccines to the under-18 people.

The cabinet also gave the approval to ratify article 29 of the forceful labour related ILO convention 1930.

This ratification will ease the country’s export in the European countries as they gave conditions to ratify it for sending products to their countries.