Dhaka (The Daily Star/ANN) - Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and all of its councillors elected in 2002 will no longer be able to remain in offices after the passage of a bill placed in parliament Wednesday.
Once the bill is adopted, the current DCC will be dissolved instantly and the corporation will be split into two-DCC North and DCC South.
An administrator will be appointed for each of the two new corporations to run the activities till those are constituted through elections, according to the provisions of the bill.
State Minister for Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD )and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanok placed the bill on behalf of LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, seeking to bring necessary amendments to the act.
In absence of the BNP-led opposition lawmakers, independent MP Fazlul Azim opposed the bill before it was placed, saying it will not be correct to split the DCC on political grounds.
"People of Dhaka city have already spoken against the government's move.... Introduction of a metropolitan government is required to improve the civic facilities," he mentioned.
The state minister denied Azim's arguments and defended the bill. The House rejected the objection in a voice vote and the bill was placed.
It was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on LGRD and cooperatives ministry for scrutiny and placing a report in parliament within seven days.
The bill might be passed in the current session which is likely to be prorogued on November 28.
Polls to the new corporations will have to be held in next six months as per the provisions of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009.
A new Election Commission will conduct the polls as the present EC's tenure ends in February next year.
The bill also proposed to change the present legal framework for deployment of the army, air force and navy in the city corporation polls with sweeping authority.
The present parliament adopted the act in 2009, which included the armed forces under the definition of law enforcement agencies, along with police, armed police battalion, Rab, Ansars, Battalion ansars, Border Guard Bangladesh and Coast Guard.
Once deployed in election duties, members of the armed forces can exercise the powers of the police in arresting anyone without an arrest warrant within the 400-yard radius of a polling station.
But the bill proposed to exclude the defence services from the definition of the law enforcement agencies.
Legal experts, however, said the government's move to appoint administrators after removal of the incumbent mayor might face difficulties on legal grounds as the constitution does not allow the government to do so.
The 150 square kilometre mega city has 92 wards. The proposal envisages that DCC North will get 36 wards (1-23, 37-47, 54 and 55), while DCC South will have 56 wards (24-36, 48-53 and 56-92).
Under the plan, Uttara, Gulshan, Badda, Mohakhali, East Rampura, Tejgaon, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Pallabi and Kafrul fall in the North while Dhanmondi, Ramna, Motijheel, Sabujbagh, Demra, Khilgaon, Sutrapur, Kotwali and Lalbagh in the South.
Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka, also chief of Dhaka city unit BNP, and councillors, most of whom owe political allegiance to BNP, have been serving their second term after completing their five-year tenure in May 2007.
Polls could not be held in 2007 due to a state of emergency and an incomplete voter list.
After the Awami League-led government assumed office in 2009, the EC had moved several times to hold the long-overdue polls. Even the EC had completed all the preparations and informed the government that it wanted to hold the polls in May last year.
But prior to the announcement of the schedule, the government stopped the commission, saying it would split the DCC before the polls.
Local government experts and opposition politicians have been critical of the government's move to split the DCC since it approved in principle the proposal at a cabinet meeting on October 17.
They said dividing the area alone will not ensure better civic facilities for the residents, unless it is made stronger through legal reforms.
COPYRIGHT: ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Bill seeks to split Dhaka
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