The manpower structures of two city corporations of Dhaka have been stalled for a long period. With only 48 per cent manpower of the old structure, the two corporations have been providing service to residents. For this, the Kafkaesque bureaucracy is being blamed.
Officials of two city corporations say that after division, 16 unions have been added and the size of the corporations have increased. But manpower has not risen; instead, the previous manpower is now divided.
Due to lack of enough manpower, service is deteriorating with the city experiencing a rise in Dengue, Chukunguniya and other diseases. It’s believed that the two city corporations are being run with the organograms of 1989.
After the division in 2012, proposals for separate organograms were sent to the ministry of local government.
At that time, manpower of 1858 persons for Dhaka north and 2482 for Dhaka south were finalised.
In 1991, the population in Dhaka was 34 lakh 40 thousand 137 and the city was 129 square km and with the addition of 16 unions, the size now stands at 270 square km.
Later, the number was raised to 2500 for north and 3400 for south city corporations. Since then, files are being transacted though no approval has come as yet.
Dhaka South City Corporation mayor, Sayeed Khokon, says: “Our manpower is inadequate; due to this we are grappling with the campaigns against Aedis mosquitoes.”
Due to lack of manpower, we often have to rely on scouts, BNCC, fire service and others, he deplored.
Dhaka North City Corporation mayor, Atiqul Islam, observes: “To provide service to the people, manpower has to be increased. If we had enough power then we could have settled many problems before they became intractable.”
Minister for local government, rural development and cooperative, Md Tajul Islam, says: “We have sent a finalised organogram to the ministry of public administration; this should have been done long ago.”
Later, the minister said that the ministry of public administration has said that promotion of officials will be carried out through an exam.
A meeting in this regard, to be held on 22 July, will finalise the pending issue, he added.