Bangladesh: DCs want mobile court jurisdiction widened

Dhaka, July 7, 2014 (New Age): The three-day annual conference of the deputy commissioners begins in Dhaka on Tuesday with issues relating to law and order, price hike, land management and implementation of development programmes high on the agenda. In the forum, the DCs, who also function as district magistrates, would press for inclusion of more offences relating to public security and public health that also included theft and trespass, in the schedule of Mobile Court Act 2009, said officials. The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is scheduled to inaugurate the conference at her Tejgaon office. ‘The deputy commissioners, who represent the government in the field, will get scope to discuss various issues they face in discharging their responsibilities directly with the policymakers during the conference,’ cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told a press briefing at the secretariat on Sunday ahead of the routine conference. The DCs, mainly responsible for implementation and supervision of the government policies and programmes, have already sent 307 recommendations to the Cabinet Division for placing in the business sessions to be held with ministers and secretaries concerned. The recommendations were already dispatched to the respective ministries so that they could get prepared for the sessions with the DCs, the cabinet secretary added. The DCs want powers to cancel declaration of newspapers that publish anti-state news reports or those hurting religious sentiments, a senior official told New Age, referring to the written proposal of the deputy commissioner of Dhaka. The DCs have also demanded that the divisional commissioners be empowered to remove elected union parishad chairmen and members found involved in illegal and anti-people activities. As the powers to remove UP chairmen and members are vested in the local government ministry, it usually ignores recommendations of DCs on the issue foiling all anti-corruption initiatives, said a deputy commissioner. They have demanded widening of the mobile court’s jurisdiction so that the executive magistrates could try more offences summarily to ensure public security and public health as well. ‘The DCs have demanded punishment of union-level elected representatives who fail to meet the target of tax collection,’ said a Cabinet Division official quoting the recommendations. The field administrators also called for appointing government officials to supervise tax collection by the union parishads. After inauguration at the Prime Minister’s Office, the conference to be attended by DCs from 64 districts and divisional commissioners from all seven divisions would shift to the secretariat where ministers and state ministers are due to speak at 20 business sessions. Rajshahi divisional commissioner called for empowering the divisional commissioners to appoint and transfer secretaries of municipalities to ensure transparency and accountability in the appointment and transfer process. The Lakshmipur DC has recommended that 29 more Articles of the Penal Code should be included in the schedule of the Mobile Court Act to ensure ‘public safety and public heath’ more effectively. The government last year ruled out a proposal of the deputy commissioners to restore summary trial powers of the executive magistrates, citing that ‘Article 22 of the constitution clearly says the state will ensure complete separation of judiciary from the executive branch’. The executive magistrates were stripped of judicial powers through the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch that came into effect from November 1, 2007. Several deputy commissioners from bordering districts, including Satkhira, Jessore, Meherpur, Bandarban, Thakurgaon and Cox’s Bazar have recommended intensifying surveillance over the borders with India and Myanmar. Deputy commissioners from Naogaon, Bogra, Comilla, Kushtia and Bandarban have proposed that non-government teachers should be recruited through central/regional/district level committees instead of the managing committees of non-government educational institutions to avoid irregularities.