The Crime Desk: The activities of 190 Union Parishads of Chittagong have come to a standstill. Development activities are far from being done; important things like normal citizenship certificates and birth registrations are not happening. Thousands of people have suffered due to this. Everything, including passporting, land registry, and NID-related work, is closed. It is not known when the Union Parishads will be operational.
The importance of Union Parishad is immense in the local government system. Many daily activities of thousands of people depend on this grassroots organization. No work is done without the nationality certificate. Without the Nationality Certificate signed by the Chairman of the Union Parishad, it is not possible to do important things like passport, driving license, NID, death certificate, and Warishan certificate. Due to the Rohingyas in Chittagong, the nationality certificate given by the Chairman of the Union Parishad is given utmost importance. Apart from this, the Union Parishad conducts multi-crore development activities, including the development of roads and bridge culverts in the area. Gramin Adalat was established to address thousands of grievances in rural areas. As a result, there is no need to go to court or police station. The normal life of hundreds of thousands of people in that area largely depends on the activities of the Union Parishad as a local government. There are 190 Union Parishads in 16 Upazilas of Chittagong. Almost all the current chairmen of these councils are party leaders of the Awami League. Many of them are popular in the area and work as good people above the party opinion, but with the fall of the government, all of them have covered their backs. The houses of most of the Union Parishad chairmen were attacked and looted. Fire has been set. In this situation, the chairman identified as a good person has also covered his back. The common people of the area have to pay for it. Many of their important jobs are on hold as they are unable to obtain nationality certificates and public registration.
A resident of the Dabua area of Roujan lamented yesterday, “I went from town to village today (yesterday) to get the chairman’s certificate.” I went and saw that there was no one. I had a heart attack. Need to go to India urgently. A passport is required. But even though the passport office is open, I can’t apply because I can’t get the chairman’s certificate.
He said, naturally, no one takes the chairman’s certificate first. When necessary, he went to the union council and collected and completed the work. I am now in crisis. I tried to find out when the chairman would come. But no one can say anything.
A resident of the Magadia area of Mirsarai said, I need to register the birth of my child. But there is no one in the Union Parishad. All work stopped. I don’t understand what to do.
A resident of the Bagachtar area of Sitakunda said that I went to the Union Parishad for urgent work. But I heard that the chairman is not in the area. So all the work of Union Parishad is stopped. I went out of town. Had to come back without working. I need a Warishan certificate. But because of not being able to do that, my family is facing loss.
It is known that all the development works that were going on at the rural level of each area have been stopped. The contractor is not working anywhere. Locals said that if Union Parishads were introduced with special security arrangements, it would have benefited the common people. If it is necessary to dissolve the Union Parishad, then by appointing an administrator, the normal activities should be started on a limited scale. Otherwise, human suffering will increase.
