A five-day conference of deputy commissioners (DCs) or administrative chiefs of 64 districts is going to take place in capital Dhaka from Sunday. This year DCs conference has been extended from three days to five days. The cabinet division has already completed all necessary preparations in order to make the conference a success.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the conference at the Shapla Hall of Prime Minister's Office on Sunday. And this will be the first DCs conference after Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government assumed office for three consecutive terms. Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam disclosed the information at a press briefing over the upcoming conference at the Secretariat on Thursday.
He said starting on July 14, the five-day conference would end on July 18. At the conference, the deputy commissioners will place various problems of their respective districts before President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This time the deputy commissioners will have a scope to exchange views with Speaker ShirinSharmin Chaudhury, and Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain.
The cabinet secretary said the conference to be participated by 54 ministries and departments will hold a number of 29 sessions. Of them, 24 would be working sessions with different ministries. “A number of 333 proposals would be placed by different district and divisional commissioners at the conference,” he added.
Besides, the ministers, advisors to the premier and secretaries to different ministries are also scheduled to interact with the DCs during the conference, giving their valuable suggestions and directives. The cabinet division organises the DC conference each year, aimed to gear up grassroots administration, accelerate development activities of the government, analyze and evaluate the government’s policy execution at grassroots level and hold direct views-exchange meeting between the government’s policymakers and DCs, officials of public administration ministry and cabinet division told Bangladesh Post on Thursday.
Noting that the DC conference is a very important programme of the state, the officials said an open discussion between the prime minister and the DCs usually takes place in this conference.
During the conference the premier gives a patient hearing to different problems of the DCs across the country, giving necessary directives afterward. Meanwhile, discussion is going on in the administrative circle about government’s directives, officials of the public administration ministry and cabinet division said, adding the deputy commissioners will be asked to expedite the ongoing development programmes.
“The issues relating to progress of countrywide ongoing development, terrorism and militancy could dominate the conference,” an official said. Besides, the deputy commissioners will also be given special assignment to work hard in order to implement the government’s policy and ensure government service at the door step of the grassroots people across the country, he said.
According to public administration ministry and cabinet division sources, after the formal inauguration at the Shapla Hall of PMO, the first working session of the deputy commissioners will begin at cabinet conference at the Secretariat with cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam in the chair. According to public administration ministry sources, the deputy commissioners are bound to take report on government officials from different agencies for promotion. At the conference, the DCs will place the issue before the premier and request her to free them from other agencies’ reports for the promotion of officials.
They will also seek government decision in this regard, sources added.
Various issues relating to ministry of liberation war affairs, ministry of social welfare and ministry of youth affairs and sport will be discussed at the first working session. Concerned ministers and secretaries will also attend the session. Discussion over ministry of environment, forest and climate change and ministry of civil aviation and tourism will take place in the second session. The second session will continue till 4pm on the day. Discussion on ministry of finance and planning will take placeat the first session of the second day of the conference.
Later discussion on the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources will also take place at the second session. Apart from these, activities of ministries of education and primary and mass education will also come for discussion. On this day discussion on ministries of cultural affairs and information will also be held. Later the deputy commissioners will call on President Md Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban at 7.3.0 pm. During the call on, the President will give necessary directives to the deputy commissioners.
According to sources, strategies to enhance quality of public services at lesser cost and time on the part of people was selected as the prime issue of the conference where the DCs would interact with all cabinet members. The conference is expected to come up with an integrated policy guideline equipping the district administrations with directives in overcoming their challenges in delivering services involving legal, administrative and financial affairs.
Officials familiar with the conference outline said law and order, land management, local governance, disaster management, employment generation, social safety net programmes have also been listed as agenda of discussion. Besides, issues like use of information and communication technology and e-governance, education quality, healthcare and family welfare services and environment conservation will also be discussed.
Besides, ministers, advisors, state-ministers, deputy ministers and senior secretaries of all ministries and divisions will also take part in the conference. According to cabinet division, describing militancy, terrorism, corruption and narcotics as curse of society, the deputy commissioners will be given instructions to put up resistance unitedly against these menaces.
The deputy commissioners will also be asked to urge all including parents, guardians, teachers, public representatives, religious scholars and imam and muezzins to build up resistance in unison against militancy, terrorism and narcotics and create mass awareness against these social vices at their respective districts. The government will also order the deputy commissioners to take effective measures in order to stop humiliation in getting government services at the grassroots level.
The deputy commissioners will also have to remain alert so that people will not be deprived of getting government services. Besides, they will have to work together with public representatives at their respective districts in order to establish good governance at the grassroots level. The conference will also discuss a large number of proposals which will be submitted by deputy commissioners.
The conference is held every year to discuss the ways of the execution of different policies, guidelines, priorities of the government as well as the proposal of field-level officials for smooth and effective functioning of the government and maintaining law and order of the country. The DCs will submit their proposals to the government with a view to getting necessary guidelines from the government.
The deputy commissioners will participate in the conference and get an opportunity to convey field level problems and potentials directly to the highest policy making level. In a nutshell, this conference is a bridge between the field-level officers – the DCs – and the top government bodies which help the overall progress of the government’s work at district level.
The DCs are also heads of the law and order committees in the districts and they act, during elections, as district magistrates, playing a pivotal role during both the local and the national elections under the supervision of the Election Commission.