TDS Desk:

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has underscored the critical need for decentralisation of local government bodies, directing immediate steps to empower grassroots institutions with greater authority, resources, and decision-making capacity.

He made the remarks during a meeting of the Council of Advisers held Thursday at the Chief Adviser’s Office in Tejgaon, Dhaka.

The discussions focused on how to strengthen union parishads, upazila parishads, district councils, municipalities, and city corporations by expanding their functional and financial independence.

In a press briefing later in the day at the Foreign Service Academy on Bailey Road, Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam shared key outcomes of the meeting.

“Professor Yunus emphasisd that real democracy and development must begin from the grassroots,” Shafiqul Alam said. “

He instructed council members to explore practical ways for local governments to generate their own revenue, manage funds independently, and deliver services more efficiently without excessive reliance on central control.”

The Council of Advisers also reviewed the immediately implementable recommendations of the recently formed Local Government Reform Committee.

Concrete directives were issued to fast-track reforms aimed at revitalizing local governance structures, long seen as underfunded and over-centralised.

Among the key issues discussed was how local bodies can mobilise internal resources through improved tax collection, user fees, and public-private partnerships, while ensuring transparency and accountability.

“The Chief Adviser believes that when people see change in their own communities, better roads, cleaner streets, functioning schools, it builds trust in the system,” Shafiqul Alam added.

The Council formally expressed its appreciation to Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam for ensuring the peaceful conduct of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections, ahead of the successful parliamentary polls.

These milestones are being hailed as pivotal moments in restoring democratic norms after a prolonged political transition.