Necessary Responsibilities of Local Leaders

Q. Would you think present responsibilities of local leaders are sufficient for local level development?

Local level development is a
planning at grassroots level. The process appears to be a synonym for bottom-up approach beginning at the level of grassroots. In more specific terms, it is a process of development from below which considers development to be based on optimum utilization of each local area's natural, human and institutional resources with the primary objectives of improving the socio-economic conditions of the people of that area. Local level development is the preparation of plans after thorough study of the public demands, situation, sentiments and resources of the locality. Responsibilities are performed by the local leaders are sufficient enough but the following must be considered:

• Local leaders should be selected based on their capacity, corruption should not be allowed here.
  
• Local leader should ensure equity issues for all groups of community.
  
• The development activities based on this premise must be taken as an integral process of widening opportunities for individuals, social groups, and geographically organized communities at the small and intermediate scale, and mobilizing the full range of their capabilities and resources for the common benefit in social, economic and political terms.
  
• Justification for local level planning stems from the realization that conventional top-down approach to development planning has widened the gap between 'aspiration' and 'achievement'. Participation of the local people in such approach in identifying their own problems and determining their practices is institutionally constrained. Here local leader should play role.
  
• Local level planning requires 'functional community organization' to ensure popular participation both in formulation and implementation of planning processes. In this process leader should have participation.
  
• At present, the forefront of public policy regarding democratic participation is local level planning. It is intended to institutionalize participatory planning at the village, union, thana and district levels. Local representatives elected on the basis of adult franchise are empowered to gratify the interest of their local electors and to appear as potential influential to instill a sense of actions and direction. They are supposed to enable the people to come to know whether programme components of development plans are desirable and implemented through the involvement of the target population.
  

In Bangladesh, over the last two decades, top-down planning process has been widely practiced with a limited devolution of planning responsibilities to local government institutions. The significance of local level development lies in the fact that local institutions as self-sustained organic units under the scheme of devolution of power are capable of tapping dormant local resources both human and natural. Leader should be capable and efficient in thinking all well being of local areas in a judicious manner.