Metropolitan government and improvement potentials of urban basic services governance in Dhaka city, Bangladesh: Rhetoric or reality

Abstract

Urban basic services, namely water supply and sewerage, power supply, telecommunication, road network etc. are the prerequisites for city living. Efficiency in managing and maintaining urban basic services ultimately dictates the quality of an urban government. In the last three decades, Dhaka‘s urban basic services governance has been tumbling behind the required standard. Specially, in the last five/six years the situation has reached to an alarming state— resulting to a high degree of inconvenience in urban living and loss of potentials in city economy. Frequent malfunctioning, limited capacity to expand, bureaucratic complexity in availing services, lack of public accountability etc. are some of the common characteristics of urban basic services in Dhaka. There is a general understanding in the concerned sphere that fragmented mode of governing these has attributed the service environment with a complex texture. In fact, fragmentation contributed in terms of multiparty involvement, overlapping of responsibility, obsolete organizational planning, monopoly management etc. Presently, Dhaka‘s urban basic services governance can‘t assure better living, competitive business environment and sustainable economic growth. As a potential remedy, adoption of a general purpose ―metropolitan government‖ mechanism with prerogatives to plan, develop, maintain service provisions; adequately command the service providers; govern development initiatives; realize taxes and revenues have been in discussion for quite a period within the concerned political and administrative domain. This article discusses the rationale, potentials of a general purpose ―metropolitan government‖ mechanism to improve Dhaka‘s present state of urban basic services. Additionally, the paper attempted to frame out the structure and operational mechanism of the proposed government.