FIELD ADMINISTRATION

FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• Field Administration spread over different administrative units, the division, the district and the
Thana and finally, the Union which is basically a local government unit consisting of a group of
villages.
• The district is perhaps the oldest administrative unit. Its emergence as a unit of administration is
closely associated with the land system of Bengal.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION
ANCIENT TO PAKISTAN PERIOD

• in ancient times an area was divided into several manageable units for the purpose of revenue
collection and state control.
• The Sultani regimes found the old system workable and maintained it with some structural
changes in the revenue collection and control system.
• The Mughals further sophisticated the district administration. They divided the whole country
into large territorial districts called sarkars, a sarkar into zilas (district) and a zila into Parganas.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• The parganas consisted of a number of mouazas. A group of parganas were made an

administrative unit called a district
• during the early years of British rule, and the system continued throughout the British period.
More or less the same district system still operates.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• The PANCHAYET or local unit of village administration was a strong traditional institution
which was abolished by the CORNWALLIS CODE (1793)
• In 1870, created village level bodies under the Village Chaukidari Act. Villages were grouped
into unions to provide for a system of watch and ward in each village.
• The local government system was further strengthened by the introduction of union board,
municipality, and revenue circle under Lord Ripon (1880-1884).
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• During the early years, there were only three functionaries in the district. These were the district
and sessions judge, the district Magistrate and Collector and the superintendent of police.
• However, over the years many specialised departments were created. Of the three functionaries,
the district magistrate and collector was the chief executive of the district and had wide
magisterial, police and revenue related powers.
.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• However, in the exercise of judicial authority, he was subordinate to the district and sessions
judge.
• In administrative and revenue matters, the district magistrate and collector acted under the
guidance and supervision of the Divisional Commissioner
• Similarly, the superintendent of police acted under the control and supervision of the deputy
inspector general of police.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• There were two main streams of welfare responsibilities of the field administration during British
colonial days.
• One was the special responsibility in regard to famine. This includes both pre and post-disaster
responsibilities.
• The second stream provides the statutory responsibility of the district officer in regard to liberal
distribution of agricultural loans and test relief work.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• The district level officers of other departments acted under the administrative control of their
respective heads of departments officers.
• MONTAGU-CHELMSFORD REPORT aptly summarises the relationship. The position of the
district magistrate and collector in relation to specialised services was not that of a superior to a
subordinate.
• This meant that the district administrative pattern, as it evolved, was run on the recognition of the
functional independence of other field agencies.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• By the end of colonial rule, the position of the district magistrate and collector became
increasingly important in LOCAL GOVERNMENT and rural development.
• This role was recommended by the Rowlands Commission in the report of the Bengal
Administrative Enquiry Committee, 1945.
• This tradition continued after the emergence of Pakistan and India as independent states.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION

• A significant change in local government took place in 1960. This change stemmed from the
introduction of BASIC DEMOCRACIES.
• It was during this period that the post of district magistrate and collector was renamed as Deputy
Commissioner.
• However, the system was criticised as a form of guided democracy.
 HISTORY OF FIELD ADMINISTRATION
BANGLADESH PERIOD

• With the emergence of Bangladesh the urgency of restoring field administration was keenly felt.
The government of Bangladesh constituted a committee called the Civil Administration
Restoration Committee which, among others, recommended immediate restoration of the field
administration.
• .
• The immediate step taken by the government was the dissolution of some local councils.
• The order dissolving the local councils recognised only union councils and zila councils.
• The union council was renamed as union panchayet while the zila council was renamed as zila
board.
• On 28 February 1972, the local government law was amended by a Presidential order. The
amendment included a reference to the thana development committee to be appointed by the
Deputy Commissioner
• On 25 January 1975, the government amended the Constitution providing for a one-party state
and a presidential form of government. A national party called the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik
Awami League (BAKSAL) was formed.

• The political changes following the formation of a one-party state had its effect on field
administration and local government. The elected local government system was abolished by an
Amendment to the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) and The District Administration Act (Act II
of 1975).
• Under the new system, the field administration at the district level was to be headed by a district governor
to be appointed by the President from amongst the members of the public service, the members of the Jatiya
Sangsad and members of BAKSAL.
• The number of districts was increased from 22 to 61.
• The governor was declared to be the chief officer in charge of general and revenue administration of the
district,
• . The deputy commissioner continued to occupy an important position in the new field administrative set up.
In absence of the Governor, he was supposed to act as Governor.
• The new scheme for field administration, however, could not be implemented due to the sad event of 15
August 1975
• In 1976, a new local government law was put in place, providing for elections at union and
district level but not at the thana level.
• Elections to the union parishads and municipalities were held in 1977.
• Nothing was done about elections to the zila board. The deputy commissioner continued to be
the administrator of the zila board.
• This meant that the field administration in relation to the local councils remained more or less the
same as under the basic democracies system introduced during the sixties.
• with a violent change of government and the consequent imposition of martial law in 1982, new
experiment to reform local government administration was initiated in 1982.
• The reforms had an effect on field administration as
• (a) they eliminated a more than century-old administrative unit called the subdivision. Second;
(b) it upgraded the thana to include both regulatory and developmental functions; (c) it converted
the old subdivisions into districts but without creating any corresponding local council at these
levels;
• (d) it assigned greater authority to the thana councils, renaming these as upazila parishads, in
terms of decision making in the planning and implementation of local development projects;
• (e) the basic structure of the thana council remained unaltered, but it was placed under the
control of a directly elected chairman;
• (f) all functionaries at the thana (now upazila) level were placed under the administrative control
of the chairman of the upazila parishad.
• The above reform measures led to the creation of 64 zilas with 460 upazilas below them.
• At the upazila level, a radical change was brought about in terms of administrative control and
supervision of the appointed functionaries of different departments.

• Control was vested in the elected chairman of the upazila. The field personnel at the upazila
level, therefore, were placed under the dual control of both the chairman and the respective
departmental heads operating at the district level.
• the field administrative set up at that level continued to be the same as before. But the size of the
districts became smaller as all existing subdivisions and some thanas became districts.

• consequently, members of the field bureaucracy increased in number as each new district had to be
given a standard set up consisting of different departments.

• Under the local government law which put in place the upazila system, the deputy commissioner
still had the authority to inquire into allegations of misconduct, abuse of authority etc, against
upazila chairmen.
• This type of administrative arrangements for both field administration and local government
continued for about five years with a presidential form of government at the centre.

• But political unrest following widespread public agitation eventually led to a change in
government in 1991. Later, there was a change in the form of government as well, from
presidential to parliamentary system.
• The new government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party scrapped the local government law
which had earlier ushered in the upazila system.
• As a result, the field administration reverted to the pre-1982 system. However, the size and
number of new districts already created remained unaffected.
• The upazila was renamed as thana but the personnel set up already in place continued to be there.
• The Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) was renamed as Thana Nirbahi Officer (TNO).
• The Awami League regime (1996-2001) enacted the Upazila Parishad Act, 1998.
• The Local government commission recommended elected councils at union, thana and district
levels. In addition, it recommended an elected Palli/Gram (village) parishad (council).
• This parishad, apart from an elected chairman and members will include official members such
as the block supervisor of the department of agricultural extension, health and family planning
assistants and other government functionaries working at the ward level and a representative of
freedom fighters and representatives of disadvantaged groups.
• The official members will not have any voting rights. It also recommended a more or less similar
set up for the union parishad.
• For the thana level, it basically reverted to the upazila system with the inclusion of the member
of the Parliament elected from the upazila constituency as an adviser.
• This means the return to the upazila days with its necessary impact on field administration.
• The Upazila Parisad Act of 1998 envisages the establishment of as many as 463 upazila
parishads in 64 districts. Some of the new features of the Act include declaring the upazila as an
administrative unit under Article 152 (1) of the Constitution.
• The Act further lays down that the field level functionaries at the upazila level will work under
the guidance and supervision of the upazila parishad
• The Chittagong Hill districts have a largely different field administration system, in 1989 with
the establishment of separate local councils in the three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

• It was laid down in the acts that the chairmen of the district councils of the three districts would
be tribals elected from amongst the tribal communities. Deputy commissioners of the respective
districts would be ex-officio secretaries to the councils.
• In December 1997, following Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord signed with the hill people by
the government, further amendments to the 1989 Act were effected by Act 9, 10 and 11 of 1998.
These amendments aimed at providing greater rights and authority to the tribal population and
ensuring their greater participation in decision making in development and regulatory spheres.
• Finally, following the peace accord of December 1997, a regional council for the Chittagong Hill
Tracts was established under Act 12 of 1998. This council has been given the responsibility for
supervision and coordination of all development activities of the district councils including other
activities falling within the jurisdiction of these councils. The regional council has also been
given the authority to supervise and co-ordinate the activities of the municipalities of the
districts.