---
title: "Local Government, Administration and Public Service"
description: "Examine Bangladesh's local government tiers, field administration hierarchy, and civil service structure: constitutional basis, key statutes, and BCS"
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/bcs-bangladesh-affairs-local-government-administration-public-service"
---

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Local government, administration & public service

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# Local government, administration & public service

Bangladesh's local government tiers, field administration hierarchy, and civil service structure—constitutional basis, key statutes, and BCS recruitment, examined for Bangladesh Af

## The constitutional mandate

Local government in Bangladesh rests on **Articles 9, 11, 59 and 60 of the Constitution (1972)**. Article 9 directs the state to encourage local government institutions composed of elected representatives, with special representation for peasants, workers and women. Article 11 ties democracy to effective participation through such institutions. **Article 59** is the operative command: it vests local government in every administrative unit in bodies composed of elected persons. **Article 60** empowers Parliament to confer on these bodies the power to levy taxes, prepare budgets and maintain funds. Candidates must retain that Articles 59–60 fall under Part IV-A and constitute the constitutional anchor that distinguishes elected *local government* from appointed *field administration*.

## The tiers of local government

Bangladesh operates a layered system. In rural areas the principal tiers are the **Union Parishad** (the oldest and lowest unit, traceable to the Village Chowkidari Act 1870 and the Bengal Local Self-Government Act 1885), the **Upazila Parishad**, and the **Zila (District) Parishad**. The Union Parishad today is governed by the **Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, 2009**, providing for a directly elected chairman, nine general members and three women members elected to reserved seats from three wards each. The Upazila system was introduced under President H.M. Ershad in **1982–83**, abolished in 1991, and revived under the **Upazila Parishad Act, 1998** (operationalised after the 2009 elections); its chairman and two vice-chairmen (one a reserved woman) are directly elected.

Urban local government comprises **Pourashavas (municipalities)** under the Local Government (Pourashava) Act, 2009, and **City Corporations** under the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009. Bangladesh has eleven city corporations (Dhaka North and Dhaka South having been split from the undivided Dhaka City Corporation in **2011**). For the Chittagong Hill Tracts, special councils operate under the **CHT Regional Council Act, 1998**, flowing from the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord of **2 December 1997**.

## Field administration versus local government

A recurring confusion the BCS tests is the line between elected local government and the deconcentrated field administration of the central government. The **Deputy Commissioner (DC)** heads the district, the **Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO)** heads the upazila, and the **Divisional Commissioner** sits above the DC. These are appointed BCS Administration cadre officers exercising delegated executive, magisterial and revenue authority—not elected representatives. The country has eight administrative divisions (the eighth, Mymensingh, created in **2015**), and 64 districts. The DC traces lineage to the Permanent Settlement of 1793 and embodies the colonial collector-magistrate. Understanding that the UNO (executive officer) and the elected Upazila chairman coexist—often in tension over control of funds and staff—is high-yield, because the 2009 amendment requiring the UNO to act as the parishad's secretary remains a live governance controversy.

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