Dhaka City - Bangladesh

When Dhaka was formed in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of the newly formed East Bengal province. Along with the increase in the status of the city, there was no change in its local governance system. Local governance in the city was managed by such a municipality as soon as the provincial capital was followed. Founded in 1864, the municipal rule was sufficient for the local administration of a city like Dhaka, because Dhaka was only a small departmental center.

The city had a range of 20.72 sq km and it had a population of around 52,000. Established in accordance with the Act III of 1864, this municipality has the responsibility of providing municipal services to small people of these little towns. This service included construction and maintenance of roads, providing health care and education. For this, the municipality could have taxed and received government grants from time to time.

Although later the city expanded and the population grew, however, only after its departure from the British in 1947 and it became the capital of a new province, only its widespread changes were noticed. In 1947, the area expanded to approximately 31.08 sq km and the population was approximately 2,50,000. After that, political, administrative, economic, industrial, educational matters and even military importance of Dhaka increased so much that the change of local governance becomes necessary to adapt to the changed situation. However, this change was not overnight, but due to the prevailing political situation in the country, this change took a long time.

After 1947, the Dhaka municipal administration was influenced by the contradictory necessity of 'political opportunism and administrative efficiency'. Due to the chaos prevailing in the country, and the pressure of a large number of people, the general work of Dhaka Municipality was severely hampered. It is impossible to run municipal administration in the old system. Even due to widespread change in the voter list and other inconvenience, regular elections for municipal commissioners and chairman and vice-chairmen were not even held. In 1958, these difficulties continued until the martial law was issued in the country.

Other local bodies including the municipal administration were postponed. Higher civilian officers and other local officials have responsibility for the municipal corporation. In the basic structure of government and administration, military ruler Ayub Khan brought such reforms and changes that the characteristics of the former government system changed. His 1959 Basic Democracies Order, 1959, made extensive changes in both rural and urban local bodies. Instead of the Bengal Municipal Act of 1932, the Municipal Administration Ordinance was established in 1960 under the basic democracies framework.

In spite of its massive increase and the rise in the population, the status of the provincial government head here, and the widespread improvement of trade and industry in various other fields, Dhaka remained a municipal city throughout the whole of Pakistan.