They presented a number of serious constraints that have made this age-old local government body virtually ineffective and possible ways to overcome those constraints at the briefing.

The press briefing was held following a workshop on 'Funding and Financial Management of Union Parishad' organised by the BUPF with assistance from Local Government Initiative ARD at the Brac Centre Inn in the city.

"Government must loosen its control over the local revenue sources and let the UPs become financially viable," said Chairman Gazi Tafsir Ahmed of Roghunathpur Union Parishad of Khulna.

"At present, we are allowed to collect only the holding taxes within the UP areas, and we don't have authority to lease out local jalmahal, haat and bazar," he said, adding, "The UPs cannot spend whatever revenue is generated from those sources."

Ahmed said the unwanted and arbitrary interference of parliament members in the development works makes the role of UP chairmen and members insignificant.

"The MPs create pressures on the UP chairmen and members in many ways to carryout the development activities," he added.

The BUPF leaders demanded separate budgetary allocation for the UPs, authority to collect taxes from local sources saying that they were ready to utilise the collected revenue maintaining full transparency and accountability.

The workshop was the part of three divisional level workshops on 'UP revenue collection, poor financial management and its impact' with previous two held in Sylhet and Khulna.

The forum has representation from 3, 899 out of total 4, 475 union parishads all over the country.

BUPF leaders Aminul Huq, Nargis Aktar, Md Ashiqul Huq, Abdur Razzak, Abdul Mannan Khan, Shamiul Huq Abul, Salma Aktar, Saiduzzaman Bulbul, Shafiqul Kader, Golam Mortuza and Izadur Rahman were present at the press conference.