ABSTRACT
The Rural Development Division is supported by the Department of Cooperatives. The administration of rural development in Bangladesh is essentially steered by central control and bureaucratization. Local developmental activities in the rural areas were always directed and controlled by the bureaucracy through nonrepresentative institutions that indubitably abhorred people’s participation. This chapter shows that a number of serious problems and unfavorable tendencies have undermined the development of local self-governing institutions in Bangladesh and their role as catalysts of rural development. A review of rural development policies of the last twenty years, therefore, displays not-so-impressive performance insofar as they have contributed to alleviating rural poverty by meeting the basic needs of the people. The national five-year plans of the country provide the broad outlines of policy relating to rural development. The military-turned-civilian regime of Ziaur Rahman launched the Two-Year Approach Plan, which, for all practical purposes, reflected the social and economic priorities of the regime.
