Upazila, formerly called thana, is an administrative region in Bangladesh. They function as sub-units of districts. Their functionality can be seen to be analogous to that of a county or a borough of Western countries. Rural upazilas are further administratively divided into union council areas. Bangladesh has 492 upazilas. The upazilas are the second lowest tier of regional administration in Bangladesh. The administrative structure consists in fact in Divisions, Districts, Upazilas and Union Parishads. This system of devolution was introduced by the former military ruler and President of Bangladesh, Lieutenant GeneralHossain Mohammad Ershad, in an attempt to strengthen local government. Below UPs, villages and para exist, but these have no administrative power and elected members. The Local Government Ordinance of 1982 was amended a year later, redesignating and upgrading the existing thanas as upazilas.
History
Upazilas were formerly known as thana which literally means police station. Despite the meaning, thanas functioned much as an administrative and geographic region, much as today's upazilas. In 1982 thanas were re-termed to as upazilas with provisions for semi-autonomous local governance. This system was reverted to the thana system in 1992. Later in 1999 geographic regions under administrations of thanas were converted into upazilas. All administrative terms in this level were renamed from thana to upazila. For instance, Thana Nirbahi Officer was renamed to upazila Nirbahi Officer . The wordthana is now used to solely refer topolice stations. Generally, there is one police station for each upazila; but larger administrative units may have more than one police station covering different regions.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer is a non-elected Administrator in Upazila. UNOs are Senior Assistant Secretary of Bangladesh Civil ServiceCadre. They act as executive officer of the upazila under the elected posts.
Upazila Parishad
Each Upazila Parishad has a chairman, a vice-chairman and a woman vice-chairman. All three are elected through direct popular election. Union Parishad chairmen within the upazila are considered as the members of the porishod. The post of a woman vice-chairman was created to ensure at least one-third woman representation in the all elected posts of the local government. On 22 January 2010 the first election in 18 years of Upazila Porishod was held.
