Corresponding Author Md. Akram Hossain, Email: akramfrdu@gmail.com VOLUME 40 NUMBER 1 JUNE 2017 The Crisis of Upazila Parishad in Bangladesh: A Study on the Interface of Politics and Bureaucracy Md. Akram Hossain and Bariul Karim Khan Abstract The Upazila Parishad is one of the important tiers of local government where both the govern- ment officials and the people’s elected representatives are required to work together in order to provide public services. They have separate jurisdictional boundaries but more often than not, these jurisdictional boundaries overlap or deliberately crossed leading to chaos, conflicts and seri- ous deterioration of relationships. These conflicts generally arise mainly due to the differences in their educational backgrounds, orientation, attitudes and more importantly, their differing prefer- ences and interests. We argue that such conflicting relationship often leads to the displacement of Upazila Parishad’s goals, stalemate in its normal functioning-ultimately making the Upazila Parishad an ineffective institution. The conflicts are of different nature and between different groups of people – first, between elected representatives and Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO, chief executive officer); second, between upazila (sub-district) level elected representatives and members of parliament (henceforth, MPs); and finally, between the MPs and the UNO and other government officials. This study examines the nature and causes of such conflicts with special focus on politicians versus bureaucrats. It also examines how these conflicts are affecting the overall performance and the delivery of services at the upazila level. The study finds the con- flict of interests among the three major actors (MP and UNO) mainly emerges from differences in authority and power structure. Keywords Upazila Parishad, Upazila Chairman, UNO, MP, Elected Representatives, Conflicts