Officers of 25 cadres hold nationwide work abstention, sit-in at DSHE  

The Inter-Cadre Discrimination Resolution Parishad, an organisation of 25 cadres of BCS, is holding a full-day work abstention programme across the country today, Sunday, to protest discriminatory suspensions by admin cadre officers and other longstanding discriminations. 

As part of the programme, the officers wore black badges and took positions in front of their own offices. The general education cadre has the highest number of officers in civil service, and Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) oversees their issues. 

Around 11:00 am, the education cadre officers took positions on the DSHE premises, along with DSHE director general Muhammad Azad Khan. He told the reporters that they are holding the full-day work-abstention programme to address some issues of 25 cadre services. The education cadre joined the programme to express solidarity with other cadre officials. 

The DG said the programme is being implemented across all education cadre offices in the country, and he has joined it as a member of the education cadre service. The education cadre officers are suffering from various types of discrimination, including inter-cadre disparities. Many of them have been subjected to lawsuits or harassment, and the work abstention is pushing for a good solution to these issues. 

Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud, president of the BCS general education association and director (secondary) at the DSHE, also took part in the programme. He noted that discussions are ongoing with high-level government officials regarding their demands. The officials appear to be sincere in their efforts to address the concerns. He expressed optimism about reaching a solution. 

Earlier on Saturday, the council exchanged views with journalists on the report of the public administration reform commission and ways to establish a service-oriented state at the Agricultural Information Service conference room in Khamarbari in the city.

The council said the authorities have suspended 13 BCS officers due to their posts on Facebook but officials of the administration cadre did not face any punishment despite doing the same. The administration cadres did that, using the existing discriminatory state system, to hinder the work of 25 other cadres.

The full-day work abstention programme has been announced to protest the suspension order and demand inter-cadre discrimination, said the council.

Agriculturist Md Arif Hossain presided over the meeting while coordinator of the council Mafizur Rahman presented the main paper.

A proposal was made to the Public Administration Reform Commission for establishment of a professional ministry and the abolition of quotas for the post of deputy secretary.

A call was made from all sectors of society for the prioritization of professionalism in civil service.

However, the report of the reform commission shows efforts to further increase the power of a powerful group in disregard of public demands.

If the report is fully implemented, efforts to reform the state will fail and administrative fascism will become even stronger, he added.

The meeting also discussed proposals to remove the education and health sectors from the cadre services.

It is alleged that changes have been proposed in the recruitment process so that education and health can gradually be removed from the mainstream over time. The proposal to exclude the family planning cadre and unjustly remove the statistics cadre from the service was criticised at the meeting.

The Inter-Cadre Discrimination Resolution Council said these measures are likely to hinder talented individuals from joining these sectors.

Coordinators and assistant-coordinators of the committee were present during the meeting.