DCs make 354 proposals including ACC office in every district

The deputy commissioners have proposed to establish Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) offices in every district of the country in order to strengthen anti-corruption activities.

They have also proposed to decentralise the transfer and appointment of additional DCs and entrust the responsibility with the divisional commissioners instead of the public administration ministry.

Ahead of this year's DC conference, the DCs and divisional commissioners have made a total of 354 such proposals, according to sources in the cabinet division.

The government's policymakers will discuss all those proposals at the DC conference and give necessary directions. The DC conference will start in Dhaka next Sunday and continue till 18 February.

The DC conference is held every year under the supervision of the cabinet division. DCs work as representatives of the government at the field level. DCs play the role of coordinators in the field implementation of government policy-making issues, development programmes and other issues. For this reason, the DC conference and their proposals are deemed important.

This time, the conference is going to be held under different circumstances. Usually the prime minister inaugurates the conference as the head of the government. Later, in the working sessions, decisions are made after discussing the proposals given by the DCs regarding various ministries and departments in the presence of ministers and secretaries.

The Awami League government was toppled on 5 August last year in an uprising of the students and mass people. Then, on 8 August, an interim government was formed with professor Muhammad Yunus as the chief advisor. Therefore, he will inaugurate this year’s conference. He might give important directions to the DCs. Advisors will be present in the working sessions. This time, there will be a total of 34 sessions including the inaugural ceremony. There were sessions with the President and Speaker last time, this time there will be no such session. This time, a session will be held with the election commission. Chief election commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin and other commissioners are expected to be present in it.

According to sources in the cabinet division, a press conference has been held on today, Saturday afternoon, the day before the start of the DC conference, to highlight the content of the conference.

ACC currently has offices in 36 districts. Now the DCs have proposed offices in every district with recruitment of manpower. Three DCs have put forth the proposal.

The public administration ministry is vested with transfer and posting of DCs and ADCs currently. The ministry assigns the posting of Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) to the Divisional Commissioner's office. The Divisional Commissioners assign the UNOs to different upazilas. Now, the DCs have proposed that the transfer and posting of ADCs should also be entrusted with the divisional commissioners. Some of the officials of the cabinet division deem this proposal as positive. An official told Prothom Alo that such a proposal would be helpful in decentralizing the administration.

Currently, a multiple-choice test akin to BCS preliminary exam is conducted for the recruitment of teachers in government primary schools. Then there is a viva voce. Now, the DCs have proposed to conduct the recruitment test in three stages - preliminary, written and viva voce.

The DCs have proposed nationalization of Ebtedayee madrasas. However, the government has in principle taken the decision to nationalize the Ebtedayee madrasas recently in the face of movement from the teachers.

These madrasas would be nationalized in phases. SM Masudul Haque, joint secretary of the education ministry’s technical and madrasa education division, announced this decision of the government to the demonstrating teachers in the city's Shahbagh. Earlier the government held a meeting with representatives of the teachers in the ministry.

SM Masudul Haque told Prothom Alo on 28 January that these madrasas will first be brought under MPO and would be nationalized later. The DCs also proposed that a guideline should be made on income and expenditure of non-government educational institutions under MPO and realize a fixed amount of fees every year.

A source from the cabinet division said that the issue of formation of an independent police investigation division might be discussed in this year’s DC conference to facilitate timely investigation of criminal cases. The issue of upgrading the existing Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to an independent police investigation department led by an independent inspector general might be tabled in this year’s DC conference.