Officials of 25 cadres of Bangladesh Civil Service held human chains in front of their workstations for an hour across the country on Thursday demanding an end to ‘discriminations’ among the cadre services.
They also protested against the planned proposals of the public administration reform commission.
The protesting officials vowed to continue movement until their demands are met.
Officials from all BCS cadres except administration, under the banner of the Inter-Cadre Discrimination Elimination Council, observed the pre-scheduled protests between 11:00am and 12:00pm.
The head of the administration reform commission, Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, said on December 17 that the commission would recommend individual service-oriented commissions like the Judicial Service Commission for the health and education sectors and 50 per cent of the promotions to the position of deputy secretary be reserved for officials from the administration cadre and the rest be filled from the 25 other cadres.
The council leaders on December 21 said that BCS cadres other than administration considered the reform commission's planned proposal 'discriminatory' and part of 'conspiracy'.
Citing that the senior service pool must not be confined to any specific cadre, the release said, 'The commission's recommendations, if implemented, will create serious chaos in the civil services.'
Following a pre-plan, officials of different cadres were seen holding human chain programmes in front of their respective offices, including Shikkha Bhaban and Ganapurta Bhaban in the capital.
At Shikkha Bhaban, Professor ABM Rezaul Karim, director general of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education under the education ministry, said that they had expressed solidarity with the demand to end all discriminations among the BCS cadre services.
Many officials were seen standing on the premises of the Shikkha Bhaban stopping work during the period.
In front of Ganapurta Bhaban, Public Works Department superintendent engineer Jamilur Rahman said that they would continue their movement until the demands were met.
Muhammad Mofizur Rahman, the council's convener, told the FE that officials of the 25 cadres would hold a rally in the capital on January 4.
He said that they wanted promotion based on merit rather than quota. He also laid emphasis on flourishing professionalism.
He added that from the upcoming rally they would announce their next course of actions.
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