No plan to raise age limit for govt jobs

FE Team | Published: February 01, 2018 00:08:48

Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday her government has no plan right now to raise further the age limit for entering into government service, reports BSS.
"The more we'll raise the age bar, the more the scope for entering government jobs will decline. So, we don't want to reduce that scope," she said replying to a supplementary question from Jatiya Party lawmaker M Fakhrul Imam (Mymensingh-8) during her scheduled question-answer session in the house.
She, however, said that her government may consider the matter in future.
Sheikh Hasina said it was the Awami League government which first raised the age limit for retirement from the government service to 59 years from the previous 57 years while the age of retirement for the freedom fighters was further raised to 60 years.
She said due to such increase of retirement age, a problem was created as many public servants could not get due promotions for which many of them had to leave their jobs.
"If we raise the retirement age all on a sudden, then the scope for promotion in the lower tier will decline. Secondly, Bangladesh is a country of over 160 million people and we'll have to expand the scope of jobs for them," she added.
The Leader of the House said it was the Awami League government which first introduced semester system in academic activities of various public universities and colleges for which there is now no session jam. "We've also ensured improvement in the academic activities side by side expanding the scopes of education."
Replying to another supplementary question from treasury bench lawmaker Shamsul Haque Chowdhury (Chittagong-12), Hasina said there is no obstruction or problem for the investors to make investment in the country saying that some 100 special economic zones are being set up across the country where the local and foreign investors could make investment easily.