Ashraf joins office

Newly-appointed Minister for Public Administration Syed Ashraful Islam joined the office in the city on Monday afternoon. State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique, senior secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and other officials received the minister with bouquet at the office around 2:30pm. Ashraf exchanged Eid greetings and pleasantries with the office employees. Later, he attended a view exchange meeting in the conference room of the ministry. Prior to the meeting, Ashraf told the media that he hoped that the staff and employees of the ministry will work more efficiently. Syed Ashraful Islam, also the Awami League’s secretary general, was removed from the ministry of local government, rural development and cooperatives on July 9 and made a minister without portfolio. A week after he was stripped of the LGRD portfolio, Ashraf was made public administration minister. The Cabinet Division on Thursday issued a gazette notification signed by Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan to this end, according to a news agency.