BMDA comes to a halt on work abstention

RAJSHAHI, Aug 3: The activities of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) came to a halt as the officers and employees of different projects under the institution started demonstration and refused to work.
They have been demonstrating from last week demanding their preferments and public facilities.
Earlier the officers and employees besieged the BMDA head office on July 27 in support of their demands. The work abstention programme was announced from the event.
They also submitted a memorandum to the BMDA secretary Abdus Samad in this regard.
Sources said BMDA was established in drought-prone Barind tract in 1992 under the Ministry of Agriculture aimed at cultivating paddy and varieties of crops using the underground water and building the infrastructure for rural prosperity.
From the beginning, the BMDA authority had been providing public facilities to its manpower from the income of irrigation service to the farmers.
About four years ago, government-employed executive director and secretary took charge of BMDA and all sorts of promotions and facilities were shuffled off from the time.
The agitating officers and employees told that they have been deprived of their promotions, time scales, senior scales, selection grades, and many other privileges for the last four years.
"We have been paid less than the living wage and it made our lives miserable. Now we are staring to lose patience and confidence at our work," one of the employees said.
On the contrary, Abdus Samad, secretary of BMDA, said the institution had been running arbitrarily by its own manpower for a long time. Around 977 contractual staffs were appointed under different projects and most of them at different stages were given preferments, time scales, selection grades, and also senior scales.
As a result, government has faced a huge loss in operating the institution. So government closed the previous practice and took the charge of BMDA.
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