Health secy Neaz Uddin Miah quits

Health Secretary Mohammad Neaz Uddin Miah, accused of obtaining freedom fighter (FF)’s certificate through forgery, voluntarily went on retirement on Thursday. However, a reliable source at the ministry said he resigned over allegations of holding fake FF’s certificate. On October 27, four bureaucrats accused of holding fake FFs certificates, including M Neaz Uddin Miah, responded to the show cause notices served to them by the public administration ministry. The public administration ministry on Oct 28 said they had received replies to the show-cause notices over committing fraud to get FFs credentials by three secretaries and a joint secretary. The four are – Health Secretary Neaz Uddin Miah, Public Service Commission Secretary AKM Amir Hossain, and Liberation War Affairs Secretary KH Masud Siddiqui (now an officer on special duty) and its Joint Secretary Abul Kashem Talukder (also an OSD). The public administration ministry show-caused them under the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1985, on Oct 13 and gave them 10 working days to reply to those. The 10 working days expired on Oct 28. Then the public administration ministry had also recommended the Cabinet Division to take action against former senior secretary Molla Waheeduzzaman, now chairman of the Privatisation Commission with the status of a state minister, for securing FF’s credentials by committing fraud. In its probe, the Anti-Corruption Commission found that the five officials obtained FFs certificates through illegal means, according to private TV channels.