Kushtia Correspondent. Bangabandhu Diploma Engineer LGED’s central committee of 20 assistant engineers may collapse as a result of the anarchy and arbitrariness of the department’s chain of command, while at the same time the stakeholders indicated the fear of negative impact on the field level activities.
Because of LGED’s 20 Sub-Assistant Engineers, 2400 Sub-Assistant Engineers working at the field level across Bangladesh are suffering from promotion discrimination.
According to the investigation, 20 identified Deputy Assistant Engineers of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) have been working at the headquarters of LGED for the past 15/16 years under the guise of Bangabandhu Diploma Engineers of the dictatorial ruling party and are enjoying all the facilities from the capital city to the field level colleagues. At different times, they have been deprived of justice by repressing them in various ways.
These strategists joined LGED as Sub-Assistant Engineer after obtaining diploma engineering certificate. According to the terms of service, they are supposed to be promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer on the basis of seniority, besides there is no opportunity to get promotion in view of any higher degree.
This is what is mentioned in the employment rules of LGED. But the identified 20 sub-assistant engineers obtained B.Sc. engineering certificates from private institutions for the sake of employment at the headquarters and obtained B.Sc. engineering certificates based on false information. Instead, LGED’s administration officials and the present chief engineer have been applying pressure in various ways to promote the post of assistant engineer from the lower level of seniority.
As a result, about 2,400 sub-assistant engineers who are eligible for promotion on the basis of seniority as per the government rules are being discriminated against for promotion. The senior sub-assistant engineers working at the field level have been implementing the development work of the country from working in remote rural areas. Due to working in remote rural areas, many senior sub-assistant engineers are denied the opportunity to take admission in B.Sc.
At present, 150-200 senior sub-assistant engineers are almost at the end of their service compared to zero posts. These 150-200 Deputy Assistant Engineers have sought the intervention of the Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Chief Engineer of LGED’s administration to promote them on the basis of seniority.
In this regard, Deputy Assistant Engineer Ashraful Islam said that if the identified 20 Deputy Assistant Engineers are promoted from the bottom of the seniority list, the continuity of promotion based on seniority of LGED will be broken.
On the other hand, another Deputy Assistant Engineer Mezbahur Rahman said that if the said 20 people are promoted, the road of promotion of diploma engineers working at the field level, who are the main leaders of the country’s development, will be closed forever and the development work of LGED and the country will come to a standstill. He also said that after joining any government job, there is no chance of promotion except on the basis of seniority even after obtaining a higher degree. In addition, Assistant Engineer Shafiqul Azam and a retired upazila engineer said that in view of the existing government law for the appointment of degree engineers and promotion of diploma engineers in all engineering departments of the country, if the 20 people are given seniority I promotion, it will be against the service rules and the image of the department will be tarnished. Granting promotion will be against employment rules and will tarnish the image of the department.
When speaking to LGED Chief Engineer Ali Akhtar over the phone, he said that seniority sub-assistant engineers will be promoted first based on the approved seniority list of LGED and there is no other opportunity. When the chief engineer was asked about the court verdict of those 20 people, he said, I have been informed about this, but a decision will be taken about them later
