The Deputy Commissioners (DCs) are expected to urge the government to introduce the proposed Public Service Act as early as possible to protect the bureaucrats. They will urge the government to introduce the law for strengthening the civil administration, at a three-day conference, scheduled to begin in the city on Tuesday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the conference at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Talking to this correspondent, some DCs on condition of anonymity, said, they feel that it is necessary to safeguard them after the takeover of the next government so that, the bureaucrats are not subjected to any witch-hunt for carrying out their duties in the greater interest of the country.
“The bureaucrats are carrying out their duties as per the order of the political leadership. But, if their subjected to any corruption charges or any punitive measures being held responsible for carrying out the orders of their higher authorities, the bureaucrats will be discouraged to carry out their duties properly without any fear,” they said.
“Such laws are there in different countries like India so that the bureaucrats of the countries could carry out their duties freely without any tension,” they added.
According to senior bureaucrats, a number of bureaucrats are apprehensive of punitive measures and witch-hunt as it happened during the one eleven regime in 2007. Many had to go to jail or face harassment for actions of political leadership for which they were not responsible.
The DCs said that they have already sent 242 demands to the cabinet division for placing these to different sessions of the conference.
Of the demands, DCs of Chapainawabganj, Mymensing, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Pabna and Natore said that field officials have been working to maintain law and order, conduct relief operations and tackle any emergency situation in cooperation with different law enforcement agencies. For this, they should get “risk allowance’ and “ration”, the DCs claimed.
DCs of Chittagong, Rangpur and Rajshahi are learnt to be in favour of enforcement of certain sections, such as 156 (investigations into cognisable offences), 159 (authority for preliminary investigation), 190 and 192 (cognisance of offences by the magistrates and power thereof), 191 (transfer of cases on petition by the accuse), 202 (suspension of issue of warrant) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The field officials also demanded that Section 260 to Section 265 of the CrPC should be amended, to allow summary trial for petty offences like adulteration of food and water, and help contain prices of essential commodities.
The DCs will also seek steps against some non-government organisations (NGOs) for charging high interests from their clients and revision in the charter of duties for DCs.
Some DCs said that failure to provide budgetary allocation and fill up vacant posts have affected development projects and implementation of various government programmes. “We could not recover most of the khas lands from the clutches of local political leaders and ruling party activists,” one of them said. “We sometimes face contempt charges brought by local political leaders when we move to recover khas lands,” he added.
At a press conference, Cabinet secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Monday said that, the DCs have submitted a large number of suggestions and recommendations to the Divisional Commissioner’s. They have sent those proposals to the cabinet division after scrutinising the proposals.
“The cabinet division has prepared a working paper with 242 recommendations considering all the proposals they have submitted. It will be placed before the conference to discuss. The ministers, state minister and advisors to the prime minister will discuss and give direction to the DCs about their concerned ministries,” he added.
The ministers, state minister and advisors to the prime minister of 40 ministries will brief them in 20 working sessions of three day DCs Conference. Four other sessions are enlisted to the programme schedule where the inaugural and closing sessions are included. The president and the prime minister will also brief them in separate sessions, he also informed.
“The meeting with the DCs is not a forum of placing any demands as public servants could not raise any demands. They have submitted some recommendations including enhancing the power of operating summary trial and amending Codes of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The minister’s of the law ministry will discuss with the DCs about the matter and they will take further initiatives if it’s needed,” he added.
The cabinet secretary said that, a total of 533 decisions were taken in the last DCs Conference. Those decisions were taken to implement by short term, mid-term and long term periods. A total of 486 out of 533 decisions that were taken in the last deputy commissioners (DC) conference have been implemented.
Of those, 129 out of 130 short term decisions, 161 out of 172 mid-term decisions and 196 out 231 long term decisions were implemented during the last one year. As the DCs are the direct representatives of the government in the field level, they monitor those programmes. The meeting will discuss those issues, he added.
The cabinet secretary rejected the rumours of discussing election issues during the DC Conference said, the issues of election is not enlisted to discuss in the meeting. It’s a matter of Election Commission and they will discuss it while the election process will begin.
Courtesy of The Independent
