Major changes are being made in the administration, central administration including local administration is being re-arranged, in which changes will be made in various important ministries and secretaries including the Prime Minister's Chief Secretary, cabinet secretary, and then Divisional Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) will also be reshuffled.
As part of this process, major changes are being made to key DC posts in local administration soon. In the first phase, new DCs will be appointed in approximately 15 to 20 districts including Dhaka, Khulna, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Cumilla, Faridpur.
The officers appointed to these positions will play an important role in the upcoming national elections. Those concerned have been asked to be extremely careful so that no official supported by BNP-Jamaat is appointed in this process.
On November 2, the government has promoted 179 officials from Deputy Secretary to Joint Secretary. DCs of Dhaka, Khulna, Gopalganj, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Cumilla, Faridpur, Cox's Bazar, Tangail, Khagrachari, Jhalkathi, Sirajganj and Lalmonirhat are also got promoted. Besides these promoted DCs, three-four other district DCs will be recalled and posted in various ministries and departments. Eligible officers will be recruited there from the DC fitlist prepared by BCS 24th and 25th batch officers.
Notification in this regard may be issued in the current or next week itself. In this step, 10 to 12 officers of 24th BCS and three to five officers of 25th BCS can be appointed as DCs from the DC fitlist.
Those concerned are very cautious in appointing DC. On January 5 this year, after appointing 11 deputy secretaries as DCs in various districts, the Ministry of Public Administration canceled the appointment of Nafisa Arefin, the then Deputy Secretary of Discipline-4 Branch of the Ministry of Public Administration, on the charge of ‘Chhatra Dal -involvement'.
Earlier, after being appointed as DC in Meherpur in July 2020, the then deputy secretary of the cabinet department Shahidul Islam was accused of involvement in Chhatra Dal. For that he was also not posted.
Taking these incidents into consideration, the top echelons of the government have given a stern message to the Ministry of Public Administration to send a proposal for the appointment of DC.
Those concerned say that DCs perform the important duties of District Returning Officers during elections. The power of accepting and canceling any center's vote is vested in the DC. All law and order forces including the armed forces are under the returning officers or DCs. They play the role of coordinator during elections.
For these reasons, all governments organize election administration according to their own schedule. Highly loyal and trusted officers are appointed to this post.
Officials said the post of DC is highly coveted for those who have worked in local administration. For a long time, the intelligence agencies were taking information about the officials in preparing the fit list. Especially the issue of personal and family-centered political involvement is being monitored very strictly this time.
@The story published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on November 9, 2022 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan.
