Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has allegedly stalled in promotion jam.
After the end of Abdur Rashid Miah's term as Chief Engineer (CE), promotion jam for almost all posts including Additional Chief Engineers (Addl. CE), Superintending Engineer (SE), Executive Engineers (EE) and Assistant Engineers (AE) has taken serious turn.
Currently, only four persons have been serving as Additional Chief Engineer against 13 posts, while over 200 upazila engineers have been working in the department with additional charges. If this problem is not resolved, only one will remain in the additional Chief Engineer post by the end of the year, source said.
Currently 36 posts belonging to the Additional Chief Engineer and Superintending Engineer (SE) are vacant. The works of those posts are being performed by some Superintending Engineers (SEs), who were given additional charges.
According to the data of LGED Head Office, one Superintending Engineer (SE) is being forced to perform duty at three to four sections lonely resulting no progress in works.
Sources said that, the promotion process is getting delayed due to infighting and mud-slinging among themselves.
Three groups are still pushing for promotion from senior assistant engineer to executive engineer.
The Jamal group, which got jobs through PSC, is opposing the 257-member group. On the other hand, the group of 2005 is also opposing similarly.
A reliable source from the LGED says that, if this continues, many posts of executive engineers will become vacant after a few years. Then, there will be no adequate manpower for posting.
In accordance with the order of the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the Supreme Court (SC), the appropriate appointing authority- ‘Local Government Department’ issued a notification for the promotion and job regularization of 257 deprived first-class officers working in various projects in LGED from the same date in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
Thereafter, 257 regular officers got promoted to the sixth grade on the basis of completing eight years’ service and fulfilling other conditions.
But the LGED filed a case in the Administrative Tribunal Court claiming that the promotion to the 6th grade appointed by the PSC in 2013 was illegal.
After completion of four yearlong testimony in the presence of all candidates and opposing lawyers, the Court pronounced its verdict on October 16, 2022 saying that, the promotion and regularization of 257 people on the same date was correct. Besides, it was done through proper process and the seniority list of 2015 was also appropriate.
Thus, the Jamal group lost the case, accepted the seniority list of 2015 and got promoted to the 6th grade in 2022. After accepting the promotion, they filed AAT 342/2022 in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Court in 2022, which is still ongoing.
Due to the status quo of the High Court (HC) over the promotion and to conduct smooth work at the offices and field levels in the public interest, the proposal for providing current duty from LGED has already been sent to the Local Government Department as there is no obstacle here in observing current duty and additional duty as per the Rule-3 of the 'Current Duty and Additional Duty Policy-2023' issued by the Ministry of Public Administration against vacancies. In addition, it has been clarified that current duty cannot be claimed as promotion as per Rule-10 of the said policy.
Meanwhile, allegations have been made that the investigation committee formed by the Ministry of Public Administration submitted a false and one-sided report to the High Court in contempt of the Administrative Tribunal's verdict, but the High Court did not issue any order on that report.
Hearing of the writ petition-14118/2024 (PIL) may be held in the High Court after one week of the vacation.
Sources said that, out of the 257 officials, some have already died, some retired, some left their jobs and moved to other professions. Currently, some 185 people of the group are in service.
Seeking anonymity, some LGED officials told that, “We should forget all differences and work only for the country and organization’s interest. Though, getting a promotion in the service life is a big hope for an employee, it has now become very difficult in the LGED. This is why, the jam is getting longer.”
“Many have been working as assistant engineers for 27 to 28 years, but they are not getting promotion due to the complications. This should be resolved shortly,” they added.
When this correspondent tried to contact with the incumbent Chief Engineer Md. Anwar Hossain over cell phone for his comment in this regard, he could not be reached.
