Staff Reporter :
Officials from the Directorate of Family Planning, under the Ministry of Health Education and Family Welfare, staged a protest and submitted a memorandum to address longstanding discrimination in promotions.
The protest, which took place at the secretariat gate on Sunday, saw officials holding banners and national flags, demanding that their grievances be heard.
Around 11 o’clock, the group of officials met with the advisor in charge of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and presented a memorandum outlining their concerns about prolonged deprivation of promotions.
The officials then approached the office of Md. Azizur Rahman, Secretary of Health Education and Family Welfare, hoping to discuss the issue further.
However, when the secretary sensed their presence, he exited the room, citing a meeting with the adviser as his reason for not engaging with the officials. Subsequent inquiries revealed that the secretary had not been in the adviser’s room at the time.
The protesting officials expressed their frustration, accusing the secretary of adopting an autocratic attitude and stalling previous Departmental Promotion Committee (DPCs).
They claimed that despite repeated efforts and significant expenditures of government funds on DPCs, no promotions were granted. In a display of their long-standing anger, the officials gathered outside the secretary’s room, prompting him to leave discreetly.
The memorandum included a range of demands to resolve the promotion discrimination, including promotion for all eligible officers from the 18th BCS and subsequent batches should receive promotions from the date they became eligible, a satisfactory service period and completion of five years should ensure officers are granted senior scale status, the DPC for the post of Director should be completed, and the relevant Government Order (GO) issued promptly, promotions should be given from Assistant Director to Deputy Director and from Family Planning Officer to Assistant Director, family Planning cadre officers should be included in the Deputy Secretary (DS) pool, with promotions based on merit, promotions should follow BCS batch and merit order, and junior officers should only be promoted if seniors are ineligible, the title “Family Planning Officer” should be removed from the post of “Health and Family Planning Officer” to prevent confusion between health and family planning roles at the upazila level and officials who oppose the anti-discrimination movement and align with dictatorial practices should be removed from the department and given compulsory retirement.
