International Desk:
Information: Your salary has been deducted at 20 crore 42 lakh taka.
Tk 20.42 crore has been deducted from the salaries of the employees of the ‘Tatha Aapa’ project of the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs in the last seven years. This allegation was made at a civic rally held in front of the National Press Club today, Friday. This civic rally was organized to express solidarity with the demands of the ‘Tatha Aapa’ workers who have been protesting in front of the Press Club for 17 days.
Writer and researcher Dr. Maha Mirza read out the ‘position paper’ at the rally. In it, she said that in the second phase of the Tatha Aapa project, information service officers were appointed at a salary of Tk 27,100 and information service assistant officers at Tk 17,045. But from April 2019, without showing any written reason, information service officers started receiving salaries at the rate of Tk 24,700 and information service assistant officers at the rate of Tk 15,650. The ministry could not give a clear answer as to why their salaries were deducted in this way.
The position paper states that in the last 7 years, about Tk 192,000 and Tk 111,600 have been deducted from each information service officer and from each information service assistant officer. That is, a total of 204.278,200 taka has been deducted from 1,968 information workers in 7 years. Where did this money allocated for the project go? Information workers filed a writ in the court in 2022 to get the deducted money. Even though the court verdict was in their favor, this money was not paid to them.
Speakers at the rally said that since the beginning of the recruitment in the project, they have been repeatedly assured that their posts will be made permanent or new posts will be created in the revenue sector and transferred. This has also been clearly stated in the Development Project Proposal (DPP). However, 1,968 information workers are being dismissed in one fell swoop.
Members of the Democratic Rights Committee Harun Ur Rashid and Marzia Prabha, members of the National Coordination Committee of the State Reform Movement Zakia Shishir, cultural activist Bithi Ghosh, organizer of Charan Cultural Center Sushmita Roy, and president of the Bangladesh Women’s Liberation Center Seema Dutta, among others, joined yesterday’s rally to express solidarity with the protesting ‘information workers’. They said that for 16 long days, the Information Aparas have been staying in front of the Press Club. But no authority from the government came to meet them; rather, when they peacefully went towards the official residence of the Chief Advisor, the police attacked them in a brutal manner, which is not expected in post-uprising Bangladesh.
Jhalakathi Information Service Officer Sangeeta Sarkar and Comilla Information Service Assistant Officer Shanta Islam spoke on behalf of the Information Aparas at the rally. After the rally, a procession was taken out demanding a permanent solution to the job issue and the return of the deducted salary.
