Four employees of Chattogram Port have been transferred to Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (ICT) in Dhaka on an emergency basis. This instruction was given in an official order signed by the Chief Personnel Officer of the Port Authority on Saturday afternoon.
Sources concerned say that the transfer has been made as a 'punitive' action due to their active role in the ongoing movement on the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) issue.
The order of the Port Authority mentions that these four employees have been transferred for urgent official and operational work.
The order released them from their current workplace on the afternoon of January 31 and instructed them to join their new workplace (Pangaon) tomorrow, February 1. The four employees are - Audit Assistant Md. Humayun Kabir (Internal Audit and Inspection Department), Engine Driver Md. Ibrahim Khokon (First Class-Naval Department), Higher Accounts Assistant Md. Anwarul Azim (Finance and Accounts Department), SS Khalasi Md. Faridur Rahman (Engineering Department).
It is learned that these four transferred people are associated with the politics of the Nationalist Workers' Party. They were leading the protest and agitation among the general workers and employees on January 29 over the process of handing over the responsibility of managing the NCT of Chittagong Port to a foreign company.
Port officials believe that the administration has taken such a step in response to this agitation. However, there is renewed tension among the workers and employees in the port area over this sudden transfer. General employees allege that this 'target transfer' has been made to obstruct a fair movement.
Chittagong Port Director (Administration) Md. Omar Faruk said that four port employees have been removed from their current departments and attached to Dhaka Pangaon ICT.
This is a regular official process and this order has been issued with the approval of the appropriate authorities.
