The main organization for rural infrastructure development in the country is the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). This organization formulates and implements plans for infrastructure development in rural and urban areas across the country. LGED has gained wide fame for its work in rural road construction, repair of old roads, bridges, culverts and development of haats and bazaars. In the meantime, the chair of Chief Engineer has been vacant in LGED since Sunday (October 26).
The post has become vacant as Chief Engineer Anwar Hossain's term of service ended on Saturday (October 25). As a result, there has been a standstill in all LGED's work as no one has been appointed to the post of Chief Engineer without discrimination from among the senior additional chief engineers for the last three days. Various questions have arisen within LGED regarding this.
LGED internal sources said that although there is a rule to give the responsibility to the senior-most additional chief engineer, the post has been kept vacant since Sunday. According to the rules, the additional chief engineers of the organization are Jabed Karim, Kazi Golam Mostafa and Md. Shahanur. Next in the list are - Additional Chief Engineers Md. Belal Hossain, Shah Md. Nurul Islam and Gautam Prasad Chowdhury. They are eligible to be appointed as chief engineers. But this situation has arisen due to the unwanted intervention of the Ministry of Local Government.
It is known that the overall activities of LGED are playing a significant role in the country's socio-economic development, employment creation and poverty alleviation. But this important organization of the country is being neglected by the current interim government.
As a result, its activities have stagnated. In the meantime, there is discussion and criticism about the news of widespread corruption in the name of the organization's top officials. Especially, appointments or promotions are not available without bribes in the organization. Starting from the Chief Engineer, the appointment of Project Director, Executive Engineer, Senior Assistant Engineer, Upazila Engineer, and all appointments are currently in the hands of the Ministry of Local Government. There are allegations that no file is moved without the direction of the ministry. That is why the file does not move, the allegations state that no appointments and promotions are being made.
According to sources, the post of Chief Engineer of LGED is of the first grade. After the fascist Hasina was ousted from power and fled the country, the rhythm of the main institution for the development of urban and rural Bengal deteriorated due to the top officials of the Ministry of Local Government. After the fall of the Hasina government, when Ali Akhtar, a first grade officer with the rank of secretary, retired, the post was left vacant for a few days, and Gopal Krishna Debnath was made the Chief Engineer with routine duties, but was not promoted to the first grade.
When Gopal Krishna Debnath retired, the chair or post of Chief Engineer was kept vacant for a few days to increase the value of bribes. Then, on February 4, after depriving three senior officials, a third grade officer, Abdur Rashid Mia, was made the current chief engineer in exchange for a large sum of money - a unique example of discrimination and irregularity. This was reported in various newspapers and magazines at the time and provided food for discussion on TV talk shows.
Sources said that although there is a rule to promote additional chief engineers of the second grade to chief engineer (grade-1), the officials concerned have turned the Ministry of Local Government into a discriminatory institution by breaking all the records and customs of the history of this organization. Current duties on their own salary do not mean promotion. Even if routine duties were given according to seniority, the organization would not have been without guardians. Such incidents are unprecedented.
Especially during the tenure of the interim government formed by the student-public uprising, working engineers are unable to accept such incidents. The person who deserves the position according to the current seniority should have been given the responsibility of chief engineer. But there is widespread discussion and criticism about the reason for keeping the institution without guardianship since Sunday without taking the necessary steps at the right time.
This government institution started its journey through the Local Government Engineering Bureau established in 1984 and later converted into a department in 1992. From its inception to the present time, 3.5 lakh kilometers of roads have been constructed under LGED in the country.
Since its establishment, LGED has implemented activities for rural infrastructure development, but later its scope of work has expanded greatly. LGED works in three sectors to achieve economic growth in the country by creating infrastructural facilities at the local level. These are - rural development, small-scale water resource development and urban development. At the same time, providing technical assistance to local government institutions.
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