bdnews24.com :
The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) is stuck in a mire of lawsuits filed by its own employees. Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam filed two cases, while a lawsuit by three assistant engineers has stalled all appointments and promotions at the CCC for the past three years.
A case has been filed by CCC Deputy Secretary Mahmud Katebi, while Revenue Officer Shamsul Alam sued the city corporation, seeking permanent employment.
A total of 48 employees of the engineering department filed seven cases, including a petition with the High Court, and the revenue section’s 42 employees filed five cases-most of the verdicts of which are in favour of the plaintiffs. The CCC has appealed against the decisions.
Meanwhile, the new mayor-elect AJM Nasir Uddin has initiated moves to settle the cases. On Saturday, he met the plaintiffs to find a way out.
On being assured of the matter of appointments and promotions being ‘considered’, the plaintiffs initially agreed to withdraw the cases. The mayor-elect, however, instructed city corporation officials to pursue some of the lawsuits.
In 2009, Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam was suspended by the then Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury for having allegedly failed to conduct lawsuits.
Alam moved the High Court and secured a stay order against his suspension,
but could not join work as long as Chowdhury was in the mayor’s office. After the 2010 city polls, when Manjur Alam was elected mayor, he joined the CCC and went retired on 2012.
Following his retirement, Alam filed two cases under the Judicial Service Act, seeking extra three years of service and salary increment, but a trial court rejected the plea.
He then moved to the District Judge’s Court, which ruled in his favour. Alam, then, joined the CCC again.
The CCC, however, is uncertain about the stance it should adopt in these cases.
“I will ask the higher-ups about what would be the CCC’s position,” CCC Secretary Rashid Ahmed told this news agency.
Meanwhile, Alam said: “My cases have been resolved; that’s why it was not discussed in Saturday’s meeting.”
After the High Court’s stay order in 2012 following a petition filed by three assistant engineers appointed on a temporary contracts, all appointments and promotions at the CCC have been stalled. One of the plaintiffs, Shahinul Islam Chowdhury, said he, with others, had filed the case in 2007 after the CCC refused to appoint them in posts going vacant.
“In February, 2012, we filed another case when the CCC advertised recruitment for 142 vacant posts, and the High Court issued the stay order,” he said.
The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) is stuck in a mire of lawsuits filed by its own employees. Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam filed two cases, while a lawsuit by three assistant engineers has stalled all appointments and promotions at the CCC for the past three years.
A case has been filed by CCC Deputy Secretary Mahmud Katebi, while Revenue Officer Shamsul Alam sued the city corporation, seeking permanent employment.
A total of 48 employees of the engineering department filed seven cases, including a petition with the High Court, and the revenue section’s 42 employees filed five cases-most of the verdicts of which are in favour of the plaintiffs. The CCC has appealed against the decisions.
Meanwhile, the new mayor-elect AJM Nasir Uddin has initiated moves to settle the cases. On Saturday, he met the plaintiffs to find a way out.
On being assured of the matter of appointments and promotions being ‘considered’, the plaintiffs initially agreed to withdraw the cases. The mayor-elect, however, instructed city corporation officials to pursue some of the lawsuits.
In 2009, Chief Legal Officer Sorwar-e-Alam was suspended by the then Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury for having allegedly failed to conduct lawsuits.
Alam moved the High Court and secured a stay order against his suspension,
but could not join work as long as Chowdhury was in the mayor’s office. After the 2010 city polls, when Manjur Alam was elected mayor, he joined the CCC and went retired on 2012.
Following his retirement, Alam filed two cases under the Judicial Service Act, seeking extra three years of service and salary increment, but a trial court rejected the plea.
He then moved to the District Judge’s Court, which ruled in his favour. Alam, then, joined the CCC again.
The CCC, however, is uncertain about the stance it should adopt in these cases.
“I will ask the higher-ups about what would be the CCC’s position,” CCC Secretary Rashid Ahmed told this news agency.
Meanwhile, Alam said: “My cases have been resolved; that’s why it was not discussed in Saturday’s meeting.”
After the High Court’s stay order in 2012 following a petition filed by three assistant engineers appointed on a temporary contracts, all appointments and promotions at the CCC have been stalled. One of the plaintiffs, Shahinul Islam Chowdhury, said he, with others, had filed the case in 2007 after the CCC refused to appoint them in posts going vacant.
“In February, 2012, we filed another case when the CCC advertised recruitment for 142 vacant posts, and the High Court issued the stay order,” he said.
