Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged civil servants to work with innovative ideas in resolving problems of their respective areas and implementing development programmes keeping in mind local perspectives.
“Government officials should not take their job as a routine service. Each of them must come up with innovative ideas in discharging duties for the welfare of people and progress of the country,” she said this on Sunday while distributing Public Administration Award at Osmani Memorial Hall coinciding with Public Service Day.
The premier said the civil service is meant to serve the people while civil servants are provided with required training at home and abroad so they could deliver their job to serve people in expected manner.
“These trainings should not be taken as a routine thing, the trainings should be used for the welfare of the people,” she told the function organised by Public Administration Ministry.
Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam presided over the function while state minister Ismat Ara Sadek, Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam and Senior Secretary of MoPA Mozammel Haq Khan also spoke.
This year 14 government officials were given the Public Administration Award in two categories.
The Prime Minister said the Bangabandhu’s 1975 assassination had exposed the bureaucracy to instability for a long time but the then Awami League government had helped it overcome the situation and reset people’s confidence on civil administration after taking office in 1996.
Sheikh Hasina said once upon a time the country was so poor that the people could not arrange one meal a day as ninety percent of them lived behind the poverty line.
“Now the poverty rate came down to 22 percent (and) our target is to bring it down further and make the country completely poverty and illiteracy free,” she said.
Simultaneously, the premier said, the country must be freed from clutches of terrorism and drug as well and Bangladesh “has to earn capacity to address the natural calamities”.
Sheikh Hasina said one of major goals of her government is to make Bangladesh a peaceful country in South Asia where no local or foreign conspiracy would work and no misrule would gain ground.
The premier said during the first tenure of her government after 1996 elections took a series of development programmes and the country which upset by the 2001 changes in political arena.
But, she said, after coming to power in 2009, the Awami League government took the country to a new era of development.
“Evil force tried to foil 2014 election to thwart out the development, but failed,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said civil administration, law enforcement agencies, and three armed services jointly made their efforts to continue the democratic process in 2014.
“Now development activities are visible and people now are confident about the country’s progress due to continuation of the government,” she added.
