M M Jasim :
The peaceful movement of the unemployed nurses became desperate on Monday with the blocking of the road in front of the National Press Club for about 10 hours calling for postponement of the examination to recruit nurses.
Amid two-month long unemployed nurses’ demand for appointment of the nurses according to their results and seniority, the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) is going to hold examination on June 3to recruit new nurses.
Protesting the decision of the BPSC, about 1,500 unemployed nurses took to the street and started their demonstration from 9am on Monday blocking the Purana Paltan-High Court roads.
The city commuters also suffered a lot as the severe traffic jam was seen on the street.
At about 3pm, they marched towards Bangladesh Secretariat from in front of the National Press Club to meet the Prime Minister and faced a police barricade and sat in front of the secretariat.
The leaders of Bangladesh Diploma Bekar Nurses’ Association (BDBNA) and Bangladesh Basic Graduate Nurses’ Society (BBGNS) said, they do not have faith in the assurance of Health Minister because the
nurses withdrew hunger strike after assurance of him but thereafter took no initiative to fulfill his commitment.
“We are not against examinations for recruitment, but it can be done from the next recruitment, not this time,” Nahida Akhter, Secretary General of BBGNS, told this correspondent.
Nurses have been demonstrating since early April protesting the circular issued on March 28 on recruiting 3,616 senior nurses for public hospitals. The circular says applicants below the age of 36 and attaining Bachelor of Science and Diploma in Nursing had to go through the examination.
Many of the nurses who have been waiting for public jobs since the last recruitment in 2013 are about to cross 36 years and might be deprived of jobs, she said.
Nahida said a delegation went to the secretariat and placed the demands. Health Minister Mohammed Nasim was not there and Additional Secretary Biman Kumar Basu assured conveying the demands, she said.
She said they met the minister on several occasions the minister assured them of looking into the matter. At one stage he said he did not have the authority to cancel the circular but assured that he would take them to the prime minister on May 24, said Nahida. This never happened and the examination’s seat plan has already been finalised. “We, therefore, feel dejected,” she said.
“President of BBGNS Rajib Kumar Biswas said, the BDBNA and BBGNS have been observing a peaceful demonstration jointly with the sole demand of recruiting on the basis of batch, merit and seniority for a long period, though no hope has so far been given by the government yet”.
He said, “The government recruited about 6,500 nurses in two phases according to batch, merit and seniority. At present, the number of unemployed nurses holding Diploma-in-Nursing and BSC-in-Nursing degrees is almost 2,100, though there is a huge shortage of nurses in the public sector.
At present, 10,000 posts of nurses are vacant, though available vacant posts are only 3,728. it is said 89pc of these 13,728 posts should be filled with registered nurses with Diploma-in-Nursing degrees and 11pc posts should be filled with registered nurses with basic BSC-in-Nursing degrees according to batch, merit and seniority. Recruitment advertising for 616 ‘senior stuff nurse’ published by Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) should be cancelled in the greater interest.”
The nurses also vowed to continue their movement until the demand is met.
The peaceful movement of the unemployed nurses became desperate on Monday with the blocking of the road in front of the National Press Club for about 10 hours calling for postponement of the examination to recruit nurses.
Amid two-month long unemployed nurses’ demand for appointment of the nurses according to their results and seniority, the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) is going to hold examination on June 3to recruit new nurses.
Protesting the decision of the BPSC, about 1,500 unemployed nurses took to the street and started their demonstration from 9am on Monday blocking the Purana Paltan-High Court roads.
The city commuters also suffered a lot as the severe traffic jam was seen on the street.
At about 3pm, they marched towards Bangladesh Secretariat from in front of the National Press Club to meet the Prime Minister and faced a police barricade and sat in front of the secretariat.
The leaders of Bangladesh Diploma Bekar Nurses’ Association (BDBNA) and Bangladesh Basic Graduate Nurses’ Society (BBGNS) said, they do not have faith in the assurance of Health Minister because the
nurses withdrew hunger strike after assurance of him but thereafter took no initiative to fulfill his commitment.
“We are not against examinations for recruitment, but it can be done from the next recruitment, not this time,” Nahida Akhter, Secretary General of BBGNS, told this correspondent.
Nurses have been demonstrating since early April protesting the circular issued on March 28 on recruiting 3,616 senior nurses for public hospitals. The circular says applicants below the age of 36 and attaining Bachelor of Science and Diploma in Nursing had to go through the examination.
Many of the nurses who have been waiting for public jobs since the last recruitment in 2013 are about to cross 36 years and might be deprived of jobs, she said.
Nahida said a delegation went to the secretariat and placed the demands. Health Minister Mohammed Nasim was not there and Additional Secretary Biman Kumar Basu assured conveying the demands, she said.
She said they met the minister on several occasions the minister assured them of looking into the matter. At one stage he said he did not have the authority to cancel the circular but assured that he would take them to the prime minister on May 24, said Nahida. This never happened and the examination’s seat plan has already been finalised. “We, therefore, feel dejected,” she said.
“President of BBGNS Rajib Kumar Biswas said, the BDBNA and BBGNS have been observing a peaceful demonstration jointly with the sole demand of recruiting on the basis of batch, merit and seniority for a long period, though no hope has so far been given by the government yet”.
He said, “The government recruited about 6,500 nurses in two phases according to batch, merit and seniority. At present, the number of unemployed nurses holding Diploma-in-Nursing and BSC-in-Nursing degrees is almost 2,100, though there is a huge shortage of nurses in the public sector.
At present, 10,000 posts of nurses are vacant, though available vacant posts are only 3,728. it is said 89pc of these 13,728 posts should be filled with registered nurses with Diploma-in-Nursing degrees and 11pc posts should be filled with registered nurses with basic BSC-in-Nursing degrees according to batch, merit and seniority. Recruitment advertising for 616 ‘senior stuff nurse’ published by Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) should be cancelled in the greater interest.”
The nurses also vowed to continue their movement until the demand is met.
