Masum Billah :
In the 38th BCS examination, 82 candidates from BUET, 64 from KUET, 59 from RUET and 55 from CUET embraced the job of administration cadre. And in the recently published 40th BCS examination only the engineers occupied the positions in all the three covetable cadres such as administration, foreign and police that has sparked criticism from the sensible citizens. The 40th BCS is the first batch that sees the selection of candidates based only on merit abolishing all sorts of quota system. After the results, a debate has been in the air whether the engineers should be the administrator, diplomats or police and will they be able to play desired role wearing the dress of exclusive professional garb. Some put arguments that the country employs 15 to 20 lac taka to make an engineer who will serve the nation with their expertise, knowledge and skills they have gained. Sacrificing their professionalism they tend to nod towards BCS administration in a large scale. This does not bear a good sign.
We know that a doctor can become maximum Director General of the directorate of Health Service in the existing cadre service system .The secretary of the ministry might be a student from Political Science or Bengali or English because of his working in the administration cadre. Considering this point, some doctors and engineers’ choice of admin cadre retains merit. Now, they will have the opportunity to be secretary of Health Ministry or Local Government. The students who study in the International Relations or Political Science have critically read and discussed the foreign affairs. Necessarily they have enough scope to apply their knowledge in foreign affairs cadre. Another group supports and appreciates the idea of engineers’ coming to administration cadre as they think several engineers who have proved their worth in this line, so they deserve this position. The admin cadre needs these brilliant guys who will be able to give better service to the nation by virtue of their merit. And out of many engineers only a few of them are coming to administration that will not exert any serious effect on this profession. Moreover, many of our engineers go abroad for higher education or for job who hardly get back to the country but those who have opted for administration cadre will at least serve the nation for thirty years.
Inter cadre disparity and deprivation of facilities impels, are other causes for which the doctors and engineers are taking the occupation in the administration cadre. The question is —should we allow it to continue and follow the British devised system of administration that this territory witnessed about 300 years ago? To really carry the progress of the country forward the dedication and sincere service of the professionals such as doctors, engineers, agriculturists and other technical people is a must. Their sincere work and contribution must be ensured by creating congenial atmosphere and alienating the gap surfacing among cadres and professionals. The admin cadre and its surface pomp and grandeur cannot contribute to true national development. So it must not allure the specialized professionals. In the district and divisional level, equally important and with same status officials of several other cadres should be made equal to admn cadre officials for ensuring smooth development of all the country and mutual honour, trust and cooperative environment must be created. Just to coordinate the works of district, one coordinator can be selected from either of the cadres considering his/her length of service or age. Not like British system nobody seems important in a district except DC. And the situation has become so worse that doctors are leaving their professions to become DC, engineers are leaving their profession to become the same and agriculturists are vying for the position in the police cadre. That does not talk about a sound administration.
Bangladesh Civil Service consists of 26 cadres along with having sub cadres in some cadres. Example can be made of education cadre which has several sub cadres and under it around fifty subjects accommodate many teachers having BCS Education Cadre tag. Employment principles and rules are although same but their posting, promotion and facilities don’t prove equal in all the cadres that create cadre disparity and dissatisfaction among the cadre service holders. Suppose, English teachers get promotion slowly whereas the teachers of other subjects get promotion quickly and become senior. Today we observe that our agriculturists serve the nation much more than that of other professions. Their research and the results of research give direct benefit to the nation. Now we see varieties of rice, fruits and vegetables as a result of their untiring research but they are hardly given any credit for that. Still many agriculturists work in the administration cadre, police cadre. What extra service they give to the nation at the cost of leaving their professional cateer? Just like other bureaucrats they also do the same. I don’t know how much benefit the people or country obtain from them?
(Masum Billah is Country Director- Volunteers Association for Bangaldesh and President- English Teachers’ Association of Bangladesh).
