Bureaucrats do not consider the public as friends
The High Court yesterday blasted bureaucrats for their negligence in duty, saying it is causing the general people of the country to suffer.
"The ordinary people would not have to suffer if bureaucrats would have considered them as their friends. Most of the high officials think they are above that.
"The secretaries must bear in mind that the general public is the source of all their powers. If they forget their own duties, the public suffers," the HC bench Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman and Justice AKM Rabiul Hassan told Md Abdur Rahman, a deputy secretary at the ministry of local government, rural development (LGRD) and cooperatives, during the hearing of a contempt of court rule.
Deputy Secretary Abdur Rahman appeared as the representative for the LGRD secretary before the HC bench yesterday, in compliance with a summons order.
The order was issued as the secretary's office has not complied with an earlier order of this court for the past five years.
Following a writ petition filed by 14 municipality accountant officers, the HC on November 20, 2017, directed the LGRD ministry to dispose of their (writ petitioners) two applications for creating "an accounting and audit department" at the municipality offices in two months.
On March 23, 2020, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court also upheld the HC directive, but the LGRD ministry has not disposed of the applications.
Thus, a contempt of court petition was filed, following which the HC issued the rule against the LGRD secretary, said Mohammad Siddique Ullah Miah, lawyer of writ petitioners.
Yesterday, the HC bench said some secretaries do not abide by court orders, but feel embarrassed to appear before court when directed to.
The bench fixed January 10, 2021, for the next hearing of the rule, during which Abdur Rahman will have to be present, Deputy Attorney General Wayesh-Al-Haroni told The Daily Star.
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