Govt plans permanent pay commission: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurates a 150-bed hospital for public servants in the capital's Fulbaria yesterday. Photo: BSS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the government has a plan to form a permanent pay commission to increase salaries and allowances of the government officials and employees regularly considering the inflation.
Hasina was addressing a function after inaugurating the newly-built 150-bed government employees' hospital at Fulbaria in the capital. The Department of Housing and Public Works implemented the project at a cost of Tk 46.76 crore.
The prime minister said if voted to power again, her government would ensure services to the common people in future through decentralisation.
She, however, reminded that the government officials and employees have much more responsibility in this regard and asked them to discharge their duties sincerely towards ensuring overall welfare and development of the country.
Emphasising continuity of the democratic process and economic emancipation, Hasina said the public servants would have to work with utmost sincerity to this end.
She mentioned that her government works with the mentality of serving people. Many works still remained incomplete, she said, expressing her strong resolve to complete those if they assume office again.
Expressing that the government's efforts towards ensuring welfare of the government employees would continue, the prime minister said the newly-built hospital, having the foundation of 16-storey, has now been primarily built to four-storey.
The government has a plan to turn this into a medical college with 300-bed hospital alongside introduction of different departments, she said.
Hasina said the government is positively considering the demands of the government officials and employees of the secretariat and deputy commissioner's offices at field-level. “So far, many of their demands have been implemented and the government is sincerely working to implement their other logical demands.” In this connection, she said that work on the formulation of the Public Service Bill, 2013 is at the final stage to make public administration more efficient, dynamic and time befitting.
Highlighting various efforts and successes of the government in the health sector, the prime minister said a project is awaiting approval for constructing multi-storey buildings for the government officials at Azimpur and Motijheel government colonies while the construction work of 10-storey residential buildings for the officials is going on in Mohammadpur and Segunbagicha in the capital.
Besides, she said, the construction work for building some 488 flats is going on in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar for the officials and employees of the Parliament Secretariat.
The government has also undertaken a Tk 267.73 crore project to build a 30-storey building at Dilkusha in the capital to create a permanent source of income for the Bangladesh Employees Welfare Board, she said.
The prime minister alleged that while Hefajat-e Islam was holding rally on May 5, the unruly BNP-Jamaat and Hefajat activists damaged 53 buses kept at the bus depot of Bangladesh Employees Welfare Board at Dilkusha.
Of the 53 buses, she said, these unruly elements set fire to 28 buses of which 16 were damaged fully and 12 partially.
Hasina also expressed her high hope to establish Bangladesh as a poverty and hunger-free modern and prosperous middle income country by the year 2021 when the nation will celebrate its golden jubilee of independence.