End systemic disparities within civil service to improve efficiency: Experts

Addressing systemic disparities within Bangladesh's Civil Service structure is crucial for improving efficiency, ensuring fairness, and delivering better services to the country's people, speakers have said at a roundtable discussion.

The roundtable discussion titled "State Reforms: The Civil Service Perspective" was held at the Public Works Department auditorium at Segunbagicha in the capital today. Inter-Cadre Disparity Resolution Council organised the event.

The council was formed to manage the integrated activities of 25 cadres through an organised framework to address these inequities and identified several primary solutions.

Addressing the event, Chief Coordinator of Ganosamhati Andolon Junaid Saki said if there is so much disparity within the cadres, then there is no need for the system of cadres at all.

"The nation has been moving in the wrong direction for 53 years. There is a significant colonial aspect within the administration, which has been hidden for more than half a century. In 2024, we see a fascist-like system where, in metropolitan cities, police can shoot at will, but who has given the right to police in other cities to shoot? The state is shooting at its own people."

Saki said people wanted an administration that would serve the public, one that would focus on human service.

Sohrab Hasan, joint editor of Daily Prothom Alo; Barrister Nasir Uddin Ahmed Ashim, international affairs secretary of BNP; Mohammad Golam Rabbani, professor, Department of History, Jahangirnagar University; MA Aziz, senior journalist and columnist;  Masud Kamal, senior journalist and columnist; Professor Md Abdus Samad, former president, BCS General Education Association; Professor Muhammad Asaduzzaman, director, International Mother Language Institute; and Abdur Rahman (Jibal), advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, among others addressed the event.