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Rajuk gives in to union pressure

Proposes that govt reinstate 372 terminated staff

Tawfique Ali
The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) in the face of pressure from trade unions has proposed that the government absorb 372 previously terminated employees into different ongoing housing schemes.
The employees, who were reinstated by a court order and have been paid ever since without designated work, are backed by Jatiya Sramik League, a pro-Awami League workers' front. They have been demanding regularisation of their job for sometime now and recently staged demonstrations at Rajuk office.
The proposed recruitment rules awaiting the public administration ministry's nod include a regulation providing absorption of terminated employees in 25 percent of more than a thousand new posts, Md Nurul Huda, chairman of Rajuk, told The Daily Star.
The rest of the recruitment will be made through direct appointment. The proposed rules were placed to the minis-
try in the end of August.
"Now the absorption depends on the government's endorsement of the provision," said Huda.
The last BNP-led government terminated the third and fourth class employees recruited on temporary basis on grounds that they were appointed at the last minute of the preceding Awami League government’s tenure without approved vacancies.
The housing ministry unilaterally, without consultation with the then Rajuk authorities, terminated the employees including Lower Division clerks, tracers, draftsmen, computer operators, and data entry cum accounts officers in February 2003.
The sacked employees during a violent agitation in October 2006 assaulted Rajuk top officials, ransacked and vandalised office rooms including that of the chairman and later on filed 40 different writ petitions with the High Court that stayed the dismissed order and directed the
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government to reinstate the employees.
The Appellate Division having rejected the Rajuk appeal later upheld the HC verdict.
The termination was not founded on an appropriate procedure, said Huda, and the court directed the authorities to follow a procedure for termination, if required, with due compensation.
The Rajuk has ever since been paying them salaries without designated work, said several officials wishing anonymity.
In the face of constant pressure from the employees backed by political quarters, Rajuk strived to create new posts to accommodate them along with other fresh recruitments.
Huda said they have paid the sacked-and-reinstated employees with the money of various housing schemes and that most of them were engaged in some work, while a small section has no work.
Speaking anonymously, Rajuk officials said such a complicated situation was created due to temporary recruitment en mass in the face of pressure from political leaders and government high-ups despite the fact that there were no approved posts.
The new 2,000-strong manpower of Rajuk, increased from existing 1,087 posts, got approval of the finance ministry around a month ago as part of a move to double Rajuk workforce.
The new workforce structure includes two urban planners with 13 deputy planners and 26 assistant planners and two urban architects with five deputies and 10 assistants.
The number of authorised officers, who approve building plans, will increase to 24 from existing five.
In addition to four zonal offices of Rajuk, there will be four more regional offices, one each in Gazipur, Savar, Keraniganj and Narayanganj.