9 new joint secys get assignments

On June 15, 84 deputy secretaries of different cadres, mostly from the administration, were promoted to the post of joint secretaries.

The alliance government, meanwhile, made the officials of Bangladesh Civil Service 1973 batch officers on special duty (OSD).

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Sources said some officials of the 1973 batch, who are now holding joint secretary positions and about to go into retirement, have also been made OSDs and those posts are being filled up with newly promoted joint secretaries.

They said Fazlul Haq, a 1973 batch joint secretary of local government, rural development and cooperatives ministry, who is also due to retire in two months, has been made OSD.

His post was filled up on Tuesday with the appointment of Shafiqul Islam, former private secretary to the LGRD minister. Shafiq is one of the newly promoted joint secretaries.

Similarly, former joint secretary of environment and forest ministry SM Lutfullah, also a recruit of the same batch, was made OSD on Tuesday. Lutfullah, who is retiring in four months, is now in Germany on an official tour.

Dr Mahfuzul Haq of the same ministry replaced him. Mahfuz was elevated to the post of joint secretary on June 15.

Among the 84 new joint secretaries, the government has so far posted nine top officials on Tuesday. It has asked 23 deputy commissioners (DC), who have been promoted to joint secretaries, to continue their services until further order.

Besides, the government also transferred over a dozen of joint secretaries to different ministries on Tuesday.

Sources said the government has become very choosy about new appointments and looked for genuine pro-BNP officials for new assignments. Despite having a fit list for the DCs, the government is still buying time to appoint the district administrators in 23 districts.