Employees demand restoration of perks

Officials and staff of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) in Rajshahi yesterday observed a half-an-hour long work abstention wearing black badges demanding restoration of government perks including time scale, selection grade and promotion.

The Barind Development Project began in 1985 under the state-run Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and was converted into BMDA in 1992 following a regulation signed by the then president.

Since then, the BMDA staff had been enjoying all kind of government facilities until the government appointed executive director and secretary suspended those in 2012, said BMDA Secretary Dewan M Abdus Samad.

According to Samad, the BMDA is still a project in which all its 977 staff are employed on contract and they had enjoyed all the facilities "illegally" as no specific law or organogram was formulated for BMDA after 1992.

However, the staff complained that the government used the fact to its advantage. "If there is no law, the government must formulate it", said Shamsul Huda, superintendent engineer of BMDA and convenor of BMDA Staff Oikya Parishad.

The staff recently got united to get benefits of the new payscale, said an official.