Remove irregularities in Department of Agricultural Extension

Many of us may not know what kinds of irregularities take place in various government offices in the capital, Dhaka. Allegations of corruption sometimes appear in the media through which we learn a few things. But there are many crimes that go on day after day, which we never get to know about. Take the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), for instance. It is because of this department that the Farmgate area is known as Khamarbari. The DAE is responsible for the expansion of modern agriculture and crops across the country. The surprising fact is that, in this important government office, the dominance of various associations and organisations of officials and employees has been going on for years.

More than 500 officials and employees work here. Among them are over 100 women. Many of the female officials and employees have young children. With no day-care centre, some are forced to depend on relatives, hired nannies or commercial day-care services. This increases the risk for their children. They also cannot give proper attention to their work. On condition of anonymity, a female official said, “We are in the office from morning till evening. It is extremely difficult to work while leaving a small child at home. If there were a day-care, everyone could work with peace of mind. They say there is no room, yet so many organisation offices have been set up inside the department!”

According to media reports published on Thursday (21 August), there is no room for day-care, yet the department is full of organisation offices. Offices of a total of eight organisations were found, occupying multiple government rooms. But citing a shortage of rooms, the initiative to set up a day-care centre is repeatedly blocked. Among these eight organisations, some are government-registered while others are not. Allegations have been made against the leaders of these organisations that they are engaged in lobbying for profit from their offices. As a result, the core functions of the department are being disrupted. In addition, the department has to bear various utility bills including electricity, water and gas for these offices.

Agriculture Ministry’s Adviser Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has issued instructions several times over the past year to establish a modern day-care centre within the department. This would provide childcare facilities for female officials and employees, allowing them to focus on their work. But the initiative has not been implemented, using the excuse of room shortage. The DAE authorities did order the release of rooms allocated to liaison offices of out-of-Dhaka projects. But the rooms allotted to organisations have not been cancelled. As a result, there is no space to open a day-care centre for female officials and employees.

Such irregularities and misuse of authority perhaps only happen in Bangladesh. In other countries, government institutions are expanding day-care facilities, whereas such news from a government institution in Bangladesh is very unfortunate. No organisation office can ever be more important than a day-care. It must also be investigated how such party-linked organisational activities are continuing inside government offices. We want these irregularities to be removed as soon as possible. Organisation offices must be evicted and a day-care centre opened.