Appointments in BCS: Gazette for 46 left-out candidates next Monday

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said gazette notification for the appointment of 46 candidates who were left out from a list of those who passed the 49th BCS (Special) examination, will be published next Monday. He also claimed that there had been no any discrimination while appointmenting them to public jobs.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) had recommended the appointment of 668 candidates who passed the 49th (Special) BCS (Education Cadre) examination for recruitment as teachers in government colleges.

After the Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification yesterday appointing 611 of them, criticism began that 57 people had been excluded on the basis of political and regional identity.

Amid discussion on the matter, Home Minister Salahuddin on Thursday presented the details of this recruitment process at a news briefing at the Secretariat.

He said 668 candidates had passed the final results of this BCS examination. According to that count, 57 names are missing from the notification.

"But the actual fact is that of the 57 who were left out, three could not submit their certificates and eight did not appear for the medical test. That means the number of candidates left out in the first notification is not 57, it will be 46."

Announcing that the notification for the appointment of these 46 will be issued on Monday, he said a final notification is not issued only once. It may be issued several times. The date for these appointees to join their jobs is next October 12. By that count, there are still 11 more days.

Allegations have been raised that some were not appointed because their home is in Gopalganj. Again, allegations have been raised from among Jamaat-e-Islami leaders that some of their family members have been deprived of appointment.

However, claiming that no political or other discrimination of any kind was made in the recruitment process, the Home Minister said this process is being conducted on the basis of complete transparency.

In his words, verification is a mandatory requirement in the BCS or such examinations, and appearing for the medical test and submitting certificates are also mandatory requirements.

"Many here have tried to raise a debate over whether discrimination is being created on the basis of political identity. I want to assure everyone that no one will be discriminated against on the basis of political identity."

"The July student-mass uprising took place to establish a humane and discrimination-free state and social system. Whatever anyone's political identity may be, no discrimination will be created on that basis in the BCS or such examinations or in any other area," he said.

Referring to the candidate who threatened to protest or commit suicide after not getting the job, Salahuddin said, "Among those who are using social media to create all this excitement, he is one. He was a leader holding a position in a banned student organization of a hall at Dhaka University, possibly he was joint general secretary of the hall unit. Because of that political identity of his, he has assumed that he will no longer be given the appointment letter for the job. My statement is that he will have to wait for verification."

Speaking about police verification, the Home Minister said if there is an allegation of any serious crime against someone, one in a hundred or one or two in a thousand may be left out in police verification for that reason.

"If there is any such conviction against someone, until it is withdrawn, until acquittal is obtained on appeal, there are some provisions of that sort (to wait). Otherwise, public service appointments in the future will be questioned."

He called on everyone, including the left-out candidates, to be patient on the matter.