Admin cadres want to join UN peacekeeping missions

Admin cadres want to take part in the United Nations' peacekeeping missions, which different armed forces of Bangladesh have been attending for long.

The proposal was placed on the second day of the ongoing three-day conference of deputy commissioners at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on Wednesday.

"Currently, personnel from the army, air force, navy and police are working in different UN peacekeeping missions. Admin cadres are needed there to collaborate with them," Md Abdul Wahhab Bhuiyan, Rangpur divisional commissioner, said while presenting the written proposal at the conference.

After the event, KM Ali Azam, senior secretary at the Ministry of Public Administration, told The Business Standard that the matter of recruiting people depended on the country in which the missions would be conducted, and the United Nations.  

"The facility (recruiting civil officials) usually gets the countries who hold significant portions of the force in the missions."

"We have decided to send letters to our permanent representative to the UN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take steps accordingly to create the opportunity for us," he added.

Azam also said the proposal to build hospitals in three divisions for government employees was passed in principle at Wednesday's event.

Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak, in the conference, said the government would start open market sales in upazila-level on Thursday.

On the hike in rice prices, he said the local rice market saw unrest due to the volatile global markets.

"New paddy will hit the market soon. Besides, the government now has a stock of 20 lakh tonnes of rice, the highest ever in the country. I hope the rice market will be stable immediately," added Razzak.

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Md Shahab Uddin asked the DCs to take stern actions against hill-cutting and environmental pollution.

They (deputy commissioners) could protect forests and the environment as they had the authority to take steps, the minister told journalists, adding that his ministry earlier issued official letters to the district executive heads.  

The annual conference of DCs will end on Thursday. Officials from 55 ministries took part in the three-day event featuring 25 sessions.