NID officials to continue boycott duties demanding job permanence 

The officials of the National Identification (NID) have announced they will continue boycotting their duties pressing forth their one-point demand for job permanence.

Earlier on the day, the protestors met with Election Commission Secretary Shafiul Azam when the secretary assured them to pursue the demand with the government.

He also asked them to go back to work as NID is a very urgent service. 

Later on, the workers of the NID wing's Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA)-2 project announced a sit-in programme in front of EC Bhaban in the capital from 9am tomorrow.

Speaking to TBS, EC Secretary Shafiul Azim said, "Their demand is rational as they have been with the NID service since the inception in 2007. 

"The NID service is technical work and these people grew their skills and gained much experience working on the project for years. So, keeping them in the job permanently will be better than recruiting people who lack the experience. The Election Commissioners also agreed. So, we are sending a letter to the office concerned to take steps in this regard." 

He further said it will be a long process. "We asked the protesters to be patient and resume work."

Earlier in the afternoon, leaders of the protesting officials and employees of the IDEA-2 project, from grade 9 to grade 20, claimed that till now, they got only 10% success through sending letters to the government. 

They started a sit-in protest in front of the Election Building in the capital's Agargaon since yesterday morning with two demands, including cancelling the decision to transfer NID activities to the Ministry of Home Affairs while keeping them under the Election Commission and transferring the jobs of all outsourcing workers of the IDEA project to the revenue.

The IDEA project has a workforce of 2,260 people.