Desk Report:

The government has sent 22 former deputy commissioners (DCs) and a joint secretary into compulsory retirement for their role in 2014 and 2018 elections.

These former DCs had served as returning officers in those controversial elections and were currently working as additional secretaries. The joint secretary was working in the home ministry, but he was absent at his workplace since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5 last year.

The Ministry of Public Administration is set to issue a gazette notification to this effect today (Thursday).

Earlier, the government had made 45 former DCs, officers on special duty (OSD) in two phases.

Dr Mokhles Ur Rahman, senior secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, told reporters at the secretariat on Thursday afternoon, “The DCs who served in the controversial and questionable elections of 2014, 2018, and 2024 have committed administrative misconduct failing to protest against any wrongdoing.”

“Therefore, those with over 25 years of service are being sent into compulsory retirement, while those with less than 25 years of service are being made OSD.”