Govt won't allow terrorism, militancy: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today renewed her firm resolve to clampdown on terrorism and militancy to ensure peace and security for the people, saying that her government won't allow any type of these social menaces.

"In whatever names and forms the terrorism and militancy come we will have to contain these social menaces and we must do it," she said while handing over the first-ever "Public Administration Award" at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital this morning.

Pointing to her government's "zero tolerance policy" towards terrorism and militancy, the premier said this policy will have to be implemented.

"We won't tolerate any types of terrorism and militancy and we would ensure peace and security for the people ... we will have to work keeping this in mind," she said.

"It's my firm belief that we must do it and we have shown to the world that we can do it," she added.

Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam presided over the function, while State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Public Administration Ministry HN Ashiqur Rahman were present as the special guests.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam and Senior Secretary of the Public Administration Ministry Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury also spoke at the function.

Earlier, Sheikh Hasina handed over the award for 2016 to 30 officials and employees as well as institutions in recognition to their significant and innovative work in public administration.

Referring to the July 1 Gulshan café attack in Dhaka, the prime minister said Bangladesh is the only country which has been able to rescue many of the hostages within 10 hours by eliminating the militants.

"Troubles come one after another every time, but we take prompt action against the problems, and in this regard, the law enforcement and intelligence agencies as well as the armed forces solved the problems with utmost efficiency and very fast freeing the country and nation from this trouble," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the Muslims perform their religion and the people of other faiths also perform their respective religions. "But it's not a teaching of Islam, the religion of peace, that human beings will have to be killed for witnessing 'hur-pari' (fairies) in the heaven," she said.

In this connection, Sheikh Hasina directed the public servants, especially the field-level officials, to give attention so that the people get the real teachings of religion.

The premier also asked the civil servants to work together with more sincerity to complete the ongoing projects in a faster pace to achieve her government’s goals of establishing Bangladesh as a middle income country by 2021 and a developed one by 2041.

"Our aim is to build Bangladesh as a middle income country by 2021 and developed one by 2041. So you will have to work together with more sincerity to complete the ongoing projects during our present tenure to achieve the goal," she said.

Calling upon the public servants to further involve the people with all development activities of the government, she hopes that they would build an organised, qualitative and changing civil service and reach the desired services to the doorsteps of the common people quickly.

Reminding the public servants that serving people is their sacred duty, the prime minister said their salary comes from the sweat, labour and blood of the farmers and working class people.

"The aim of our politics is to serve people and give them a better life ... we didn't come to power for enjoying it. I think of power as a responsibility and service to the people," she added.

Highlighting various steps taken for building an efficient and service-oriented public administration, Sheikh Hasina said her government, after assuming office in 2009, introduced the citizen charter in government offices and updated appointment and promotion in the civil service.

"We have created countless posts in the civil service and promotion was given in every service over the last seven and a half years... the country did not witness such huge promotions in the past," she said.

The premier said her government for the first time introduced the result-based annual performance agreements and enhanced the retirement age of the public servants. "We have given a new pay scale where the salary of the government staff has been raised by 123 percent," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her government has been implementing electronic filing system at divisional commissioners' offices, 64 districts, the Prime Minister's Office, and four ministries including cabinet division and three departments.

"The world's largest web portal with 25,000 websites has been launched, while every field of the public administration has got the touch of digitisation," she said.

The premier said her government has changed the designation of the employees at lower level and took measures for training of the public servants at home and abroad.

Spelling out her government's successes in various fields, the prime minister said the country's economy has now been stood on a solid footing and the country has been able to achieve capability of implementing 90 percent of development plans with its own funding.

"This has been possible as we got cooperation from every public servant and they worked with utmost sincerity," she said, congratulating all public servants for this achievement.