Age bar for govt jobs: 7-hour sit-in withdrawn after govt assurance

After a seven-hour-long sit-in in front of the chief adviser's residence, protesters last night withdrew their programme on the government's assurance that a committee will review their demand for raising the age limit for government job seekers.

They announced the withdrawal to journalists around 9:00pm after speaking to ICT Adviser Nahid Islam and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud.

Speaking to reporters, Rasel Al-Mahmud, one of the coordinators of 35 Prottashi Somonnoy Parishad, said, "We'll attend tomorrow's [today's] meeting with the committee to reiterate our demand. The committee is to submit a report, based on our discussion, within seven days."

The administration yesterday formed a two-member committee to review the possibility of extending the age limit for applying for government jobs, following the protests by hundreds of job seekers in front of the chief adviser's residence in the capital.

The public administration ministry issued a notification in this regard and asked the committee to submit its report within seven days.

The committee is chaired by former caretaker government adviser Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, with Mokhlesur Rahman, senior secretary of the public administration ministry, as the member-secretary.

Around 11:00am, several hundred job seekers had gathered at Shahbagh to press for the age-limit extension. They then marched towards the chief adviser's residence, where police had set up barricades to bar them from moving forward. The protesters, however, broke through the barricades and continued chanting slogans.

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Raising age limit for govt jobs: Protesters vow to continue sit-in until demands met

Around 1:15pm, a scuffle broke out between the demonstrators and law enforcers, after which police fired tear gas shells and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.

Speaking to journalists, Ruman Kabir, one of the coordinators of 35 Prottashi Somonnoy Parishad, said, "We condemn the police attack and question why tear gas was fired on a peaceful protest. We have no other option now but to seek a meeting with the chief adviser to present our demands."

Muzammel Miazee, another protester, explained the demand for extension. "Currently, the age limit for applying for civil service jobs is 30. We're demanding it be increased to 35. We've been asking for this for 14 years but there has been no response from the government."

Another protester said, "If the chief adviser can serve the state at the age of 70 [his actual age is 84] , why can't we access government jobs after the age of 30?"

Tahsin Mahmud, a student of Chittagong University, said, "Our demand is logical, and the government should address it immediately. We're suffering from unemployment."

The age limit is 32 for only the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters.

Protesters had blocked the Shahbagh intersection a few days ago with the same demand.

Additionally, Bangladesh Administrative Service Association, an organisation of administration cadre officials, also demanded that the maximum age limit be raised to 35 and the retirement age to 65.

It is to be noted that the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on August 25 issued a notice banning any rallies, meetings or demonstration in front of the Secretariat and government residence of the chief adviser until further notice.