Porishisto

পরিশিষ্ট ঝ

(টাইপড কপি)

Activities of the Govt.

So far the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh have been organised into the following Ministries/Departments:

1. Ministry of Defence.

2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

3. Ministry of Finance, Trade & Commerce.

4. Cabinet Secretariat.

5. General Administration Department.

6. Ministry of Health and Welfare.

7. Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

8. Ministry of Home.

9. Relief & Rehabilitation Department

10. Parliamentary Affairs Division

11. Agriculture Department

12. Engineering Department

In addition, several autonomous bodies have also been organised outside the direct Government set-up. These are:

i. Planning commission;

ii. Board of Trade & Commerce;

iii. Board of Control, Youth & Reception Camps:

iv. Relief & Rehabilitation Committee

and,

v. Evacuee welfare Board.

1. Ministry of Defence:

( i ) Report on Ministry of Defence is being submitted separately. Three more functions of the Administration of Defence may also be noted.

( ii ) Psychological war-fare Cell-- This is working in close co-operation with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

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( iii ) Medical cover and welfare for the Niomito Bahini and Ganabahini --- this is being done in close co-operation with the Ministry of Health.

( iv ) Institution of Gallantry Award for the Forces-----

2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

a. Establishment of Missions abroad -- at Calcutta, Delhi, London, Washington, New York and Stockholm.

b. Diplomatic Drive abroad:

( i ) Delegation to the United Nations;

( ii ) Delegation to Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon:

( iii ) Delegation to Nepal ; and,

( iv ) Delegation to Ceylon, Burmah and other South-East Asian countries.

Good results achieved in some of the above mentioned countries.

c. Intensive lobbying by Bangladesh nationals and sympathisers in the UK., USA., France, Sweden, Japan and a few other countries. Very favourable press coverage have been received in these countries. Funds have been collected a broad.

d. Defection of Pakistani Diplomats--Ambassadors to Iraq, Phillipines and Argentina and switched allegiance. High-ranking Diplomats in London, Washington, New York, Kathmandu and Honkong have declared their allegiance to the Government (apart from Calcutta and Delhi).

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e. Civil Service Officials under training a broad (seven in the USA and two in the UK. have also offered their services.

f. External publicity has also been organised.

3. Ministry of Finance Trade & Commerce:

The Secretary, Finance, is submitting his report separately. This ministry has taken over and collected monetary resources brought over from Bangladesh. It has also prepared budgets and has been, by and large, responsible for making payments to the various agencies and persons under different accounts. It has also introduced some sort of financial discipline. It has of late started collecting revenues on account of payments made to Bangladesh Government employees and agencies.

According to a cabinet decision the Government have instituted an Enquiry Commission to look into the ………..

Trade and Commerce:

A Board of Trade & Commerce has been organised as an autonomous body. This Board has already explored various possibilities of exporting Bangladesh commodities abroad not only as a source of income, but also as a measure of economic viability of Bangladesh.

The Ministry of Finance, Trade & Commerce and the Board of Trade & Commerce have jointly held negotiation with the Government of India and the State Trading Corporation of India to work out the possible details of a Trade Agreement with India. They have also discussed the various facts of arranging transit facilities for the export and import of Bangladesh through India till such time the ports of Chittagong and Chalna could be used. Considerable progress has been made in this negotiations.

At the moment there is no secretary for Trade and Commerce Department, The Finance Secretary is looking after it.

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4. Cabinet Secretariat:

The Cabinet Secretariat bas been organised with the Cabinet Secretary and a very skeleton staff under him. The Cabinet Secretariat is responsible for placing important matters before the Cabinet, for recording cabinet decisions and circulating them, for following up the various decisions taken and also for any other matter that is connected with the cabinet but does not fall strictly within the purview of any particular Ministry/Department. The President’s Secretariat is also looked after by the Cabinet Secretary.

5. General Administration:

A full-fledged Secretary for General Administration Department has been appointed from the beginning. He works directly under the Prime Minister.

This Department is responsible for all Establishment matters of the Government, such as, recruitment, appointment, posting, transfer, discipline etc. The Department is also responsible for the execution of the Government policy in matters of public appointments. According to the Cabinet decision all class I and class II appointments under this Government are made by the Establishment Minister himself (that is the Prime Minister) manning of all class I and Class II pasts under the Zonal Administrative Councils also come within the overview of this department. Maintenance of lists of officials and staff who have pledged their allegiance to the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, selection of personnel out of these lists, preparation of panels for recruitment etc. are done by the General Administration Department.

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Zonal Administrative Councils:

The Establishment part of the Zonal Administrative Councils, that is the offices of the Zonal Administrative Officers and other departments come under the General Administration Department. Filling up of Class I and class II posts at Zonal Levels, budgetory sanctions for the offices etc. are also done by the General Administration Department.

Under the original Scheme five zones were crested the Scheme has recently been modified and six more new zones have been created. Elections have been held and the chairmen selected in the following zones so far:

1. South-East Zone I …Prof. N. I. Chowdhury MNA.

2. South-East Zone II …Mr. Zahur Ahmed Choudhury, MPA.

3. East Zone …Col. M.A. Rabb, MNA.

4. North-East Zone I …Dewan Farid Gazi, MNA

5. North-East Zone II …Mr. Shamsur Rahman Khan, MNA

6. North Zone ...Mr. Matiur Rahman

7. West Zone I ... Mr. Abdur Rahim, MPA

8. South West Zone II ....Mr. Phani Mazumdar, MPA.

The Zonal Councils have also elected their various sub-committees. Almost all the Zonal Councils have adopted resolution high-lighting certain common as well as peculiar problems. Decisions have been taken in certain cases but on others no decision have been taken is certain cases, but in other no decision has been taken because of broad policy implications. Government decision/action will be communicated to all Zonal Councils are complete.

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Budgetory provisions have been/are being made for the Zonal Councils where election has been held. Action is under way to release funds.

Necessary officers and staff for the Zonal Administrative Councils and also for the officers of various Zonal level functioneries are being recruited and posted.

6. Ministry of Health and Welfare

The Health Secretary is submitting his report separately. Additional comments on the department are given below.

The Department was originally organised under one Director-General of Health. Later on, the Director-General was given the rank of Secretary to the Govt.

The Health side of the Department is being organised under two different categories, viz. ( i ) Medical cover for the Forces and ( ii ) Civil Medical Care.

( i ) The Medical Care on the Defence side provides for the following:

(a) Arrangement of Surgeon & Physicians;

(b) Transports for carrying injured/dead bodies;

(d) Surgical equipments;

(e) Field Medical Units such as Advance Dressing Stations (ADS) and Main Dressing Stations (MDS).

(f) Convalescence Homes: On the Welfare side for the fighting Forces the Following are being taken care of:

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( i ) Care for the dependents of the Shaheeds:

( ii ) Pension / Subsistance for the completely disabled: and

( iii ) Provision of work for the partially disabled.

Necessary provision has also been made for the above purposes (rupees ten lacs).

On the civil side, necessary arrangements are being made to provide medical cover to Bangladesh citizens. An amount of Rs. 9,50,000.00 has been earmarked for the purpose.

The Health Secretary has also made arrangements for absorbtion of Bangladesh Doctors in various Jobs. These Doctors have been engaged by the Government of India to look after the evacuee camps.

The Health Department is also responsible for Collection of medicines and other equipments as donations from various friendly agencies and dispatching them to the sectors on the basis of requisitions received.

The Health Department has also been entrusted with the duty of procuring equipments, ambulance etc. for the sectors in case of their non-availability from friendly sources.

7. Ministry of Information & Broadcasting:

The Bangladesh Radio is one of the earliest organisations under the Government. Initially, the radio was installed under the direct supervision of Mr. Abdul Mannan. The Staff for programming and broadcasting were selected from amongst the former Radio Pakistan who came over to us. Gradually, more and more artists and

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and technicians have joined us resulting in improvement of the radio’s out-put. By now almost 100 persons have been recruited for Bangladesh radio. Because of the presence of a large number of heterogeneous elements, it has been extremely difficult to regularise the services of all the Bangladesh radio personnel according to a definite standard. Since radio is our most important information media and comes only second to our war-effort. In order of priority Government have always sanctioned necessary financial backing for it.

The other agencies organised under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry are:

(a) Director of Films;

(b) Director of Publication: and,

As discussed above the psychological war-fare Cell of the Ministry of Defence works in close collaboration with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The External publicity of the Government is at present located within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This wing has brought out a large number of publications in the form of book-lets, pamphlets, brochures etc. These have played a very significant role in our foreign publicity.

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A few eminent Bangladesh intellectuals have also published books and book-lets covering a wide range of subjects projecting the Bangladesh cause and our struggle for freedom.

Recently a series of meetings were held with the Heads of Information agencies under the friendly Government in order to further strengthen out publicity effort on all fronts. All necessary assistance has been promised and is

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is forthcoming.

This Ministry has suffered from the beginning in the absence of an experienced person with necessary experts who could be appointed as Secretary. After waiting for a long time Government have very recently appointed Mr. Anwarul Haque Khan on a purely temporary base to look after this department. He will work in close co-operation with Mr. A. Mannan, MNA.

8. Ministry of Home.

This has now been organized under a full-fledged Secretary. Until recently the Inspector-General of Police was doing the main work to this department. Collection of information and its dissemination to various agencies involved is an important function of the Home Ministry.

The Minster-in-charge of home is also responsible for the zonal Administrative Councils. His Ministry performs the following functions. Among others:

(a) Administrative set-up in the liberated areas;

(b) Issue of Travel documents; and

9. Relief & Rehabilitation Department:

This is organised under a Relief Commissioner who works directly under the Minister for Home and Relief. This department runs an office at Princep Street. It scrutinises various applications received for relief and helps Bangladesh citizens in special cases. They are also organising Zonal Relief or offices within the framework of the Zonal Administrative Councils.

This Ministry has organised relief to Bangladesh Teachers. A scheme for Camp-Schools utilising the services

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services of the Bangladesh teachers for the benefit of evacuee camps children has also been drawn up and partly implemented with the help of the Bangladesh Teachers' Association, of which Mr. Kamaruzzaman, MNA. is the Executive President.

10. Parliamentary Affairs Division:

This is looked after by the Minister for Foreign Affairs himself. At the moment it is responsible for taking care of the problems of the elected representatives of Bangladesh.

11. Agriculture Department:

This is yet to be organised. Only a Secretary has been appointed who is now preparing a blue-print for agricultural development in free Bangladesh.

12. Engineering Department:

A Chief Engineer has been appointed. Under him Zonal Engineers are also being posted to cater to the needs of the Sector Commanders. They will also be responsible for taking care of the engineering problems in the liberated areas.

( i ) Planning Commission:

Government has recently organised the former Planning Cell into a full-fledged Planning Commission. Dr. Muzaffar Ahmed Choudhury has been appointed as the Chairman of the Commission with the following as Members:

(a) Dr. Sarwar Musrshed;

(b) Dr. Musharraf Hossain;

(d) Dr. Anisuzzaman

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The Commission is now recruiting its own staff from amongst the Bangladesh intellectuals and technicians who have reported to the Government.

The Commissions have been entrusted with the following functions:

(a) To prepare a long-term development Plan for free Bangladesh on the basis of the Awami League manifesto and the objectives set down by the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Awami League High Command;

(b) To prepare a mid-term Plan for reconstruction of the country and its economy. This plan will have to be fitted into the long-term plan; and,

As the problem of reconstruction will be a gigantic one and the Government will be left with no time to tackle these problems, we must be ready with all our plans and programmes right now. Planning, therefore, has assumed a real sense of urgency.

For the immediate reconstruction of the country the following problems will have to be taken care of:

(a) Problem of rehabilitation of refugees;

(b) Problem of accommodation for the displaced persons;

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(d) Restoration of communication;

(e) Restoration of normal facilities, such as, health, electricity, water, hospitals etc.

(f) Commissioning of damaged Ports, Factories, Industrial institutions etc;

(g) Restoration of law and order;

(h) Restoration of educational facilities;

(i) De-mobilisation of the Armed Forces as far as possible and arranging education for the Youth now under arms;

(j) Commencing Bank and Insurance and other financial Institutions according to the avowed policy of the Government for

nationalising them;

(k) Restoration of Trade and commerce; and,

(l) Future trading of the country and so on and so forth.

The Planning Commission is also tendering expert advises on relevant subjects to the Government from time to time.

Co-operation with friendly institutions in matters of Planning:

A series of discussions were held earlier with Mr. D.P. Dhar Recently Dr S. Chakravarty of the Indian planning Commission also came here and held detailed discussions with the Acting President, Prime Minister and the Planning Commission. Various fields of co-operation and mutual assistance in the matter of planning were discussed. Services and facilities have been offered also.

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( ii ) Board of Trade & Commerce:

This has already been covered under the Ministry of: Commerce.

( iii ) Board of Control, Youth & Reception Camp:

This Board is headed by Prof. Yousuf Ali, MNA. According to the re-organised structure the Youth Camp Directorate come under the Ministry of Finance. The prime Minister has delegated the function of looking after the Youth Camps to the Home Minister, who discharges this responsibility with the help and

Reception Camps:

There are now as many as 24 Youth Camps and 112 Reception camps, and (list enclosed). The requirements of the Youth and Reception Camps are now being taken care of by the Board on the basis of the budget approved. Training facilities for the Youth Camp Units have also been organised on a large scale. Regular induction of boys from the Youth Camps into the Guerrilla forces is also being made Essential items for the Youth such as, beddings, woolen garments, blankets etc, are now being taken care of both by the friendly agencies as well as by our own institutional arrangements.

( iv ) Relief & Rehabilitation Committee:

This is headed by the Home Minister and is responsible of looking after the Bangladesh evacuees.

( v ) Evacuee Welfare Board:

This is yet to be organised. Only a Chairman has been appointed.

The following three associations have also been organised by Bangladesh citizens outside the Government periphery:

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(a) Bangladesh Red Cross Society.

(Dr. Ashabul Haque, MPA)

(b) Bangladesh Teachers' Association,

(Mr. Kamaruzzaman, MNA).

(Mr. Aminul Islam, MNA).

(H. I. Imam)

Cabinet Secretary

Govt. of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.