The government has a plan to revitalise the livestock sector by enhancing services at the grass root level for creating employment opportunities and improving quality of life of the rural hardcore poor.
Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Abdul Latif Biswas told a national seminar on the “Role of livestock in reducing ultra poverty in Bangladesh,” organised by the Brac Advocacy Unit at a hotel here yesterday.
The minister said “as per directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we have already finalised an organogram for increasing manpower at the union level to reach services of the livestock department to the doorstep of the rural poor.”
He said the agriculture sector is working successfully in the country as the sector has a huge manpower at the union level while the livestock department is working at the thana level.
Secretary of the ministry of fisheries and livestock Uzzal Bikash Datta inaugurated the seminar chaired by director of Gender Justice and Diversity and Advocacy, Brac Shipa Hafiza..
Terming the livestock sector as the tool for poverty alleviation, the minister said there was no promotion in the department for the last 13 years as a good number of cases was pending with the high court. But all the problems were resolved by the present government and cleared the way for promotion .
Director General of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) Mohammad Ashraf Ali and director (news) of a private television channel Shaikh Siraj attended as special guests. Professor M Hafizur Rahman of Bangladesh Agricultural University presented the keynote paper at the seminar.
The government has given permission to the ministry for recruiting manpower in the second, third and fourth class categories, said the minister adding that “as per the decision of the government we will soon full up the vacant posts of the non-gazetted officials in the department.”
Criticising the role of BNP-Jamaat government in the name of poverty alleviation, Latif Biswas said they misused crores of taka in the name of introducing goat- rearing project.