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Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury has asked the officials to change the way they work or face consequences.
“The entire land ministry should be on the same page with me,” he said on Sunday at a workshop on ‘e-mutation’ of land in Dhaka.
“If you don’t feel comfortable with that, the decision is yours,” he asserted, apparently asking them to leave.
Chowdhury acknowledged that the land department faces an image crisis and that his 90-day work plan to address some of the key issues includes e-mutation.
Mutation is the change of land ownership from one person to another when it is sold or transferred. But people have to pay bribe for this basic job.
The land ministry has introduced an online mutation system as part of the government’s ‘digital Bangladesh’ slogan to prevent corruption.
The minister said he keeps tabs on who is doing what at the field level, reports bdnews24.com.
“I am open. Everyone can phone me. I have information on our officers also. Nobody will be spared.”
Chowdhury said he also set up a monitoring cell.
“You are being monitored constantly. I’ll also reward you for your good work,” he said.
“We have to change our mindset to brighten the image of our department.”
"In Bangladesh, 85 per cent of cases are related to land. We are trying to find ways how to get rid of that," he said.
Chowdhury was the state minister of the land ministry during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s last cabinet.
After the December 30 election, when most of the previous ministers lost their portfolio, he was one of the few who got promotion and became full minister.
On Jan 12, he asked employees of his ministry to submit their wealth statements by Feb 28.
A total of 17,208 employees have submitted their information. The rest are either suspended or on holiday, the ministry said in a statement.