Job seekers claiming discrimination in the 45th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination staged a human chain, demanding correction of repeat cadre errors and publication of supplementary results.
On Thursday afternoon, protesters, who described themselves as victims of unfair treatment, gathered at at Dhaka University's (DU) Raju Sculpture, with three key demands addressing what they called inconsistent practices across different BCS batches.
Sharmin, a 45th BCS candidate, said that they were forced to protest after facing discrimination despite appearing for exams according to the 2022 notification. "BCS authorities behave differently at different times. Clear discrimination is visible in the conduct and decisions of the 40th, 43rd, 44th, 45th and 46th BCS," she said.
She noted that the 40th BCS received special benefits including foreign postings, while the 44th BCS published supplementary results three times and recommended over 4,000 non-cadre positions. "But the 45th BCS has been treated completely differently and unfairly," Sharmin added.
Ekramul Haque, another 45th BCS candidate, said authorities had repeatedly assured them that "no one from the 45th BCS will return empty-handed" at various seminars. "But after the results were published, we saw a completely opposite picture," he said.
He criticised the withdrawal of 457 primary school head teacher positions during the ongoing non-cadre process as unjustified.
"Where the 44th BCS was given supplementary results three times, the 45th BCS is not being given even once-such a decision is unacceptable," Haque said.
Protesters' three demands include republishing 45th BCS results after correcting repeat errors, immediately restoring the 457 withdrawn posts, and stopping recommendations for non-cadre positions for those already recommended for cadre posts.
Ekramul warned that if the demands are not met quickly, they would be forced to lay siege to the Public Service Commission office.
