A group is desperate to seize the property of the century-old GPO (General Post Office) building located in the capital's 'Zero Point' area. They are trying to destroy this heritage building of the Postal Department, which is associated with people's names, identities, emotions and feelings. As part of this, a proposal has been made to construct an extension building of the Secretariat in its place.
Claiming that the building is 'abandoned and unused', the workers and employees of the Postmaster General (East) Chattogram postal officers have strongly demanded cancellation of the proposal to demolish the building by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works.
Recently, the officers and employees of the Postmaster General (East) Chattogram office held a protest rally after office hours at the Postmaster General (East) office of Chattogram.
The protest rally was attended by Postmaster General Md. Saleh Ahamed, Deputy Postmaster General Muhammad Abdullah, Assistant Engineer Mehdi Hasan Khan and Office Super Mujibur Rahman, along with officials and employees of the Eastern Region of the Postal Department.
According to the Postmaster General's office, this building was established in 1962 with the aim of delivering postal services to the doorsteps of the people, currently houses 24 operational units of the postal department. Thousands of people use postal services from here every day. It is one of the important installations listed in the country's KPI (Key Point Installation).
Like in the past, this century-old installation of the Postal Department, which is associated with people's names, identities, emotions, happiness and sorrows, has once again caught the attention of vested interests. This is to devour this property of the postal department that is several centuries old. As part of this, a proposal has been made to construct an extension building of the Secretariat in the place of the building without informing the postal department. As a result, all the postal department officials and employees in the eastern part of the country have expressed deep concern over the plan to demolish the GPO building. Thousands of postal department officials and employees in this region have been deeply disappointed by the recent proposal to demolish the building from the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, claiming that it is 'abandoned and unused'.
There have been various conspiracies before to occupy the Dhaka GPO building. State Minister Junaid Ahmed Palak, who was in charge during the previous government, played a leading role in the conspiracy to build a beautiful garden in the name of Sheikh Mujib and Sheikh Russell on the spacious site of this building.
Even after the change in the political landscape of the country on August 5, vested interests have not stopped. Where the entire secretariat is supposed to be moved elsewhere, they are trying to expand it by keeping the secretariat in the existing place. The said vested interests are trying to destroy the ancient and traditional institutions like Dhaka GPO and tarnish the image of the interim government.
The officials and employees of the eastern region of the Postal Department said that before taking such important decisions in the future, they should definitely discuss and get consent from the concerned department. So that one department of the government does not disrupt the activities of another department. They will consider any attempt to demolish the building as a direct blow to the country's postal service.
The GPO building is not just an establishment - it is a junction for delivering postal services across the country, a feeling, a tradition and a part of the soul of thousands of officials and employees. Therefore, they have strongly demanded that this conspiratorial plan be immediately canceled and policy steps be taken to prevent such initiatives in the future.
They said that this proposal must be canceled immediately. Before taking any such decision in the future, full discussion and consent with the Postal Department must be made mandatory.
It is known that during the previous government's tenure, there was an attempt to seize the land of the building. At that time, the controversial Director General Sudhanshu Shekhar Bhadra, accused of corruption, presented a project worth several hundred crores of taka on the land of the GPO building. He proposed to build a beautiful garden in the name of Sheikh Mujib and Sheikh Russell. But the attempt failed when SS Bhadra was sent into compulsory retirement on charges of widespread corruption.
