Though over a week has passed since the new government sworn in, many ministries are yet to update the profiles of their newly elected ministers and state ministers on their respective websites, according to Dhaka Tribune findings.
At least 15 ministry websites out of the total 40 ministries were yet to update the profile of their designated minister or state minister as of yesterday. Some of the websites still showed the previous minister’s profile, while many did not have the field for profiles of state ministers.
On January 12, a 49 member cabinet led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sworn in among which 29 were ministers, 17 were state ministers and two were deputy ministers.
After visiting all the websites, it was found that profiles of ministers were not uploaded in Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Land, Ministry of Social Welfare and Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs websites.
The website of religious affairs ministry showed the profile of Mujibul Haque as its minister, the law ministry showed Barrister Shafique Ahmed, the planning ministry showed Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) AK Khandker and the land ministry showed Amir Hossain Amu as its minister.
On the other hand, Ministry of Social Welfare is yet to create any field for its new minister Syed Mohsin Ali’s profile.
The ministry’s website only had the profile of Promod Mankin, the state minister.
Meanwhile, the food ministry which was created splitting Ministry of Food and Disaster Management on September 15, 2012, is yet to start a website. Similarly, the railway ministry also do not have a website though it was created on December 4, 2011, separating from the Ministry of Communications.
Many ministry websites are yet to initiate a designated place even for the state minister’s profile. The textiles and jute ministry, finance ministry, fisheries and livestock ministry, land ministry, primary and mass education ministry and information ministry do not have any option for the profile of state ministers till date. These are the ministries where no state minister was designated during the previous tenure of the ruling Awami League – from 2008 to 2013.
No profiles were also found at the website of Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs ministry and on the site of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, clicking on the minister’s profile field prompted the message “The page is under-construction.” The field for the ministry’s deputy minister was also not found.
Moreover, when the profile of the designated minister for home ministry was searched, the page showed an error message saying “Page not found.”
On the other hand, the website of Bangladesh Parliament has also not yet updated the list of newly elected MP’s. The fields “Members of Parliament” and “Contact a MP” on the website gives information on the MP’s of the ninth parliament.