The government is yet to decide on what actions it would take to put an end to a long-standing conflict between the civil administration and the police department which has been hindering coordination in various state activities for the last 38 years.
Civil servants have long been stating that police officials generally ignore directives or requests of the administration and repeatedly violate the rules of business by calling coordination meetings on various issues on their own.
Sources in the administration told the Dhaka Tribune that the conflict between the two major arms of the state intensified after the government separated the administration from the judiciary, dissolving magistracy powers of civil servants.
Although the conflict existed as an open secret following the separation, several incidents of clashes and conflicts between the two departments in recent times had brought the issue out in the open.
In June this year, Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shahabuddin Khan filed a complaint with the cabinet division against the district's Superintendent of Police (SP) Nazrul Islam for violating rules of business by calling a coordination meeting on law and order for Ramadan at his office.
As per the rules of business, only deputy commissioners are authorised to call such meetings as head of the district administration. However, SP Nazrul called a coordination meeting without informing the DC.
Later, the deputy commissioner called another meeting on June 26 and invited the SP to join the discussions. But the meeting did not find the presence of the police superintendent or any other representative from the police department.
Earlier in March, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Md Emdad of Louhajang police station under Munshiganj district assaulted Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) ATM Mahbub-ul-Karim of Gazaria upazila following a disagreement over the distribution of polling instruments and papers during the upazila polls.
Following the incident, the cabinet division asked the home ministry to take action against ASI Emdad. However, the home ministry order against Emdad was allegedly ignored by local police high-ups.
Deputy commissioners have also alleged that district police authorities refuse to provide police forces for any operation or mobile court drives citing a shortage in manpower.
During the Deputy Commissioner’s Conference held in July, DCs also proposed formation of a separate police unit under the district administration to help them execute their duties easily.
When asked, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the Dhaka Tribune last month that the issue was not a major problem and initiatives have been taken to solve the problem in a mutually acceptable way.
State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique took a different view of the conflict.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune last week, Ismat said: “The government has nothing here as this problem was created during Ziaur Rahman’s military rule. Zia recruited several retired army officers as police superintendents during his tenure and they never cared about the civil bureaucrats.
“It has been like this for the last 38 years. Previously, police had to follow orders from DC's because civil servants had magistracy power. But the police administration has started to consider themselves as independent after the separation of the judiciary from administration.
“The government is planning to settle this problem by bringing field level police administration under the divisional commissioners. The deputy inspectors general of different ranges would also be brought under the commissioners. This may help reduce some of the trouble,” she added.
Police high-ups rejected the allegations of a departmental conflict and claimed that as public servants there was no scope for conflicts between the civil administration and the police.
“There is no scope for conflict between the administration and the police. If there is any allegation, we will place the issue before the authorities concerned and look for a mutual solution to the problem,” Assistant Inspector General of Police Headquarters Mohammad Jallaluddin told the Dhaka Tribune.
