Nearly a thousand officials and employees of the Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) held a human chain  and press conference recently  to protest against unlimited arbitrariness, nepotism, agreements against the country interests,  conspiracy to extend their service period by creating artificial slowdown in the project works  and  establishing a dictatorship by keeping the posts of PD-MD-SD-HR-Admin-Accounts  in his hands.

 

Employees of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Limited (NPCBL) addressed these programs organized by Senior Assistant Manager Fahim Shahriar Tuhin, Rubel Hossain, Parvez Ahmed, Zahidul Islam, Halim Sarkar and Ramzan Ali. 

 

The speakers complained that the current Project Director of RNPP and Managing Director of NPPCBL Dr. Jahedul Hasan is facing extreme anger among the officials and employees over allegations of serious irregularities, extreme incompetence, corruption, administrative arbitrariness and institutional fascism in the context of the extreme inefficiency, administrative arbitrariness, institutional dictatorship, corruption and irregularities-mismanagement of the Managing Director NPPCB. 

 

 The officers and employees of NPCBL at all levels have always been vocal against the
arbitrariness of this autocratic, incompetent, incompetent MD  and in continuation of this, they have been observing a sit-in
program for the past nine days (April 28 to May 6). 

 

 

Dr. Jahedul Hasan has currently occupied several very important posts. He has occupied all the important posts including the RNPP Construction Project Director and the Operating Organization NPCBL, Managing Director, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Finance and Administrative Officer and Station Director, which is unprecedented in the case of a power plant operating company. He does not have any educational qualifications or previous experience to fulfill the responsibilities of all these posts. In an attempt to expand his authority, without making any effort or care to appoint manpower to all these posts, he has developed a kind of institutional fascism in the organization instead of systematic and participatory management.

Although NPCBL was formed almost a decade ago, no service rules have been published till date. As a result, there is no organogram, clear
division of responsibilities, promotion, rather there is a bunch of grade and salary discrimination and the officers and employees are deprived of other basic facilities. Despite depositing money every month in the Central Pension Fund (CPF) for years, no officer has been informed of his CPF account number, and this money has not even been invested anywhere. 

 

Due to the incompetence of an incompetent person who has no clear knowledge of the company law of Bangladesh, the future of thousands of talented officers and employees is under threat today. Mor than a decade has passed However, the MD still has no concern for ensuring basic things like 
minimum seating arrangements, toilets, health and safety measures for about 1,500 out of about 1,800 officials and employees of the GHCC. As
a result, the officials and employees are performing their duties in extreme suffering every day, especially the women officials and employees. His extremely inhumane behavior can be seen by closing the only canteen suitable for Bengalis in the project, behind which there are allegations of tender trading. Since taking charge, he has been showing extreme arbitrariness by not issuing passports to officials for any urgent Issue, including medical emergencies. He has stopped the opportunity to perform the holy Umrah, and travel to any pilgrimage site for Hindus.

The officials and employees responsible for the construction, commissioning and operation of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, as an international standard, highly sensitive and strategically important project, have repeatedly accused Dr. We have been discussing various discriminations with Dr. Jahedul Hasan, including the provision of service rules, uniqueness as an institution. In view of various humanitarian and logical demands, on September 5, 2024, Dr. Jahedul Hasan gave a written assurance of implementation, but it has not been implemented so far. Rather, since then, he has been taking various unreasonable, inhuman punitive measures against the officials.  Whenever the MD tries to speak any fair word, he is fired, asked to leave the job. Many who have received training from Russia are being forced to leave their jobs only because of all these mismanagement by him. It is worth noting that recently, 100+ of our colleagues from NPCBL have been relieved from their jobs. However, even after leaving the job, no CPF, gratuity, experience certificate, NOC have been given to those officials and employees. Being the Managing Director of NPCBL and the Project Director of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project, he has, by his sole power, taken away the access of 25+ officials in stages since last August and the latest on April 29, nine officials to the project and, showing an extremely low mentality, he has placed the entire responsibility for this on the beloved Bangladesh Army of Bangladesh. The crime of the officials who took away the access was only to speak against his arbitrariness, to portray his mismanagement,incompetence, and conspiracy. Even for asking about work press safety, his protection/insurance in case of death/injury while working, a senior
official was recently illegally given a show cause notice and later his attachment from the project was cancelled, although the issues he asked were fully ensured by the existing labor laws in Bangladesh, the International Labor Organization, and the safety of nuclear power plants in all places.

Recently, when the Chief Engineer of the site, Sir Mr. Hasmat Ali, took the initiative to talk about all these mismanagement and inconsistencies and to form a Welfare Association with the officers and employees, MD Dr. Zahidul Hasan took him to Dhaka several times with show cause and stand release, which has made the officers and employees of the company extremely dissatisfied. At the same time, for speaking against his tyranny, he has been continuously issuing stand releases/warnings/show cause notices to about 300+ officers including many other senior officers, giving completely false, fabricated, baseless reasons. He is being assisted in these works by a few unethical and privileged officers. For the successful operation and maintenance of the Rooppur project, 1400 skilled manpower was trained in Russia at   government expense following the instructions of the OAU. But Dr. Jahedul Hasan is making a vile plot to sign a long-term operation and maintenance agreement with Russia by showing this skilled manpower as incompetent and incompetent, which he has repeatedly said in his
own words. At the same time, although the talented, smart, trained skilled manpower of NPCBL is involved in all the work including the  construction, commissioning, and operation of this power plant, recently the people of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) have been misleading and lying in various ways. It is worth noting that the unwanted interference of the BAEC officials has been hindering NPCBL from working independently in various ways. The main reason for this unwanted interference taking an extreme form is that as the Managing Director of NPCBL, the Project Director of Rooppur Power Plant has always been given additional responsibilities. He had established sole authority in the contract management of the Rooppur project, so that there was no accountability. From 2010 to 2024, he took the opportunity to gain personal benefits by traveling abroad 62 times and deliberately kept the entire management under his control without involving anyone else. He even gave an officer of the Atomic Energy Commission, who was considered his relative, the opportunity to travel abroad repeatedly despite his lack of qualifications. All this shows his abuse of power and nepotism. There are also allegations of corruption against him, which demand investigation. On his instructions, everyone was intimidated by giving office orders not to speak out against the fascist Hasina during the
July Movement. In this case, it is worth noting that he was appointed as the project director during the previous fascist government and had been serving as the deputy project director for a long time before that. The current government has been constructively called upon to get rid of all these institutional dictatorships, mismanagement or administrative arbitrariness. In the above situation, the officers and employees of all levels of the GHEC strongly demand that Dr. Jahedul Hasan be removed from the post of Managing Director immediately. If the allegations against him are proven through investigation, appropriate departmental and legal action should be taken against him. At the same time, necessary structural reforms should be taken to make the GHIC an effective, independent, transparent and participatory institution. A good governance-based, safe and work-friendly environment should be created by ensuring round-the-clock and effective monitoring at every level of the Rooppur project. A qualified, skilled person with experience in working in power plants in Bangladesh should be permanently
appointed as the Managing Director (MD). The present government is being constructively called upon to free itself from all these institutional dictatorships, mismanagement or administrative arbitrariness. In the above situation, the officers and employees of the GHIC at all levels strongly demand that Dr. Jahedul Hasan be immediately removed from the post of Managing Director. If the allegations against him are proven through investigation, appropriate departmental and legal action should be taken against him. At the same time, necessary structural reforms should be taken to make the GHIC an effective, independent, transparent and participatory institution. A good governance-based, safe and work-friendly environment should be created by ensuring round-the-clock and effective monitoring at every level of the Rooppur project. A qualified, skilled person with experience in working in power plants in Bangladesh should be permanently appointed as the Managing Director (MD). We want qualified people, not incompetent MDs. Let institutional fascism end. Let NPCBL be free.Let YAO unwanted interference stop. Let NPCBL be independent. 

 

To find out about these allegations made in the press conference and human chain, the mobile phone of NPCBL Managing Director and Rooppur
Nuclear Power Plant Project Project Director Dr. Jahedul Hasan was not available despite multiple calls. To find out the same reason, the mobile
phone of the project site in-charge Ruhul Quddus was called repeatedly, but was not received.