CA delegates his 21 responsibilities to home secretary
Star Report
Chief Adviser Fakruddin Ahmed delegated 21 financial and administrative powers to the home secretary in a bid to speed up his ministerial activities.The chief adviser, who holds the portfolio of the ministry of home affairs, handed over the powers by an office order making it effective from January 11, said a home ministry official. Maintaining all formalities under the existing rules, the home secretary now can give approval of land acquisition for development works of departments and directorates under the home ministry. He can also give approval for creating temporary posts and reserving and regularising the posts. He can now exercise the power of approving contracts for all development works costing up to Tk 10 crore, the official noted. The home secretary can approve the licences for production and import of acid under section 16(1) of Acid Control Act 2002 and permit the courts to take into account the cases and crimes under various sections of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) 1898. The secretary can also allow Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) to investigate cases under section 6(B) of The Armed Police Battalion Ordinance 1979, the official said, adding that he can also approve the Internet connections, maintaining the formalities. The home secretary can also approve repatriation of stranded foreigners including the Rohingya refugees and import of passport books. The home secretary is now empowered to allow the children to travel to the foreign countries under the custody of their guardians. From the countries that are blacklisted for visas, one or more can be excluded while others can be included into the blacklist. This task will be done by the top home ministry official who can also blacklist foreigners or withdraw the names from the blacklist. He can approve the application of citizenship of any foreigners as well. The secretary can set up, if necessary, new immigration check posts and transfer or withdraw the check posts already existing. The chief adviser empowered the secretary with ordering detention, extension and cancellation of detention, and even amendment of detention and release the persons detained temporarily under the Special Powers Act 1974.
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