Bangladesh Gazette, The

Bangladesh Gazette, The a regular government publication in which public service appointments, postings, and administrative orders are announced. In addition, this gazette often contains service rules and important government decisions issued by various ministries/divisions. It is published every Thursday under the title of The Bangladesh Gazette. The government also publishes occasional supplementary issues known as The Bangladesh Gazette, Extraordinary. Historical antecedents of The Bangladesh Gazette can be traced back to similar documents published during British rule in India. One of the earliest available references goes back to 29 March 1787 which relates to the removal and appointment of the district collectors in the Bengal Presidency, published in the calcutta gazette.

On 15 August 1947, the Government of East Bengal published a gazette titled The Dacca Gazette, Extraordinary. It contained, among other things, an important notification relating to the appointment of His Excellency Sir Frederick Bourne as the first Governor of the Province of East Bengal. However, after the liberation of the country, it was on 7 December 1973 that the format of the publication of the Bangladesh Gazette was finalised. The Office Memorandum issued on the same date by the Establishment Division stated that prior to liberation two gazettes, one of the then central government and the other of the then provincial government, used to be published and had separate arrangements regarding contents, size, imprint line, and so on. It was further stated that with the emergence of Bangladesh it became necessary to rearrange printing of the Bangladesh Gazette to suit the needs of a newly formed national government. Thus, The Dacca Gazette was replaced by The Bangladesh Gazette.

Each issue of The Bangladesh Gazette generally published contains several parts. Part I contains statutory notifications, rules and orders issued by all ministries/divisions and their attached departments and subordinate offices, including those of the Supreme Court. Part II contains notifications regarding such matters as appointments, promotions, transfers of the Class I civil officers, whereas Part III includes notifications issued by the Ministry of Defence. Part IV contains notifications issued by the Patent Office. Part V reprints Acts as well as the drafts of Bills in the jatiya sangsad. Part VI contains notifications issued by the Supreme Court, the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and the Bangladesh Public Service Commission, including those of the various attached departments and subordinate offices. Part VII contains quasi-statutory notifications issued by the minor administrative offices as well as the miscellaneous notifications not included in any of the other parts. Lastly, Part VIII contains advertisements and notices issued by private individuals and corporations on payment.

The issues of the extraordinary gazettes published occasionally contain: (i) weekly statistics of reported attacks and deaths from cholera, smallpox, plague and other infectious diseases in the districts and towns; (ii) statements showing births, and deaths from principal diseases in towns with a population of 30,000 or more in various districts; (iii) monthly weather and crop reports; (iv) quarterly weather and crop reports; (v) annual estimates of arahar and lentil (pulse) and other rabi cereals. Notifications of the same day issued in The Bangladesh Gazette (Extraordinary) are normally printed on both pages of each sheet of the gazette in alphabetical order, and not on isolated sheets.

No authority below the status of an assistant secretary in a ministry/division or an officer of equivalent rank in an attached department is authorised to sign and issue a notification for publication in The Bangladesh Gazette, whereas only an authority not below the status of a deputy secretary of a ministry/division is authorised to sign and issue a notification for inclusion in an issue of The Bangladesh Gazette, Extraordinary. The issues of The Bangladesh Gazette as well as those of the Extraordinary Gazette are considered most valuable public documents, and are available to the general public on payment. [AMM Shawkat Ali]