Social Safety Net Programmes
FF honorarium to go up by Tk 5,000
The monthly honorarium for freedom fighters will be raised to Tk 10,000 from the current level of Tk 5,000, Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed in his budget for the 2015-16 fiscal yesterday. The Finance Minister has proposed an allocation of Tk 16,955 crore for Social Safety Net Programmes (SSNPs) in the budget. The amount is is 5.7 per cent of the total budget of Tk 2,95,100 crore. We are implementing multifarious programmes for the welfare and rehabilitation of the freedom fighters and their family members. I am happy to propose the increase of monthly allowance to Tk 10,000 from Tk 5,000 for the freedom fighters, the Finance Minister said. He further said that houses were being constructed for the landless and insolvent freedom fighters. Muktijodhdha Complexes are under construction in all districts and upazilas of the country, he informed the House.
The Finance Minister observed in his speech that despite substantial progress in poverty alleviation, a considerable portion of the population still lives below the poverty line. The FM said the government will ensure rational and target oriented expansion of social safety net programmes in order to fully eradicate poverty from the country.
In this regard, we are formulating a Social Safety Net Strategy Paper. Moreover, we are going to implement a project titled Strengthening Public Financial Management for Social Protection shortly to increase the effectiveness and accountability of the social safety net programmes, he said. Priority will be given to education, health and family welfare and science and technology in this regard.
Documents further show that the coverage of some social protection programmes and allowances have also been hiked in the proposed budget. Some new programmes such as construction of houses for accommodating the cleaning staff of Dhaka city corporations have also been included in the SSNPs.
