State honorariums for 256,074 religious figures

The government has launched a scheme to pay state honorariums to 256,074 religious figures serving at 86,709 places of worship nationwide, Prime Minister's Information and Broadcasting Adviser Dr Zahed Ur Rahman announced on Tuesday.

Briefing reporters at the Secretariat, Zahed said the programme would be extended progressively to 347,539 religious institutions over the next four fiscal years, with the government aiming to complete the rollout within three years of its current term. The initial phase encompasses 82,656 mosques, 3,000 temples, 752 Buddhist monasteries and 301 churches. Accordingly, imams will receive Tk 5,000, muezzins Tk 3,000 and khadims Tk 2,000, while Hindu priests and their attendants will be paid Tk 5,000 and Tk 3,000 respectively. Buddhist monastery heads and their deputies, as well as priests and assistant priests, will receive Tk 5,000 and Tk 3,000 respectively, together with annual festival allowances. Meanwhile, amid stubborn inflation, the government has resolved to double the monthly Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) allocation for poor and vulnerable people from 10kg to 20kg of rice.

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Furthermore, an Employment Exchange Centre is due to open in December to connect jobseekers with vacancies, with job and career fairs at colleges and universities feeding a central database of applicants. A parallel database will monitor industrial demand for labour, thereby forging a direct link between employers and prospective employees. Zahed also disclosed that the first consignment of fuel for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant reached Dhaka from Russia on October 2. In addition, the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection carried out 984 drives in September, fining 1,885 establishments a total of Tk18.1 million, while 29.19 tonnes of native fish fry were released into open and institutional water bodies this week. Environmental authorities filed 112 cases and levied Tk 13.54 million in fines for pollution, and roughly 434,000 workers secured overseas jobs over the past seven months.