The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The monthly allowance for senior citizens should be increased to Tk 500, speakers demanded in a pre-budget discussion meeting yesterday.

They called for giving the elder's family priority in safety-net programme and subsidy in the payment of utility service charges like gas, water, electricity and tax. Some 17 lakh elderly people are now getting an allowance of Tk 220 each per month from the Government.

The speakers also pleaded for providing free medical service in public hospital, reducing transport fare to half for aged people and facilitating accommodation especially, for the lone older people.

Realising the Rights of Older People (RROP) and Resource Integration Centre (RIC) jointly organised the meeting on "National Budget 2008-09 and the Expectation of Older People" at the National Press Club.

Presided over by Abul Hasseb Khan, Director of the RIC, the meeting was attended, among others, by Dr Shah Md Keramat Ali, member of Forum for the Right of Elder (FRE) and by Dilara Zaman, prominent drama artiste. Dr Sharefa Begum, researcher of the BIDS, presented keynote paper in the programme.

"If the Government pays Tk 500 per month to 5.13 million older people, the total amount will be Tk 30.90 billion which is 0.66 per cent and 5.9 per cent of GDP and Revenue Income respectively of 2006-07, said Sharefa Begum.

Hasseb Khan said development is not possible without the experience of the aged people. We could use their experience in public and private sectors. "For that we must ensure a better life style for them," he said.

Hasseb Khan further said the Government should allocate money for the institutions or NGOs who had been serving the older people.

Dilara Zaman said aged people are our resource. "I think," she said, "The proposed Tk 500 per month allowance is not enough for them and should be increased to Tk 1000 or more."