The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The government under its social safety net programme yesterday launched a '100-day employment generation programme' across the country to mitigate the sufferings of the marginalised people.

"One person of a family having five members on an average will get Tk 100 per working day against his labour to be utilised in different types of rural infrastructure projects like canal digging, embankment building, earth filling and pond cleaning," said Food and Disaster Management Adviser Dr MM Sawkat Ali at a press conference at PID Auditorium.

Food and Disaster Management Secretary Molla Wadiduzzaman was present at the press conference and Mohammad Abdul Wazed , project director of the 100-day programme made a presentation on the programme.

Explaining the programme, the Food Adviser said it has been launched in 480 upazilas under 64 districts.

He said that the government had allocated Tk 2000 crore in the national budget for the implementation of the programme and Tk 20 crore will be released everyday.

The fund for the programme has already been released sent and sent to the Upazila administration for distribution it to the marginalised people against their labour.

" The hardcore poor,who are affected by floods, droughts and other natural calamities or Monga are entitled to receive the Tk-100 financial support," he added.

Dr Sawkat Ali said 20 days of a month will be counted as working days and accordingly the programme will continue for five months.

"If any enlisted poor can not be given work immediately under the programme, he will get Tk 40 as daily remuneration for the first 30 days and Tk 50 for the following days, but not more than 100 days," he mentioned.

He made it clear that those who have already been covered by the government's other social safety net programmes will not be eligible for the 100-day programme.

"To avoid any repetition or overlap with any other programmes, we've introduced a different coloured card for this special programme," the Adviser added.

The cards of the 100-day programme will be distributed among a total of 20,00,000 people and the total number of the beneficiaries will be one crore.

Some 19,89,471 people have so far been enlisted their names in the programme and the rest will get enlisted shortly.

Dr. Sawkat said the local administration would run the programme under different projects and local NGOs would be involved in it to monitor the works and money distribution mainly in Rajshahi and Barishal divisions.

Three organisations -- PKSF, Save the Children and Care --will be directly involved in it and they would recommend the names of local NGOs.

The poor people will be selected through open meetings in presence of the representatives of local government bodies and NGOs.

The existing Upazila Disaster Management Committee will conduct the programme while the government will centrally monitor its implementations and outcomes every month.

A central steering committee, headed by the Food and Disaster Management Secretary, has been formed to oversee the overall activities under the 100-day programme.