The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

More than a million ultra poor people living in geographically disadvantaged areas are set to come under a special programme that targets to ensure food security and employment for the poorest during five months of 'seasonal poverty' every year.

Food and Disaster Management Ministry sources said they have taken a special programme to provide support to 11.2 lakh poor with special focus in 80 upazilas across the country, where more than 40 percent still live on less than a dollar a day.

The programme starts formally on a pilot basis on October 15 in 16 districts, which are hit by cyclone Aila and prone to Monga, a Bangla term that refers to the yearly cyclical phenomenon of poverty and hunger in Bangladesh. It is also called "Mora Kartik," which means "months of food crisis and disaster".

The initially targeted districts are: Lakkhipur, Noakhali, Chittagong, Barguna, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Bhola, Barisal, Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat. Each of the beneficiaries would get Taka 100 per day for their work.

"The finance ministry has already earmarked Taka 1,120 crore for the programme," said an official of the ministry, adding the programme would be a modified one but a contrast extension of the previous project, which had reached two million poor during last fiscal at en expenditure of Taka 920 crore.

The programme has helped generate rural employment, but performed poor in developing rural infrastructure in 2008-'09 due to lack of clear guidelines in policy formulation and project implementation, according to an internal report of the food ministry.

A good number of poor people suffer from seasonal unemployment routinely twice in every year-September-November and March- April-in the char and haor areas, river banks as well as coastal and offshore islands. These poor people pass months without adequate food to eat as they have little or no purchasing power during five months of every year.

Ministry sources said the targeted people will be involved in re-excavation of ponds and canals, construction of roads, dikes and embankments, earth filling for eidgah, graveyard and cremation center as well as building earthen-fort beside cyclone shelters to protect livestock during cyclones.

Food ministry sources said the government has already taken a number of steps to widen the social safety net with expansion of the vulnerable group feeding (VGF) cards twice to 90 lakh from 56 lakh and 72 lakh in eight months of its tenure. The government has also plans to expand the VGF beneficiaries further, said the ministry.

Food Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzak at a biennial conference of project implementation officers (PIOs) in capital Dhaka on Saturday warned that the government would not tolerate any anomalies in the distribution of food among the real target groups.

"Departmental actions would be taken against you (PIOs) if you fail to perform your duties properly, which include ensuring fairness in distribution of food among the real poor," the minister was quoted as saying in the conference held at the Diploma Engineers Institute at Kakrail in the city.

He said steps have been taken to strengthen the monitoring system of the programme and he himself would supervise it. Four deputy secretaries have been attached to the programme to monitor the distribution process at the field level, while a joint secretary will coordinate the overall programme, said the minister.

Dr Abdur Razzak also said that he didn't want to see the programme was implemented in line with the first phase of it under the 100-day programme of the immediate past Caretaker Government, when massive irregularities were reported in media about the programme.