Tk 550cr extra fund for jobs for rural poor
Staff Correspondent
The finance adviser yesterday in his budget speech proposed an extra Tk 550 crore to be spent for employment generation in rural areas for the fiscal year 2007-08 through mostly non-government organisations (NGOs) and outside the ministry-based programmes. "Creation of increased employment opportunities is essential for social empowerment," Finance and Planning Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said in his budget speech. "In order to help the marginalised poor suffering from geographical and natural constraints like monga and river erosion, extension of existing micro-credit programmes has been proposed," he said. In the past the government allocated a gross sum of money for the marginalised poor especially the monga victims. Last year, the government allocated Tk 50 crore to facilitate the monga victims. Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation would use a significant part of the allocation through their associate NGOs. The allocation against the credit programmes and funds including other rural employment generating programmes will stand at about nine percent of the total budget, the adviser said. "I expect that this will create employment opportunities in rural economy equivalent to three man-months for 95 lakh families in the next fiscal year," the adviser said.
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