Govt to reach out to more jobless youths

The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal for expansion of "The National Service Programme" to 64 more upazilas of the country, including four upazilas of the three hill districts, in a bid to create more job opportunities for youths.

The programme will start in May 2017 under the 5th, 6th and 7th phases to 64 poverty-prone upazilas, including two of Khagrachhari and one each from Bandarban and Rangamati.

The approval was made at the weekly cabinet meeting, held at Bangladesh Secretariat, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said under the programme, educated unemployed youths would be given training for three months, and they would get Tk 100 daily during the training period; after the training, the youths would get jobs in various government offices for two years and get Tk 200 per day.

The government will have to spend about Tk 544.9 crore for the programme.

Shafiul Alam said that in the first phase, 56,801 youths were trained in 19 upazilas of Kurigram, Gopalganj and Barguna, while some 56,054 of them got jobs under the programme.

Besides, in the second, third and fourth phases, 1,11,116 youths from 37 upazilas were trained, and of them, 1,08,782 youths got jobs for two years.

The prime minister inaugurated the National Service Programme in Kurigram on March 6, 2010, as part of fulfilling her election pledge to create employment for every house.

PALLI SANCHAY BANK

The cabinet yesterday also gave the final approval to the draft "Palli Sanchay Bank (amendment) Ordinance, 2016" withdrawing the time bar for merging the "One House One Farm Project" with the Palli Sanchay Bank.

The cabinet secretary said Palli Sanchay Bank was related to the “One House One Farm Project” as the bank was established from this project in 2014.

He said when the government would fix the fresh timeframe, the One House One Farm Project would be merged with the bank.

NCTB BILL & AGRI POLICY

Shafiul Alam also said the cabinet approved the draft “National Curriculum and Textbooks Board Law, 2016", drafted in Bangla, and bringing some changes in the existing ordinance of 1983.

According to Section 2 (Cha) of the proposed new law, a textbook is defined as any textbook from the primary level to class XII.

The meeting also endorsed the draft “National Organic Agriculture Policy", aimed at promoting use of "organic and balanced" fertilisers.

He said the policy focuses on increasing use of "organic and balanced" fertilisers to compensate for erosion and reduction of fertility of land due to use of chemical fertilisers.

The cabinet secretary said there was a guideline in the policy to check any negative impact on the quality of the soil, agriculture and environment.

Shafiul Alam said the cabinet also approved the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Establishment of the BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection to be signed by the member states of BIMSTEC.

The cabinet adopted a condolence motion at the death of National Professor Dr MR Khan alongside at the deaths of Dr Fazlul Azim and Dr Abul Kashem.