Govt is ready for donations

The government yesterday decided to open two bank accounts to collect "voluntary contributions" from the public in its efforts to construct the Padma bridge with the country's own funds.
The accounts, one for local currency and the other for foreign currency, will be opened so that individuals can easily deposit their contribution to the project from anywhere in the world.

The move will also prevent possible "extortion" in the name of collecting money for the construction work.
The decisions were made at the cabinet meeting where ministers said they would each give their one month's salaries to the fund.
In addition, each of the 38 ministries would make separate contributions to the fund, which would be larger than the individual contributions of the 52 ministers, state ministers and advisers to the prime minister.
Earlier, lawmakers of the Awami League and its alliance partners in parliament said they too would give their one month's salaries. The AL and its allies have 309 lawmakers.
Meanwhile, all the 73 members of the AL Central Working Committee at a meeting at Gono Bhaban last night promised to give at least Tk 1 lakh each for the project. AL will also donate Tk 10 lakh from its own fund, meeting sources told The Daily Star.
Yesterday's cabinet decision came a week after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in parliament that the government would build the 6.2km bridge with its own money and construction would begin in the current fiscal year.
Her comment followed the World Bank decision to cancel its $1.2 billion loan that it had pledged for the biggest infrastructure project in Bangladesh. The WB pulled out of the project citing "corruption conspiracy" in the $2.9 billion project.
The cabinet meeting yesterday also formed the "Padma Bridge Fund" where all the money collected from different sources, including budgetary allocation, will be deposited.
Personally, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will receive donations from well-off people and business communities once a week.
At the cabinet meeting, a number of ministers informed Hasina that government officials and employees also wanted to give a month's salary to the fund.
Responding to the proposal, the prime minister said it would be a big burden for the families of the officials and employees. If they still wanted to contribute, they could give their one day's salary every month for 30 months.
According to the decisions reached at the meeting, the finance secretary would formulate guidelines for the management of the fund, including the mode of operations of the accounts and in which banks those would be opened, sources said.
The government will brief the media on the matter after the prime minister's approval of the guidelines.
Talking to journalists after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the government had decided to open the accounts after having seen a huge response from the public to voluntarily contribute to the Padma bridge fund.
MUHITH'S BRIEFING
On constructing the Padma bridge with government funds, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the government was originally to finance $600 million in the project but the project's cost would go up due to the delay.
He said the government was going to formulate a new financial structure for implementing the bridge project.
Letters have been sent to the development partners to this end, the minister told reporters at his secretariat office after a meeting with Kanayo F Nwanze, president of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“Let us see what they can do afresh and what we can do now,” he said.
Earlier at the cabinet meeting, he said a large number of projects worth $16 billion of donor's money were being implemented under various ministries. Forty-one of the projects are WB-funded.
The minister added the WB was still a major development partner of Bangladesh, and requested his cabinet colleagues not to make any comment that might harm the project.