The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Information Ministry placed in Parliament on Sunday its report on the ‘Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Bill, 2014′ with unanimous recommendation y for passage of the bill in an amended form.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee AKM Rahmatullah placed the bill in the House.
Earlier, on April 2 this year, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu introduced the bill for ensuring welfare of the poor, insolvent, sick and wounded journalists and the family members of deceased journalists.
According to the bill, a 13-memmebr board of trustee would be constituted with Information Minister as the chairman of the board while Information Secretary as the vice-chairman.
The trust will be a statutory body and the managing director, to be appointed by the government, will act as member secretary of the trust.
The other members of the trust are Principal Information Officer (PIO);,a DG level officer to be nominated by the Prime Ministers’ Office; a Finance Division official with the rank and status not below joint secretary; director general of Press Institute of Bangladesh; joint secretary (press) from the Ministry of Information; two BFUJ representatives; and three journalists to be nominated by the government.
Narrating the objectives of the bill, the Information Minister had said the trust would provide financial assistance to the poor, insolvent, sick and wounded journalists, stipend for special contribution of the journalists, and award stipend to the meritorious children of journalists.
The trust will have two funds — permanent and current -– and the government will be the main source of funding.
Source: UNBConnect
