The parliamentary standing committee report on “Bangladesh journalists welfare trust bill, 2014′ was placed in the Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday with a recommendation for passage of the bill in an amended form. Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Ministry A.K.M Rahmatullah placed the bill in the House. Earlier, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu introduced the bill on April 2 this year for ensuring welfare of the poor, insolvent, sick and wounded journalist and family members of the 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 the vice-chairman.
The trust would be a statutory body and the managing director, to be appointed by the government, would 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 officer with the rank and status of not below a joint secretary, director general of Bangladesh Press Institute, joint secretary (Press) from the Ministry of Information, two BFUJ representatives and three journalists to be nominated by the government.
Narrating the objective of the bill, the information minister 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.
