@ current pace Bangladesh needs 81 years to eradicate poverty

[guy_zin]

Amid the dazzling shopping malls,skyscrapers & other forms of 'Unnoyoner Jowar' how many of us really aware that we'll remain a poor country for nearly another Century.

okay, b4 going to that news please read another one published in 2day's various news papers:

BNP lawmakers demand more pay hike

The ruling BNP lawmakers at a parliamentary body meeting have expressed dissatisfaction over the proposed hike of remuneration of the legislators, terming it insufficient, and demanded raising it further, sources said.
"Remuneration of the lawmakers is not appropriate' in view of that in the neighbouring countries, and the warrant of precedence, the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry said in a report placed in parliament yesterday.

The committee also requested the law minister to convey its views to the authorities for consideration, said the report prepared after scrutiny of the bill seeking the remuneration hike.

The parliamentary body that met with the main opposition Awami League lawmakers absent however okayed the bill and recommended it for passage on assurance from the law minister that he would inform the authorities about the committee's opinion.

While scrutinising the bill -- Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowances) Amendment bill -- on Tuesday night, the committee wanted to send it back with a recommendation to fix the remuneration of lawmakers at Tk 25,000 instead of the proposed Tk15,000, meeting sources told The Daily Star.

The legislators' remuneration is Tk10,000 now.
"Medical allowance for the lawmakers should also be increased," meeting sources quoted Chief Whip Khandakar Delwar Hossain ( like the father his two well qualified sons too were in the News Today for as saying at the meet.

Supporting the chief whip, BNP member of the committee Harun Al Rashid demanded further increase in the privileges of the lawmakers.

Other members of the committee present at the meeting supported the demand.

The committee chairman then proposed to send the bill back, recommending further hike.

But the law minister said if the bill is sent back it will not be possible to pass it in the current session of the House. He suggested the lawmakers to raise the issue in parliament.

The committee chairman also demanded further hike in the remuneration judges of the Supreme Court.

Members of the committee said the proposed hike in the remuneration of judges of the Supreme Court is 'not appropriate' considering that in the neighbouring countries, and the existing circumstances, the report said.

The committee however did not say anything on the other bills to hike remuneration of the president, prime minister, speaker, deputy speaker, ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers.

& now look @the other news:

Bangladesh needs 81 years to eradicate poverty at current rate
The country is unlikely to be able to cut poverty to half by year 2015, the number-one Millennium Development Goal, with the current pace of poverty reduction and lack of impetus for investment and employment generation, says a survey report.

An independent civil society think- tank, Unnayan Onneshan, made the observations in the city Tuesday as they conducted checks on the government- projected achievements in MDGs and the reality.

Their apprehension was based on a slow rate of poverty reduction at an average 0.52 per cent, it is 0.32 per cent in rural areas, during the last five years (1999-2004). They estimated that the rate should have been 2 per cent to reach the poverty-reduction goal.

“If poverty reduces at current pace, it would require about 81 years to eradicate poverty from Bangladesh and 24 years to achieve the MDGs’ first goal,” says their review report based on the reality checks.

Unnayan Onneshan released the review titled “Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): A Reality Check” at its office in the city’s Dhanmondi area, explaining that the poverty head-count ratio declined only by one per cent from 58.8 percent to 49.6 percent during nine years between 1991-92 and 2000.

“The strategy designed in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) would not help accelerate the poverty- reduction rate,” said the think-tank body chairman, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, releasing the review outcome.

He blamed the states and governments as well as the international institutions for evading their respective responsibilities in addressing the curse of poverty.

On the other hand, he said, the PRSP has no indication of stimulating investment and employment as factors to reduce poverty. He explained that the World Bank-prescribed PRSP—a development recipe for the world’s poorer countries--could not yield any result for development elsewhere in the world.

Principal researcher of the report Jakir Hossain gave a presentation on the review, showing that most of the eight MDGs would hardly be achieved.

Despite showcasing some progress in the different aspects, the statistics provided in the report suggest two emerging challenges that might impede the ‘steady’ progress in realization of the Goals.

First, there exists a very high degree of social inequality, which cuts across all key social targets, and the second, the rich-poor divide is striking and showing a secular upward trend.

“Worrying is the gap between the poorest and the rest of society,” said the report.


--seems everynews (courtesy: dailystar & unb)is kinda interlinked!

*sorry for the big post, if its a problem ,i'll try to give the links only .