Divert mega-project allocations to health, social safety: discussion

Agriculture minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaque on Sunday at a discussion defended the proposed allocations for the mega projects despite the COVID-19 crisis saying that people did not want back the pre-2009 era marked by random blackouts.

He said that the demand for energy led the government to allocate Tk 15,000 crore for the Roopur Nuclear Power Plant project after BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that the allocations were irrational and served the interest of the contractors.

Abdur Razzaque admitted that they placed the budget with the expectation that the COVID-19 crisis would soon go away.

He said that the government was ready to revise the budget if the current crisis lingered.

Dismayed by the current state of the heath sector Amir Khasru said that the unnecessary allocations in the proposed budget should be diverted for emergency medical equipment for the COVID-19 patients dying due to shortage of oxygen and ICU beds.

Demanding a public debate on the allocations for the mega projects, he said that such allocations should also be re-channelled to run cash distribution programmes for the millions of informal-sector jobless workers to retain the demand for consumption.

Politicians were venting their views while taking part in a virtual post-budget discussion arranged by the Centre for Governance Studies.

Among others, Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Fahmida Khatun, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association executive chief Syeda Rizwana Hasan, economist Selim Jahan and businessmen Abdul Matlub Ahmad, Shoeb Chowdhury and Abdul Haque and woman entrepreneur Nasreen Awal Mintoo took part in the discussion.

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, a professor of development studies at Dhaka University, presented the keynote paper in which he criticised the highest allocation of over 19 per cent of the overall budget for the administration and the subsidy for the rental power plants.

Fahmida Khatun said that the inclusion of the interest payment on the saving certificates and the pension of the public employees in the social safety net programme was not acceptable as finance secretary Abdur Rauf stated the other day that they included those in accordance with the wider concept used in welfare states.

She noted that the practice in the welfare states was acceptable as they maintained universal health and education systems which were completely missing in our county.

Selim Jahan, too, argued that the social safety net programmes should be meant for the marginal people. 

He resented that the allocation of less than one per cent of the GDP for the country’s health sector was far lower than Vietnam and even what Zambia spent.

Bedsides, the health sector is plagued with structural problems, he said, stressing the need for accurate data for making proper plans.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan pointed out that a major part of the fund allocated for the environment ministry would be spent for salaries and remuneration.

Saying that the allocation for conserving environment is far less than what is needed, Rizwana observed that the COVID-19 calamity taught us the necessity of forests and agricultural land for food security.

Abdul Matlub Ahmad termed the proposed budget as business-friendly but his peer Shoeb Chowdhury criticised what he termed as a less-than-needed allocation for the agriculture sector. 

Nasreen Awal Mintoo said that she was aggrieved as the budgetary allocation for women entrepreneurs was dropped.

The participants also criticised the government for proposing a growth-centric budget downplaying the intensity of the COVID-19 crisis.

They also said that the budget was not implementable because of the overambitious revenue target.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net