The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has issued a directive to the ministry of finance (MoF) to provide necessary allocations to meet the extra costs of the country's key law-enforcement agencies urgently.
The PMO has sent a letter to the senior secretaries of the MoF and the ministry of home affairs (MoHA) in this connection. The letter was signed by Director of the PMO Dr Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir.
An additional secretary of the MoF said a letter from the PMO to provide necessary funds to the country's law-enforcement agencies was received last week and the MoF was working on the issue.
Required steps have to be taken to meet up the necessity of the law-enforcement agencies on an urgent basis. The PMO has to be informed of the steps accordingly, the letter said.
Expenditures are increasing enormously on account of tackling the unabated violence during the ongoing blockade and hartal programmes being enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance, officials have said.
The PMO has also asked the ministry to provide allocations to the Bangladesh Ansar & Village Defence Party (VDP) as per requirements according to the sources.
"Executive magistrates in district administration, Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and other law enforcement agencies have been deployed to keep the country's law and order situation stable and normal.
"As a result, fuel expenditure of the agencies has been increasing. In the circumstances, it is necessary to increase fuel allocation to meet the agencies' additional expenses for the purpose," the letter said.
The letter added that members of the Bangladesh Ansar & VDP were deployed for guarding the country's railway. So, it was also essential to provide necessary allocation to the force.
The PMO directive came following seeking of additional funds from the country's law-enforcement agencies from the ministries concerned.
Recently, some Tk 433 million was sought for Bangladesh Police while Tk 260 million and Tk 142 million for Bangladesh Ansar & VDP and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) respectively, the MoF officials said.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP sought an allocation of Tk 100 million in fuel cost from the ministry concerned, an MoHA official said.
According to an MoHA document, a total of 94,949 policemen and policewomen --- 62,802 personnel in day and 32,147 in night shifts --- have been working round the clock all over the country to maintain the law and order, situation.
For the purpose of supplying cooked or dry foods to the deployed police personnel, Tk 7.12 million will be needed per day, Tk 75 per head. Accordingly, Tk 640 million will be required for three months from January 5 last, the document has showed.
But the country's prime security force, police, has Tk 208 million in its own budget as extra expenditure, it has said.
Bangladesh Ansar & VDP in its estimation said a total of 8,328 of its men were deployed at 1,041 vulnerable railway points to protect railway, tracks, bridges and other railway infrastructures from attacks by anarchists.
The ministry in the latest move deployed 12,000 Ansar-VDP men at vulnerable points of highways and regional roads across the country to combat troublemakers.
A total of 715 platoons of BGB men have remained deployed for the last one month around the country, according to the instruction of the MoHA.
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