JS passes Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Bill 2014

The Jatiya Sangsad (JS) on Tuesday passed the ‘Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Bill 2014’ aimed at ensuring welfare of the poor, insolvent, sick and wounded journalists and the family members of deceased journalists. Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu moved the bill in the Parliament for its passage. Earlier, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Information AKM Rahmatullah proposed the bill in the House in an amended form with recommendations unanimously. Information Minister Inu introduced the bill on April 2, 2014, which was later sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Information for scrutiny. The bill was passed with the provision of forming a 13-memmebr board of trustee with the Information Minister as its chairman and Information Secretary as the vice-chairman. The trust would be a statutory body and the managing director to be appointed by the government would act as the member-secretary. The other members of the trust are- Principal Information Officer (PIO), a Director General (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 Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) representatives and three journalists to be nominated by the government, according to BSS.