Beneficiaries need to re-register to get social safety allowances: Adviser

All beneficiaries, including the elderly, widows, and the disabled, of the government's social safety net programmes, will have to register anew to receive allowances, said Social Welfare and Women and Children Affairs Adviser Sharmeen Murshid.

The initiative is being taken up to prevent irregularities, she said after the working session of the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs during the DC conference at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium today (17 February).

Speaking at the conference, she said, "I have informed the DCs that 46% of the social registry we do, that is, the services we provide to the beneficiaries, is flawed. That is, out of every 100 people, the allowance money is going to the wrong 46 people. This is not only a huge waste of money, but the person who is supposed to get the allowance remains in trouble. This has also been expressed by the reform commission we have."

The adviser stated that the list of beneficiaries that the interim government received from the ousted Awami League regime has a lot of errors.

"The DCs also told us how many errors they are getting locally. For this, we are going to do the social registration [ of beneficiaries] again. A MIS [management information system] is being developed for this. We will do the registration using technology," she said.

"We want to get rid of these errors very quickly so that our hard-earned money reaches the right people, and so that we can prevent this injustice," she added.

Stating that everyone will have to register anew, Sharmee Murshid said, "If the registration is not correct, neither the Ministry of Social Welfare nor the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs will be able to do any work properly. The registration must be done properly."

The adviser also said the DCs have been instructed to take steps to prevent deaths by suicide, drug addiction among children, and child marriage.