Govt officials want to travel abroad to learn about housing for freedom fighters

Government officials would like to go on a foreign tour to learn what kinds of projects are undertaken for their freedom fighters and how they are implemented, according to a proposal drafted by the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.

The cost per person for this tour has been estimated at Tk6.25 lakh, reveals the proposal for a project to build 14,000 one-storey houses for indigent freedom fighters and their families in the country.

The government will allocate these houses to poverty-stricken freedom fighters, women tortured during the war, and widows or children of martyred freedom fighters on the occasion of Mujib Year 2020.

The total cost for this housing project, BirNibash, has been estimated at Tk2,814 crore.

The project proposal has been sent to the Planning Commission. The Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) held a meeting on it last Sunday.

Of the 16 officials mentioned in the project proposal to travel abroad, 8 are from the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs and 4 are from the project office.

Among others are one official each from the Finance Division, the Planning Commission's Programming Division, Physical Infrastructure Division and the Planning Ministry's Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).

However, no country has been mentioned in the proposal for this tour.

When asked, Syed Mamunul Alam, additional secretary (development) of the Liberation War Affairs ministry, said, "It [foreign tour] is not [aimed to see the making of] one-storey houses only. There are many more things to gain experience here."

He declined to say anything else on the matter.

Earlier this year, 14 officials – 7 each in two groups – visited foreign countries, under another project of the Liberation War Affairs ministry, to gain experience in building memorials to martyrs, war museums and memorials related to history.

One group went to Vietnam and Indonesia while the other travelled to Singapore as well as Vietnam.

Administrative officials and even accounting officers of the ministry had gone on that foreign tour.

Foreign trip experiences of such officials are of no use in the implementation of a project. Even then, such tour proposals are suggested in many projects, said an official of the Planning Commission, wishing not to be named.