The parliamentary standing committee report on Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Bill, 2014 has been placed in the Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday.
Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Ministry AKM Rahmatullah placed the bill in the House with a recommendation for passage of the bill in an amended form, reports BSS.
On April 2 of this year, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu introduced the bill for ensuring welfare of the poor, insolvent, sick and wounded journalist and family members of the deceased journalists.
According to the bill, a 13-member board of trustees would be constituted with information minister as the chairman of the board.
The trust would be a statutory body and the managing director, to be appointed by the government, would act as member secretary of the trust.
The other members of the trust are, Principal Information Officer (PIO), a 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 BFUJ representatives and three journalists to be nominated by the government.
The trust will have two funds, permanent and current. The government will be the main source of funding.
