The government is going to extend its social safety net allowance to old aged vulnerable people living in the capital and its adjacent areas.

“A survey will be conducted immediately to identify the number of vulnerable people and they will be given financial support before I leave the ministry,” Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman told newsmen yesterday after a meeting with his cabinet colleagues at the secretariat.

“So long we were busy with the rural people. Now we want to do something for the very poor people living on footpaths and railway stations,” Saifur said.

Replying to a question the Minister said the project will be financed from contingency fund of the government. 

Defending the scheme, Saifur said a section of people earlier gave veto and had criticised him for introducing the project on `Food for Education’.

“We could not do anything against those who defaulted a massive Tk 30,000 crore in bank loans. So, what’s the problem if some really poor people get some money,” he said.

The minister informed that the cabinet committee meeting also discussed the modality of distributing the Senior Citizen Allowance.

The budget for FY 2006-07 proposed to expand the social safety net, saying that the allowances for senior citizens, destitute, widows, disaster-hit people, insolvent freedom fighters and fully retarded people would be increased in addition to raising the number of beneficiaries.

The budget proposed to raise the allocation for social security and welfare sector from Tk 3,282 crore to Tk 3,461 crore, which is 4.9 per cent of the total budget.

It also proposed to enhance the rate of `Senior Citizen Allowance’ from Tk 180 to Tk 200 while the rate of allowance for the destitute and widows rose to Tk 180 and the number of beneficiaries will be 6.25 lakh.