No stimulus package would work, if corrupts are not controlled
The government is set to unveil its third stimulus package with offering cash aid to poor families amid coronavirus shutdown. It plans to transfer between Tk 2,000 and Tk 3,000 a month to each of 34 lakh poor families across the country through mobile banking. The aid will continue for three months starting from April. The stimulus package will also include a scheme — between Tk 5,000 crore and Tk 10,000 crore — to help farmers boost crop production. We doubt whether the target could be achieved when bureaucratic tangle, political influence, corruption and misappropriation interrupt every pro-people programme. The government on March 25 announced a Tk 5,000 crore package for paying wages and allowances of workers and employees of export-oriented industries. Later on April 5, a Tk 67,750 crore stimulus package to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic was also unveiled. Under the third package, if Tk 2,000 is provided monthly to each of the poor families for three months, the government would need around Tk 2,040 crore. But if the amount is Tk 3,000 per month, it would need Tk 3,060 crore.
The money would be sent to vulnerable groups through mobile phones. But there are a large section of people like — beggar, physically challenged, elderly person, people with a long-term illness, orphans, homeless — who has no access to mobile phone and affordability to hold it. So the stimulus package will put the marginal and needy out of the aid. The aid programme would be ran taking into consideration the Census of Slum Areas and Floating Population 2014, which showed there were around 5.95 lakh households in 13,935 slums across the country at that time. The number of such households in the slums may have increased in the last few years. Low-income people, especially rickshaw-pullers, domestic help and day labourers have already hit hard by the ongoing shutdown as they have no work.
The sufferings of people have increased by many folds with the extension of shutdown period. The cash transfer would be helpful to revive the local economy, if the party corrupts are controlled.
The money would be sent to vulnerable groups through mobile phones. But there are a large section of people like — beggar, physically challenged, elderly person, people with a long-term illness, orphans, homeless — who has no access to mobile phone and affordability to hold it. So the stimulus package will put the marginal and needy out of the aid. The aid programme would be ran taking into consideration the Census of Slum Areas and Floating Population 2014, which showed there were around 5.95 lakh households in 13,935 slums across the country at that time. The number of such households in the slums may have increased in the last few years. Low-income people, especially rickshaw-pullers, domestic help and day labourers have already hit hard by the ongoing shutdown as they have no work.
The sufferings of people have increased by many folds with the extension of shutdown period. The cash transfer would be helpful to revive the local economy, if the party corrupts are controlled.
