Dhaka, Mar 1 (bdnews24.com) – The number of mosques in Bangladesh stands at more than 250,000, the state minister for religious affairs tells parliament.
"According to a survey conducted by the Islamic Foundation in 2008, there are 250,399 mosques in the country," Shahjahan Mia said on Tuesday in reply to a query from Sunamganj-5 MP Muhibur Rahman Manik during the question-answer session.
"Some 67,019 imams of those mosques have been given training for self-employment," he added.
"The government has also formed Imam-Muezzin Welfare Trust and allocated Tk 160 million for it in a bid to provide development assistance to the imams."
Shahjahan said that under the mosque-based children and mass education project, the imams were acting as teachers, and for that, each of them is paid Tk 2,000 a month as honorarium.
Replying to another question from Jessore-1 MP Sheikh Afil Uddin, he said that there was a policy for financial allocation to religious institutions and "all the funds are given following due policy and procedure".
While answering to another question put by Rajshahi-6 MP Shahriar Alam, cultural affairs minister Abul Kalam Azad said: "In the current fiscal year, Tk 9.84 million has been provided for the cultural institutions, while Tk 150,000 for the financially disadvantaged cultural personalities."
Besides, Azad said, Tk 1 billion was allocated to boost cultural activities across the country.
Replying to a question of reserved women seat MP Farida Akther, he said there was a plan to introduce a certificate course conducted by the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Currently, there is a four-year certificate course on syllabus-based classical music, normal music, classical dance, drama, paintings and musical instruments in 55 district Shilpakala academies. Apart from the central Academy, the district academies arrange weeklong training workshops on different sections of culture.
"The attendees are issued certificates based on their successes," the minister added.
In reply to another query from Khulna-5 MP Narayan Chandra, he said the in-laws' home of Rabindranath Tagore, situated at the village of South Dihi of Phultala Upazila in Khulna, was announced as an archaeological spot in 2006.
He said the site lacks facilities for holding cultural functions there. "However, there were Mrinalini Mancha (a stage named after Tagore's wife) at one side of the field. Some 3.26 acre land including a bungalow and the house of Tagore's in-laws was handed over to the archaeological directorate."
An estimated cost of Tk 3.78 million is awaiting final approval for the construction works of the house, he added.
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