Monthly allowances of injured, awarded 1971 war veterans will rise: Muhith

The monthly allowances of injured and gallantry-awarded freedom fighters will be increased, the finance minister has said.

AMA Muhith made the announcement on Thursday while presenting the Tk 3.14 trillion national budget for the 2016-17 financial year in Parliament.

In the course of the budget speech, he said, “Construction of Muktijodhdha Complexes in districts and Upazilas for rehabilitating the freedom fighters is progressing fast.

“Microcredit is being provided from a revolving fund in addition to imparting self-employment training to insolvent freedom fighters and their dependents. Moreover, the monthly allowances for all freedom fighters have been raised.”

He said an announcement about the increased monthly allowances for freedom fighters ‘will soon be made’.

Currently, the monthly allowances for the Bir Shreshtha, Bir Uttam, Bir Bikram and Bir Prateek award winning war veterans are Tk 12,000, Tk 10,000, Tk 8,000, and Tk 6,000, respectively.

Injured freedom fighters in four categories – ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ - get monthly allowances between maximum Tk 30,000 and minimum Tk 9,700.

The families of martyred and deceased freedom fighters also get Tk 15,000 as allowance per month.