Commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin vowed to establish social justice through completing the distribution process of the smart cards under the TCB to the deserved one crore beneficiaries after thorough scrutiny over the next four to six months.
鈥楤y this time, if I leave office, I want to ascertain that the marginal people and one crore families get the real benefits from the TCB and thus the establishment of social justice will be visible,鈥� he said.
The adviser said this while giving an interview to the national news agency highlighting the ongoing operations and future plans of TCB at his secretariat office in Dhaka recently.
When asked whether there is any plan to further increase the number of smart card holders under the TCB, he said that the initiative taken by the current TCB chairman and the immediate past chairman to rectify its selection and scrutiny process of the beneficiaries was definitely 鈥榚ncouraging鈥�.
鈥楤ut, I am, on the whole, not so much satisfied over the matter as we definitely want to raise the number of beneficiaries to one crore from the current 57 lakh, if possible tomorrow. But, I think even this number of 57 lakh is not perfectly right,鈥� he added.
Referring to his visits in different parts of the country, Bashir said that even a jute mill owner was the holder of TCB cards side by side the owners of villas, mansions which showed the extent of flaws in the selection process of TCB cards in the previous AL-regime.
鈥業鈥檓 not satisfied as in order to ensure social justice, there is a need to ensure visibility,鈥� he said adding that if such things or disparity continued to occur, then there would be no establishment of social justice.
Alleging that there were miscreant acts and unruly things in all arenas during the past 15 and a half years of the Awami League regime, Bashir said that most of the TCB family card holders were identified as fake during that regime.
鈥楤ut, I can鈥檛 stop this all of a sudden. At the very beginning, we鈥檝e reduced such numbers to 57 lakh from one crore to rectify the process,鈥� he added.
Through scrutinising the national ID, he informed that some 37 lakh cards have already been cancelled temporarily and now they are turning the rest of the cards as smart cards although the pace in this regard is not so satisfactory.
Out of the 57 lakh smart cards, he said that they had so far been able to prepare fully some 36 lakh smart cards.
Referring to his meeting with the concerned deputy commissioners at district level, he said that a timeframe had been fixed at March 17, 2025 and after that, all the cards yet to be scrutinised or turned into smart cards would be cancelled initially.
鈥楢fter that we鈥檒l further scrutinise these cards to determine the flawed cards. Over the next two months, a purification drive will be conducted among these scrutinised numbers of cards,鈥� he added.
The commerce adviser said that some cards might remain outside of the purview for a certain period, but then, the local representatives, student representatives and the local administrations would be involved in the process through forming committees and thus the number would be raised to one crore over the next four to six months.
鈥業t鈥檚 my personal opinion or target,鈥� he added.
