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The government has formed separate ‘Social-Harmony Committees’ at the district, upazila and union parishad levels ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) formed these committees through three separate gazette notifications on July 24.
According to the information, Deputy Commissioners (DCs) have been made the head of the district committees while Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) and chairmen will lead the upazila and union parishad committees respectively.
All lawmakers of a district and zilla parishad chairman or administrator have been included in the 23-member committee as advisers. The local lawmaker has been made the chief adviser and the upazila chairman has been included as the adviser in the upazila 24-member committee while the union parishad secretary will play the role of member secretary of the 14-member committee.
Earlier in 2013, the Cabinet division formed the ‘Terror and Sabotage Protection Committee’ from ward to city corporation level ahead of the national elections of 2014. This time committees have been formed in the model of the committees in 2013.
PMO has directed these committees to hold inter-religious harmony rallies at their respective level. Expenditure of the rallies will come from the state exchequers of the city corporation, zila parishad, upazila parishad, municipality and union parishad.
The Local Government Division has already instructed the heads of the local government bodies to take necessary measures in this regard.
Besides, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has taken a new project of Tk 25 crore to boost religious harmony among the people and raise awareness.
The ministry has already appointed Bangladhol Limited as a media adviser and REVE Systems as an ICT adviser to implement the project.
On July 21, two separate agreements were signed with these two organisations in presence of State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Haque Khan.
In the agreement signing ceremony, Faridul Haque told journalists that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is determined to keep the communal harmony in the country. She has taken a zero-tolerance policy against incidents of communal violence. For this reason, the ministry has taken the project to increase communal harmony across the country.
He also said some evil forces are trying to foil communal harmony ahead of the upcoming elections. Instructions have been given to take necessary measures in this regard.
According to the three separate gazette notifications, formed committees will hold inter-religious harmony rallies in their respective areas to make awareness of religious extremism, violence and terrorism. They will protect all religious establishments including the mosque, temple, church and pagoda. They will also work to spread the message of peace and harmony of every religion and will protect religious propaganda on social media.
On October 24, 2021, a virtual meeting was held to protect against religious propaganda and ill motive to create anarchy in the country by the vested quarters.
LGRD Minister Tajul Islam presided over the meeting while the mayors of DSCC, DNCC, Khulna, Sylhet, Mymensingh, and Gazipur city corporations attended.
It said public representatives along with the religious leaders will keep the communal harmony in their respective areas.
@ This report appeared on the print and online versions of Bangladesh Pratidin on Friday (September 23) and has been rewritten in English by Golam Rosul.
