The Parliament Secretariat Commission on Monday approved a Tk 335.34 crore budget for Parliament to spend on its development and non-development expenditures for the next fiscal year (2020-21). The approval was given at the 31th meeting of the Commission held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair. The budget is 3.88 percent higher than that of the outgoing fiscal year of 2019-20, said a Parliament Secretariat handout. The meeting also approved the estimated budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year Tk 358.81 crore and cleared the revised budget of the outgoing financial year (2018-19), which is Tk 383.93 crore. Commission Members Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq attend the meeting. Chief Whip Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury attended the meeting on special invitation. The meeting elaborately discussed deployment of two double cabin pick-up vans for the police protection of the deputy speaker and the chief whip, inducting one ambulance received from the Health Directorate in the TO&E and creating 11 new posts in different divisions under the Parliament Secretariat. Besides, the Commission recommended amendment to Parliament Secretariat Officer and Employee Recruitment Rules 1994, approved supplying of 40 inch LED televisions instead of 21 inch in the offices of the chairmen of different parliamentary standing committees. It also recommended the increase in per head allocation and number for snacks of coordination meeting of Parliament Secretariat and session preparation meeting, strengthening security for the Parliament Bhaban , its repairing and overall development. In the beginning of the meeting, it discussed the implementation progress of the decisions taken at the 30th Commission meeting. Parliament Secretariat’s Senior Secretary Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan placed the agenda of the meeting, while Finance Division Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder and Housing and Public Works Secretary Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker and high officials concerned were present.
