The government has provided cash incentives to 479 mosques in Ishwardi upazila of Pabna. The incentive cash was handed over to the imam of the mosque and members of the mosque management committee at the city's Sarma Marwari School and College ground on Friday afternoon.
Ishwardi Upazila Parishad organised the distribution of cash as Bangladesh Islamic Foundation allocated the money. According to the Upazila Office, there are government restrictions on performing prayers in mosques to prevent corona infection.
The number of worshipers in the mosque has been less in the last two months as there are instructions to perform prayers keeping in view the hygiene rules and maintaining social distance.
This reduces the income of the mosque. For this reason, the Islamic Foundation has allocated this money in view of the financial crisis of the Imams and Muazzims in the interest of running the mosque.
Upazila Chairman Nuruzzaman Biswas was present as the chief guest during the distribution of incentive cash. Also present were UNO Shihab Raihan, Municipal Mayor Abul Kalam Azad Mintu, Assistant Commissioner (Land) Mumtaz Mahal, Inspector of Police (Investigation) Arvind Sarkar, Field Officer of Islamic Foundation Ahsan Habib and others.
UNO Shihab Raihan said the allocation for each mosque is Tk 5,000. As per this, a total of 23 lakh 95 thousand incentive cash was handed over to the imams of each mosque and the members of the mosque management committee while maintaining social distance.
