For only the second time in its nearly 700-year history, the donation boxes of the Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) shrine in Sylhet were opened for public counting on Saturday.
The counting process began around 11:30am on the shrine premises under the supervision of administrative officials and a high-level financial management committee. Around 25 to 30 madrasa students were engaged in counting the cash offerings.
The decision to conduct the second public counting was finalised at a committee meeting held last Thursday at Sylhet Circuit House.
Several senior officials arrived at the shrine around 10am to oversee the process, including Sylhet Development Organisation Chairman Rezaul Hasan Koyes Lodi, District Council Administrator Abul Kaher Chowdhury Shamim, Acting Deputy Commissioner Pinki Saha and Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Abdul Kuddus.
A large number of police and Ansar members were deployed around the shrine to ensure security during the counting.
The move towards greater financial transparency was initiated on June 12 by former Deputy Commissioner Md Sarwar Alam to ensure accountability in the shrine’s income and expenditure.
Following the initiative, four new donation boxes were installed on June 18, while three historic “Degs” (large cauldrons) and old donation boxes that had been in use for decades were sealed.
The reform process, however, faced controversy. On 21 June, Sarwar Alam was withdrawn from his post and attached to the Ministry of Public Administration.
Despite this, the first-ever public counting of donations was conducted on June 22 under his supervision, collecting Tk1,765,549. The money was later deposited into a new account at Sonali Bank.
To further institutionalise the reforms, an 11-member high-level committee was formed on June 26 at the initiative of Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir.
The committee is currently working on recommendations for establishing a modern and effective financial management system for the shrine. The recommendations are expected to be submitted within a month.
