Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Saturday inaugurated a government programme to provide monthly honorariums to religious leaders across the country.
The ceremony took place at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 10am.
Under the initiative, imams, muezzins, and khadems of mosques; priests and sevaits of temples; principals and vice-principals of Buddhist monasteries will receive monthly stipends.
Officials at the inaugural event said the pilot project aims to bring thousands of religious servants under a structured monthly stipend programme, fulfilling a key electoral pledge of the government.
The initiative is expected to improve the living standards of personnel in religious institutions while providing them greater social recognition.
According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the programme will cover 4,908 imams, muezzins, and khadems of mosques; 990 priests and sevaits of temples; 144 abbots and vice-abbots of Buddhist viharas; and 396 pastors and church authorities.
Under the scheme, each mosque will receive Tk10,000 monthly-Tk5,000 for the imam, Tk3,000 for the muezzin, and Tk2,000 for the khadem.
Other places of worship will receive Tk8,000 per month, with Tk5,000 allocated for the head priest, abbot, or pastor, and Tk3,000 for assistant religious workers.
Officials noted that Catholic priests, in line with church doctrine prohibiting the acceptance of such honorariums, have declined the government allowance.
However, they encouraged greater government support for Christian development initiatives. Priests outside the Catholic denomination are free to accept the honorariums if they wish.
