Jashore Mosque Honorarium List Triggers Local Controversy
A government initiative to provide financial honorariums for mosque personnel in Jashore-6 has sparked local controversy following allegations of altered lists. Complaints submitted to the local lawmaker led to the removal of the Garbhanga Baytun Nur Jame Mosque from the distribution program.
A controversy has emerged over the Religious Affairs Ministry's recent initiative to distribute financial honorariums to religious personnel across the country. Under the program's first phase in Keshobpur, authorities are collecting lists of 15 mosques per union to provide monthly stipends of 5,000 taka for imams, 3,000 taka for muazzins, and 2,000 taka for khadems.
However, the selection process in Panjia Union has run into serious difficulties regarding the Garbhanga Baytun Nur Jame Mosque. According to local reports, the overall compilation involved a total of 77 mosques designated for the MP's share, which included an initial list of 8 mosques submitted by a local BNP leader and another 7 mosques compiled through the office of Jashore-6 Member of Parliament Professor Moktar Ali.
The dispute intensified when local residents and figures including Maulana Abdul Rahman, Abdul Razzaq, Tobibur Rahman, and Abdul Mutaleb Mollah submitted a formal written complaint to MP Professor Moktar Ali. Complainants raised concerns regarding committee divisions and how names were selected for the government's stipend distribution.
Local resident Islam Sardar spoke out about the contested compilation process, stating that he was not informed about the list's creation. He alleged that local Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, including representatives from Panjia Union Jamaat, inserted convenient names and submitted the documentation, and that he only later discovered the names of the original imam and khadem had been replaced.
In response to the accusations, Masud Kamal defended his actions and denied any wrongdoing. Stating that the allegations against him are entirely untrue, he maintained that he issued no separate directives of his own and merely forwarded the exact list that was supplied to him by the local mosque committee.
In the wake of the mounting complaints concerning the divisions within the committee and the contested entries, Jashore-6 MP Professor Moktar Ali intervened. The lawmaker officially removed the Garbhanga Baytun Nur Jame Mosque from the honorarium list to address the local disputes.
