United News of Bangladesh

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Wednesday said the government is implementing the Family Card programme based on the principle that the family, not the individual, is the main unit of development. “The present government has introduced the Family Card programme to ensure the social security rights of citizens of Bangladesh based on the principle that the family, not the individual, is the core unit of development,” he said. The Prime Minister made the remarks while replying to a tabled question from treasury bench MP AM Mahbub Uddin (Noakhali-1) during the question-answer session in Parliament. At the initial stage, the Prime Minister said Family Cards were distributed among 37,814 families in 13 districts and three city corporations on March 10. Tarique said the programme will gradually be expanded to cover around four crore marginal families across the country. He expressed hope that poor women from vulnerable families in Noakhali-1 constituency will be brought under the programme within a short time. The parliamentary session began around 11am, with Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed in the chair, after a 30-minute delay due to a microphone problem. Four questions were listed for the Prime Minister during the session.