Dhaka, March 14 -- Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Saturday inaugurated a programme to provide monthly allowances to imams, muazzins and other religious leaders, fulfilling one of the key electoral pledges of the BNP.

The programme was inaugurated at a ceremony held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the morning, according to the BNP media cell.

The government also launched similar allowance programmes for priests and temple caretakers as well as for Buddhist monastery principals and vice-principals, UNB reports.

On January 21, the government issued a gazette on the Mosque Management Policy 2025, introducing a structured pay scale, service benefits, recruitment rules and welfare provisions for mosque employees in the country.

Under the...