Home, not EC, to bear expenses

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The home ministry will have to bear the cost of the armed forces working to maintain law and order before the national election due to hurried deployment of the troops.

Usually, the Election Commission (EC) pays for the army to work during the election period. But this time it will not have to finance the job, as it did not ask for the services of the military, said sources.

If the troops, who rolled out on December 9, remain posted on the field till the polling day, the home ministry will have to cover one month’s deployment expenses as the EC does that only for a week or two leading to the election.

On previous occasions, the army was called in 14 days before the election in 2001, 18 days in 1996, and 23 days before the polls in 1991.

The deployment of the forces came 44 days before January 23, set as the polling day in the revised schedule.

“We did not call out the armed forces. The government has deployed the troops and so it will have to bear the expenditure,” Secretary to the EC Secretariat Abdur Rashid Sarkar told The Daily Star yesterday.

In this situation, the home ministry braces itself for expanding its budget to meet the troops expenditure. That it was not ready make things more difficult for it, sources said.

The advisory committee on law and order, headed by President and Chief Adviser Iajuddin Ahmed, on Wednesday discussed the issue. The home ministry officials informed the committee that there is no amount accounted for the military deployment in the ministry budget, meeting sources said.

They said the Operation Clean Heart of 2002 cost them around Tk 7 crore, added the sources.

The chief adviser then directed the ministry to finalise a budget in consultation with the finance ministry, sources said.

Apparently, in a bid to deal with the political parties demonstrating for reconstitution of the EC, the president on December 9 ordered the army deployment. And in doing so, he disregarded strong opposition from the advisers to the caretaker government.

In a late-night circular the same day, the home ministry said President Iajuddin Ahmed had ordered the deployment of the armed forces in aid of the civil administration to maintain law and order before the election.

Then at the advisory council’s meeting on Wednesday, the president ordered the armed forces to be on standby and not to engage themselves actively in law enforcement.

The EC had plans to call out the armed forces on December 26 to help in having a peaceful atmosphere before the general election due in January.

Meanwhile, the EC Secretariat has yet to prepare the budget for the law enforcers to be deployed during the election time. The officials in the Secretariat said the expenses with regard to deployment of the police, paramilitary BDR, ansar and the army personnel this time will increase.

It had to spend Tk 42 crore for this purpose in the October 1 election in 2001. Of the expenditure, Tk 4 crore was spent on the armed forces.

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