FROM PAGE 3

submitted up to June 30, 2025, while an estimated 15,545 were filed in the 2025–26 fiscal year, he added.

The minister said Tk 9,638 crore is required to settle all the applications. However, the projected income of the two bodies for the current fiscal year is Tk 2,462 crore, leaving a funding shortfall of around Tk 7,176 crore. At present, nearly 59,820 applications remain unresolved.

He said the government has taken steps to address the financial crisis of the retirement benefits board and the welfare trust by allocating necessary funds.

Measures have also been introduced to expedite the disposal of applications, including restarting software systems, increasing manpower, expanding online services and enabling direct transfer of retirement benefits to beneficiaries’ bank accounts through the iBAS++ system, he added.

Replying to another question from MP Manjurul Haque, the minister said the education ministry has arranged to pay arrears of salaries and allowances to MPO-listed teachers and employees whose payments had remained pending due to criminal cases during the previous Awami League government.

Responding to separate questions from Md Nurul Islam and NCP MP Hasnat Abdullah, the minister said 54 percent of teaching positions at the country’s technical education institutions are vacant.

He said 8,486 of the 15,844 approved teaching posts in technical education institutions remain unfilled, adding that a requisition has already been sent to the Public Service Commission, seeking recommendations to recruit candidates for 2,204 of the vacant posts.

The minister said the PSC has recommended the recruitment of 97 cadre and 349 non-cadre teachers through the 45th BCS. They will be appointed after police verification.