Frustration rises on July Smrity Foundation

Frustration has risen among the injured and shahid families along with mass people due to the delay on service of July Shaheed Smrity Foundation.

Though the foundation was established to provide immediate healthcare, financial assistances and long-term support to the families of martyrs, and injured in July uprising, it couldn't able to fulfill the expectation of mass people. 

At the meantime, many expressed their frustration, and demanded resignation of the foundation's Secretary Sarjis Alam, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho on social media.

The protestors were also from the students who participated in the July movement. Civil society also raised questions. They demanded complications-free donation handling to the injured and martyred families.

‘The July Foundation should have been entrusted to a professional body and access to services and support needed to be made as easy as possible. Those who are not able to do the work they need to do with the foundation. If there is time, the responsibility of this foundation should be entrusted to someone competent and responsible’, said Rakibul Islam Tafhim, Member Secretary of Dhaka University Branch, Chhatra Odhikar Parishad.

Complications were seen while visiting the foundation office recently. It was seen that family members of the martyrs and injured, have to be present in the office to receive the donation announced by the government. Some of the injured were seen present and they were being enlisted. Those families have to follow several steps which made them frustrated. Many people were seen feeling exhausted while giving information.

Meanwhile, Foundation officials demanded that they are doing their best. Due to multi-step verification and lack of skilled and adequate manpower, the required services are not being provided. Because of this the service aspirants have to suffer. As there is a step-by-step verification process, many people visit the foundation's office day after day.

When asking about this, the member of the executive committee of the foundation and the head of the legal department, Assistant Attorney General, Muzahedul Islam Shahin told The Daily Post that they have to face trouble to provide financial support to the martyr's family. Found 10-15 families where there is a case of separation of martyr's father and mother. In this case, how much money each of them will get, we also had to solve the legal complications. Besides, solving the issue of how much money the martyr's mother, father and wife and children will get is also time-consuming.

When asked about office closure two days a week, Muzahedul Islam Shahin said, we have also held a meeting on that issue. We would like to operate at least six days as soon as possible.

Foundation's Chief Executive Officer, Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho said this reporter that, "We have been able to provide quick assistance to the martyrs' families." But, as the government has not published the list of injured in gazette, we are unable to donate the injured without field investigation.

He said, our foundation has an executive committee of 34 members. In order to run our office on government holidays, we have to keep the AC of the entire building running separately which is not possible. Our's is a non-government orgaziantion.

Shakhawat Hossain, a member of the Government special cell related to the uprising, told The Daily Post, "We have already published the list of martyrs. Ministry of Liberation War and Ministry of Health are coordinating the work. We are working on the list of injured and it has already been sent to the Ministry of Health on December 29. Till then the number was 11 thousand 81 people.”

He said that the number of injured is being included every day after verification. There is a delay in publishing the list as the ministry has not taken a decision. The second list of martyrs will be available by next February. We hope to publish the list of injured in the meantime.

Foundation Secretary Sarjis Alam was not found after visiting the office on January 16. When several call were made to his mobile phone yesterday to know required information, it was found switched off.

It is noted that July Shaheed Smrity Foundation has given Tk 53 core 98 lakhs to 2748 people since January 16. Among those, 663 martyr families have received Tk 33 crore 15 lakh. And 20 thousand 85 injured families received Tk 20 crore 77 lakh.

(The report was written yesterday, Tuesday and it was edited by Al-Ehsan)