Dhaka: The cabinet on Monday approved a proposal for expansion of The National Service Programme to 64 more upazilas of the country including four upazilas of the three hill districts aimed at creating more employment opportunities for the youths.

The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said that the National Service Programme would be expanded under the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th phases to poverty-prone 64 upazilas more including two of Khagrachhari and one each from Bandarban and Rangamati districts.

‘Of them, 20 upazilas each would be selected under the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th phases respectively and four upazilas from three hill districts would be selected in these three phases,’ he said.

The cabinet secretary said under the programme, educated unemployed youths would be imparted training for three months from May 2017 and they would get Tk 100 daily as training allowance.

Alam said on completion of the training period, the youths would get jobs in various government offices for two years under a ‘payroll system’ and they would get Tk 200 per day as wage during the time.

For the purpose, the government will have to spend about Tk 544. 90 crore, he said, adding that some Tk 215 crore are currently available for the purpose, while the government will have to provide Tk 330 crore more to implement the programme.

The cabinet secretary said under the first phase of the programme, 56,801 youths undertook training from 19 upazilas of Kurigram, Gopalganj and Barguna districts while some 56,054 of them got jobs under the National Service Programme.

Besides, in the second, third and fourth phases, a total of 1, 11, 116 youths from 37 upazilas of the country were provided training under the programme and of them, 1,0,8,782 youths got jobs for two years in government offices on payroll.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the National Service Programme at a function in Kurigram on 6 March 2010 as part of fulfilling her election pledge to create employment for every house.