In the wake of the EC Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar's remark that the allocation of Tk 25 crore against the demand of Tk 40.86 crore was inadequate, the finance minister told reporters, "Definitely, we will provide whatever amount of fund they require to update the voter list."

Officials at the EC Secretariat hinted that they might seek further allocation of Tk 15 crore.

Earlier on July 18, the finance minister refused to allocate fresh fund for updating the voter list, leading to a slow start of the work for updating the voter list by visiting door to door from July 21.

The task is yet to get momentum, as the field level staff recruited for updating the voter list have not got assurance about their remuneration due to fund crisis. The task began even without allocation of any fund for purchasing necessary materials for updating the existing voter list.

The 1.35 lakh temporarily recruited staff were asked to meet the expenditure on their own.

The remuneration for the field level staff will be fixed soon, the EC Secretary said yesterday.

The EC secretary said some 70.53 lakh people so far applied for registering as voters while 5.96 lakh applications were received for deletion of names from the existing voter list.

Considering the present progress, many field level election officials said the task is unlikely to complete by the scheduled time limit of August 10 as many field level staff are yet to start working 'sincerely' due to uncertainty of their remuneration.

The EC secretary, however, said the time limit might be extended if necessary.