In a historic move of the government, over 66,189 homeless and landless families across the country got homes on Saturday for free on the occasion of the ongoing ‘Mujib Borsho’ centring the celebration of the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Besides, 3,715 other families under 36 upazilas in 21 districts were rehabilitated in 743 barracks under 44 different projects.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a function inaugurated the distribution of 66,189 houses as part of her government’s campaign to bring all landless and homeless families under housing facility on the occasion of the “Mujib Borsho”.
For the first time, the world witnesses the distribution of such a huge number of houses among the landless and homeless people at a time, signaling how the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proceeds to tackle the issue of homeless people.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina joined the function of handing over the houses to people virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.
According to sources, the government has built 66,189 houses at a cost of Taka 1,168 crore for homeless people on the occasion of the Mujib Borsha. Some one lakh more houses will also be distributed among the homeless people the next month.
Besides, Ashrayan Project under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) rehabilitated 3,715 families by constructing 743 barracks under 44 project villages in 36 upazilas in 21 districts during the Mujib Year.
Armed Forces Davison is constructing barracks for landless and homeless families.
Earlier, the Ashrayan Project has prepared a list of 885,622 families in 2020, including 293,361 landless and homeless families, and 592,261 families having 1-10 decimal land but no housing facility.
It may be recalled that the Ashrayan Prakalpa has also rehabilitated 320,058 landless and homeless families earlier from 1997 to December 2020.
On the other hand, Ashrayan-2 project (July 2010-June 2022) has a target to rehabilitate 250,000 landless, homeless and displaced families at a cost of Taka 4,840.28 crore.
Ashrayan has already rehabilitated 192,277 landless and homeless families across the country from July 2010 to June 2019.
A total of 48,500 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated in barracks and 143,777 families having own land (1-10 decimal) but no capacity to construct houses in semi-barracks, corrugated iron sheet barracks and specially designed houses.
In addition, the government also constructed 20 five-story buildings at Khurushkul in Cox’s Bazar for 600 families, who are climate refugees as a special gift by the Prime Minister.
Armed Forces Division is also implementing more 119 multi-storey buildings and related activities through Detailed Project Proposal (DPP).
During the inauguration programms, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that her government would manage shelters for all marking the Mujib Borsho to enable them to lead a standard life.
The Prime Minister said she was very happy as she managed to give such a large number of houses to landless and homeless people on a day in the winter.
Describing the ceremony marking distribution of such a large number of homes as the largest festival, she said, “Today, it is the largest festival. There is no such big festival like giving homes to landless and homeless people on such a large scale.”
Sheikh Hasina said that the souls of her father (Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) and her mother and lakhs of martyrs who made supreme sacrifice for the country’s Liberation War will rest in peace as such an enormous number of people have got their own homes.
Forming the government in 2009 after voted to power, the Premier said they had again initiated the Ashrayan Project to rehabilitate the landless and homeless people as her only target was to bring smiles on the faces of the countrymen as Bangabandhu wanted to change the lot the people with giving them improved life for which he struggled for 24 years.
She said Bangabandhu had a five-year plan to make Bangladesh a developed country, adding, “The people of Bangladesh could have got improved lives if Bangabandhu could have implemented it.”
