The poor homeless people are so delighted after getting houses as a gift by the generosity of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Adury Begum, one of the beneficiaries of Jhalpukur Ashrayan Project in Mohanpur Upazila, said she used to live in a thatched house before getting the new one. She along with her daughter, who is studying in a nursing college, has been living in the semi-concrete house for the last couple of months comfortably at present.
The house comprises a bedroom, kitchen room with veranda, toilet and also connected to power.
"It's like a dream to me," Adury said, while sharing views of her happy life with a high-level visiting team at the Jhalopara Ashrayan Project in Mohanpur Upazila on Thursday.
She told the team members that she had to suffer a lot due to lack of a house. But, the worst situation has changed now. She along with her husband and two daughters are having happy days in the house.
Senior Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Tofazzal Hossain Mian accompanied by Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Md Mohsin and Director of Ashrayan Project-2 Abu Saleh Muhammad Ferdous Khan visited some of the Ashrayan projects in Paba and Mohanpur Upazilas in Rajshahi district on Thursday.
They went round the newly built houses, talked to the beneficiaries and enquired about their living and livelihood conditions.
Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner SM Zafarullah, Additional Commissioners Dr Ziaul Haque and Dr Abdul Mannan, Deputy Commissioner Abdul Jalill and Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Shariful Haque also accompanied them.
In the two upazilas, 116 houses were built, while construction works of 79 others are progressing. Kolpona Kisku, a widow of Dewpur village under Paba upazila, is living in the new house at Kasiadanga Ashrayan Project with her two sons Bishwajit and Durjoy. Bishwajit is now a third year student in Rajshahi University.
"I never thought that I would be an owner of a brick-built house," she said with a smiling face. She said the house gave her three-member family a new life expressing deep gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her benevolent initiative.
ADC Shariful Haque said each of the semi-pucca houses with two bedrooms, one kitchen, one toilet, common space and veranda were built at a cost of Taka 1.91 lakh.
The floors and walls of the houses are brick-built as the roofs were made of corrugated sheet, he said. He added that the houses were made colorfully
and eye-catching.
The disaster resistant houses reveal the images of laudable and lasting development activities of the government, he continued.
Additional Commissioner Dr Abdul Mannan told BSS that a total of 14,291 newly constructed houses were handed over to homeless and landless families in two consecutive phases last year as a gift from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the Mujib Year.
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The homeless and landless families received the disaster resilient houses to mark the Mujib Borsho, the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in all eight districts of the division.
At the initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the government has provided them with the houses to alleviate their poverty through giving shelters and human resource development activities.
On behalf of Ashrayan Project-2 of the Prime Minister's Office, the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) has built the houses, he added.
Main thrust of the initiative is to improve the standard of living, ensure basic education, health care and skill development on income generating activities of the poor people.
Dr Mannan said the construction of the houses is a laudable step of the government.
As per commitment of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, all the distressed families will be brought under the disaster resilient housing facility in the division, in phases.
Dr Mannan said the government's line departments, including agriculture, fisheries, livestock, youth development, women affairs and social development, have started expanding their activities to the ashrayan villages to improve the living and livelihood conditions of the settlers.