Live Correspondent: As part of the government’s campaign to bring all landless and homeless families under housing facility, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to inaugurate the distribution of 53,340 more houses among landless and homeless families on June 20.

“The construction of the houses is at final stage. Honorable Prime Minister will handover those on June 20 under the second phase of the Asrayan-2 Prakalpa,” Project Director Md Mahbub Hossain said after witnessing the voverall progress of the houses at Teota union of Shibaloy upazila here. A total of 24 families will get houses at Teota union, he said.

Manikganj Deputy Commissioner (DC) SM Ferdous, Prime Minister’s Deputy Press Secretary Hasan Jahid Tusher, Shibaloy Upazila Chairman Bir Muktijoddha Rezaur Rahman Khan and Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Jesmine Sultana were present on the occasion.

Noting that each house has been built at a cost of Taka 200,000, Mahbub said, a house recipient in plain land will get Taka 5,000 while a recipient in the hill and haor areas will get Taka 7,000 for shifting their belongings to new home.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina handed over 69,904 houses to the homeless and landless families on January 23 under the first phase of the project on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Under the first phase, Ashrayan Project of the PMO rehabilitated 3,715 families by constructing 743 barracks at 36 upazilas in 21 districts during the Mujib Borsho, the project director said.

He said the Ashrayan Project has prepared a list of 885,622 families in 2020, of which 293,361 are landless and homeless families and 592,261 families have 1-10 decimal land but no housing facility.

Since 1997, the Ashrayan has rehabilitated about 475,000 families while 320,058 landless and homeless families were rehabilitated till December 2020, he said.

Mahbub said the Ashran-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.

He said the government also constructed 20 five-storey buildings at Khurushkul in Cox’s Bazar for 600 families, who are climate refugees as a special gift by the Prime Minister, adding, “Armed Forces Division is also implementing more 119 multi-storey buildings and related activities through Detailed Project Proposal (DPP).”

The project director said members of the rehabilitated families are getting training of increasing awareness on various issues, expertise and human resource development to enable them to get engaged in income-generation works.

Mahbub said the activities of the project will be accelerated further in future to alleviate poverty for fulfilling the ‘Vision 2021’ and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Dhaka, June 09 (campuslive24.com)//AIT