Nearly 25 lakh poor families were given livelihood support under Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar (one house, one farm) Project aiming to remove poverty of around 1.25 crore people.
“Approximately 25 lakh households have so far been brought under Ekti-Bari Ekti-Kamar project giving them financial and other necessary supports to eliminate their poverty,” Dr Proshanto Kumar Roy, project director of the project, told a seminar in the CIRDAP auditorium here yesterday.
Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Principal Secretary of Prime Minister’s Office Md Abul Kalam Azad, Senior Secretary of Public Administration Ministry Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Chairman of Palli Sanchay Bank Dr Mihir Kanti Mujumder, senior officials of different ministries and different organizations, among others, addressed the seminar with LGRD and Cooperatives Secretary MA Qader in the chair.
Deputy commissioners of different district and field level officials of the project, among others, joined the seminar.
There are about one crore poor households in the country, Dr Proshanto said adding, “We have a plan to bring all poor families under Ekti-Bari Ekti-Kamar project aimed at building poverty-free Bangladesh by 2021.”
“The government has brought 25 lakh poor households under Ekti-Bari Ekti-Kamar project so far. Remaining 75 lakh poor families will be brought under the project in three phases,” he added.
Bangladesh is not a poor country as it has rich ecosystem, Dr Mihir said, adding the country needs to take effective policy initiatives to ensure optimum use of ecosystem in a sustainable manner to eliminate poverty.
“Our agriculture productivity is still low compared to many developing and developed countries and we could not be able to cut poverty until and unless the productivity is enhanced,” he added.
Terming Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar as an innovative project, Mosharraf urged officials involved in the project to make better coordination with others officials and organizations to benefit more from the project.
“Palli Sanchay Bank has been established with the savings of poor households under the Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar project. I hoped it would be viable as a bank to lift the people out of poverty,” he added.
Under the project, fund has been created of nearly 2000 crore Taka from the savings of poor households and nearly 13 lakh small farms have been set up from the funds.
Other speakers said Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar project would be a development model to reduce poverty at zero level aiming to build a poverty-free country. They stressed the need for launching extensive campaign to motivate the people to win against the war of poverty.
