BSS, RAJSHAHI
The poor homeless people are so much delighted to get houses as gift by the generosity of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Rubel Hossain, one of the beneficiaries of Palibazar Ashrayan Project in Durgapur Upazila, said he used to live in a thatched house before getting the new one. He 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,” Hossain said. Shima Bibi, a widow of Jhaluka village under the same upazila, is living in the new house with two offspring.
“I never thought that I would be an owner of a brick-built house,” she said with a smiling face.
Abul Kalam Azad, a resident of Bordapur Ashrayan Pally in Manda Upazila, said he had to suffer a lot due to lack of a house. But, the worst situation has changed now. He along with his wife and two daughters are having happy days in the house.
Azad, a person with special needs, said the house gave his four-member family a new life expressing deep gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her benevolent initiative.
Not only Rubel, Shima and Abul but also many other landless and homeless people have got permanent abode as they availed the housing gift of the Prime Minister in the division like other parts of the country.
Aminul Haque, District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer, 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 of Rajshahi division 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 this year as a gift from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the Mujib Year.
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.
“We have given a list of around 40,000 families who have neither house nor land and got allocation for 14,291 of them in the two consecutive phases,” Dr Mannan said, adding that the rest of the people are expected to get housing facilities.
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.
Prof Iliash Hossain of the Department of Economics in Rajshahi University termed the housing support as effective for making the landless and homeless people self-reliant.
