Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government has allocated an additional fund of Tk 1898.45 crore for building Rohingya rehabilitation shelters on Bhashan Char, a coastal island in the southeastern district of Noakhali.
The fund has been allocated in the revised Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the current fiscal (2017-18) to the account of ‘Asrayan Project-3’ under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The housing project is expected to provide shelters to 103,200 Rohingya people who have fled across the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State.
In the light of the revised budgetary allocation, the PMO has asked the Ministry of Finance to give the approval for the disbursement of Tk 1311.33 crore in advance for the project.
In a letter on Wednesday, the PMO instructed the ministry to take necessary steps in this regard.
“The office of the Ashrayan project-3 under the PMO has sought the fund from the Ministry. It is working to disburse the fund as soon as possible,” a senior Finance Ministry official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
In 1997, the government had taken up the Ashrayan project, aiming to rehabilitate landless, homeless, jobless people and victims of river erosion on khas lands at different parts of the country.
The Finance Ministry official said the housing project for Rohingya refugees received an initial budgetary allocation of Tk 150 crore for the current fiscal year.
The fund has been provided under the ‘Development Budget Allocation no-2, PMO Code-3 and Project Code no-0331-5000).
“We have already disbursed the fund,” said the Ministry official, adding, “The allocation for the project has been enhanced in the revised ADP in line with PMO instruction.”
He said the PMO wants speedy implementation of the project and the allocation has been raised manifolds so that the implementing authority does face fund constrain.
Bangladesh Navy is implementing the project on Bhashan Char, also known as Thengar Char, which is 10,000 acres at high tide and 15,000 acres at low tide.
The project is to be completed by 2019.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in November last approved the project (the construction of residences and necessary security infrastructure for the housing of 100,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals in Noakhali’s Hatia) at an estimated cost of Tk 2,312.
