PM distributes 18,566 more houses to homeless families today

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over 18,566 more houses to homeless and landless families across the country today under the government’s flagship housing programme-Ashrayan-2 Prakalpa- to ensure housing for all.

The premier will inaugurate the handing over activities of homes along with the ownership documents of land to the beneficiaries at 11am today directly connecting to Kaliganj upazila of Lalmonirhat, Eidgaon upazila of Cox’s Bazar and Char Fashion upazila of Bhola through videoconferencing from her official Ganabhaban residence here.  

Along with handing over the houses to 18,566 homeless and landless families under the second stage of the fifth phase of Ashrayan-2 Prakalpa, she will also declare 70 more upazilas including all upazilas of 26 districts free from landless and homeless people.

The Prime Minister will distribute 1,282 houses in Lalmonirhat, 261 in Cox’s Bazar and 1,234 in Bhola districts tomorrow.

With the new landless and homeless people-free districts and upazilas, the total number of the districts will stand at 58 while the upazilas will be 464 across the country.

Earlier, the Prime Minister distributed 63,999 houses in the first phase, 53,330 in second phase, 59,133 in third phase and 39,365 in the fourth phase of the Ashrayan-2 Prakalpa across the country.

Under the project, each of the landless and homeless families is being given a semi-pucca house on two decimals of land with the ownership, which will belong to both husband and wife. Each house is consists of two bedrooms, one kitchen, one toilet and veranda.

Talking to reporters, Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner (DC) said Muhammad Shahin Imran said a total of 4,666 houses were distributed among the homeless and landless people in the district under the Ashrayan Prakalpa earlier while 261 more houses will be distributed tomorrow.

“Along with handing over these 261 houses, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will declare Cox’s Bazar as homeless and landless people-free district tomorrow,” he added.

Shahin said that the Ashrayan project not only gives shelter to the homeless and landless people of the district but also creates opportunities for employment generation and makes them self-reliant.

According to the project details, a total of 266,012 landless and homeless families were rehabilitated in the first, second, third, fourth and the first stage of the fifth phases of the Ashrayan-2 Prakalpa while 18,566 more families are going to be rehabilitated tomorrow in the second stage of the fifth phase of the project.

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman introduced the rehabilitation programme for homeless people in 1972.

Following the footprints of Bangabandhu, her daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the initiative to provide ownership of houses and lands to homeless and landless people through the Ashrayan project in 1997.

Under the Ashrayan project, a total of 771,301 families have been rehabilitated so far since 1997. The number of rehabilitated people is 3,856,505 (estimated as five persons in a family).

So far 4,340,000 people of 867,904 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated under the Ashrayan and other programmes across the country while 2,910,265 people of 582,053 landless and homeless people have been rehabilitated under the Ashrayan Prakalpa only, the document said.