C T Online Desk: Monowara Begum, a 40-year-old woman, was busy making a handmade clay stove near the Shal forest of Sreepur, Gazipur, yesterday afternoon. Her family received a new semi-pucca home in the area just two days ago.
Monowara and her husband have three children, but they can scarcely afford to send them to school. With the security afforded by their new home, ensuring an education for the children now seems like a much more attainable dream.
Monowara’s family is one of 40,000 who will get new homes free of cost ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr. The houses were built and are being distributed under the fourth phase of the Ashrayan-2 project. The initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is one of the largest housing projects in the world.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over the deeds for and keys to the semi-pucca houses to 39,365 homeless and landless families across the country this morning. With the distribution of the deeds, 159 upazilas of the country are now officially free of homeless and landless people.
The 159 upazilas include all upazilas of Madaripur, Gazipur, Narsingdhi, Rajshahi, Joypurhat, Chapainawabganj and Chuadanga.
Previously, 52 upazilas of the country, including all upazilas of Panchagarh and Magura, had been declared free of homeless and landless people. Following today, nine districts and a total 211 upazilas of the country are free of homeless and landless people.
During a visit to the Nayapara Ashrayan project yesterday afternoon, Gazipur-3 lawmaker Iqbal Hossain Sabuj told this correspondent: “The 142 families who are getting homes under the Ashrayan project here, they also get a mosque, a school, a community centre, and a big playground in the project area.
“We are trying to ensure that the homeless people lead a better life and can live their life with all facilities that other citizens are getting,” he added.
The recipients of the houses began living in their new homes from last Friday. Many of them were seen decorating their homes and gardens, as well as setting up stoves in the Nayapara project area yesterday
Sources at the Prime Minister’s Office said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over houses and land in the fourth phase by virtually joining the ceremony in three upazilas of the country from her official residence, Ganabhaban.
The prime minister will exchange views with the beneficiaries of the Nayapara Ashrayan project in Sreepur upazila in Gazipur, the Nayagaon Ashrayan project in Gowainghat upazila in Sylhet, and the Uttarpar Ashrayan project in Banaripara of Barisal, according to a press conference held at Prime Minister Office yesterday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina undertook the Ashrayan project in 1997 and a total of 373,562 houses have so far been given to homeless and landless families under the project run by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
In the first phase, 63,999 houses were handed over on January 23, 2021. A further 53,330 houses were distributed on June 20 the same year in the second phase.
The number of single houses constructed in the third phase was 65,674. Of these, 32,904 were distributed on April 26 last year and 26,229 houses on July 21, 2022.
Since 1997, a total of 554,597 families have been rehabilitated under the project so far.
