By Dr Aynal Haque
RAJSHAHI, Jan 22, 2021 (BSS) – A total of 7,119 landless and homeless people in Rajshahi division are going to receive houses as a gift from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the occasion of Mujib Barsho.
The homeless and landless families will be given 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 under the division.
The government will provide them with the houses to alleviate their poverty by giving shelters and human resource development activities.
Dr Abdul Mannan, additional commissioner of Rajshahi division, here told BSS that construction work of most of the houses was already completed as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally open the handing over programme of the ownership among the beneficiaries tomorrow.
On behalf of Ashrayan Project-2 of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) has built the houses, he added.
The main objective of the initiative is to improve the standard of living ensuring basic education, health care and skill development on income generating activities of the landless, homeless, distress and rootless people.
Dr Abdul Mannan said the construction of the houses is a laudable step of the government. The homeless and landless families will get their shelters to live permanently in these houses as the quality of the houses is top priority, he said.
As per commitment of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, all the distressed families will be brought under the disaster resilient houses in the division, in phases.
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 was built at a cost of Taka 1.71 lakh while floors and walls of the houses were brick-built as the roofs were made of corrugated sheet.
He added that the houses are colorful and eye-catching. The disaster resistant houses reveal the images of laudable and lasting development activities of the government.
Earlier, another 3,022 distressed families were given brick-built houses for the first time in the division.
The distressed people, who have at least one to ten decimals of land but no house, were given the brick-built houses as gifts of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina till June last.
The DDM has constructed the rural level houses under its Disaster Resilient House Building Project (DRHBP) that has been implemented as a rural infrastructure reconstruction programme.