Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will declare 12 more districts homeless and landless by handing over 22 thousand 101 houses to landless and homeless families on Wednesday (August 9) under the Asryan-2 project.
123 more upazilas of 41 districts will be declared homeless and landless under Asharyan-2 project, which will bring the total number of upazilas to 334 and including these 12 districts, the total number of completely homeless and landless districts will stand at 21. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will announce the distribution of houses among the homeless and landless families through video conference from her residence Ganabhaban.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Mohammad Tofajzel Hossain Mia gave this information in a press conference at the Corbi Hall of the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday (August 7).
He said that the shelter project is a unique project in the world, because no other country in the world has distributed free houses to such a large number of landless and homeless families. At that time, the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Mohammad Salahuddin and Director of Asharyan-2 Project Abu Saleh Mohammad Ferdous Khan were present.
It is the second phase under the fourth phase of Asharyan-II project and on March 22, 2023, 39 thousand 365 houses were distributed in the first phase under the second phase.
63 thousand 999 houses were distributed in the first phase on January 23, 2021, 53 thousand 330 in the second phase on June 20, 2021 and a total of 59 thousand 133 houses were distributed in the third phase in two phases during Mujib year. With the distribution of another 22 thousand 101 houses, the total number under Asharyan-II scheme will stand at 2,38,851.
The Chief Secretary said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will attend the ceremony virtually in three upazilas from her official residence Ganabhaban and hand over land along with houses to the beneficiaries. The Prime Minister will directly interact with the beneficiaries of the Barasat Sonar Bangla Palli Shelter Project in Terkhada Upazila of Khulna District, Chakla Shelter-2 Project in Bara Upazila of Pabna and Amanullahpur Shelter Project in Begumganj of Noakhali. Under the scheme, the landless and homeless will get good quality tin shed semi-furnished houses on 2.2 percent land.
Tofajzel Hossain Miah said that the Prime Minister will declare Manikganj, Rajbari, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Natore, Pabna, Kushtia, Pirojpur and Jhalkathi as homeless-landless free districts and before that he will declare nine other districts including Panchagarh and Magura landless and homeless. Will declare free district.
The Chief Secretary said that if anyone is homeless and landless in these areas due to river erosion, natural calamities or any other reason, they will be given houses along with land. He said that ownership of land is given to both husband and wife and registration and mutation of land is also given in the name of husband and wife.
Tofajzel Hossain Miah said that the government is not only constructing houses for the project on special land, but the land is being purchased from the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust for building houses. He mentioned that donations are also available from individuals for this purpose. In response to the question when the government will start building houses for those who have land, he said that now the government is only providing houses to the landless and homeless under this scheme and after the completion of this process those who have no houses or whose houses are in dilapidated condition. will start building houses for Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched the homeless rehabilitation program in 1972.
Following in the footsteps of Bangabandhu, his daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the initiative to give ownership of houses and land to the homeless and landless through the Asryan scheme in 1997. A total of 8 lakh 29 thousand 607 families have been rehabilitated since 1997 under Asharyan scheme. The number of resettled people is 41 lakh 48 thousand 35 people (approximately as five persons in a family). The shelter project of the Prime Minister’s Office has already directly rehabilitated 5 lakh 55 thousand 617 families and 2 lakh 73 thousand 990 families have been rehabilitated under various programs of the concerned government departments including the Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and Ministry of Liberation War
