26,229 more homeless to get new houses

The government will provide 26,229 more semi-pucca houses with two decimals of land to the landless and homeless families as part of its campaign to bring all such families under the housing scheme.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the distribution of these houses virtually on 21 July under the third phase of the Ashrayan-2 project.

As part of the government's move to rehabilitate the country's homeless people, the ongoing third phase of the scheme is slated to provide a total of 67,800 semi-pucca houses, 32,904 of which were officially handed over on 26 April.

At present, some 8,667 houses in the running phase are under construction.

Previously, the prime minister handed over 69,904 houses to the homeless and landless families on 23 January under the first phase of the project on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Under the second phase of the scheme, joint ownership of two-decimal house land alongside a modern abode was given to both husband and wife of each family. During this phase, tin-shed semi-pucca houses were handed over to 53,340 more homeless and landless families on 20 June 2021.

The government has allocated Tk 4,028 crore for the construction of 1,85,129 houses in the current fiscal year.

In the year after independence, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman visited Charporagachha village in Ramgati upazila of today's Lakshmipur district and directed to rehabilitate the landless and homeless.

In 1997, the Prime Minister took up the Ashrayan project to rehabilitate the coastal people of Cox's Bazar who became homeless during the cyclone.

A total of 5,09,370 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated under this project from 1997 to FY2020-21.