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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina distributed 18,566 more houses among the homeless and landless families across the country under Ashrayan-2 project on Tuesday, five days before the Eid-ul Azha.
She opened the distribution of the houses along with ownership documents through a videoconference from her official residence Ganabhaban, connecting to Kaliganj upazila of Lalmonirhat, Eidgaon upazila of Cox’s Bazar, and Char Fashion upazila of Bhola.
Besides, the PM declared 70 more upazilas, including all upazilas of 26 districts, free from landlessness and homeless people, reports UNB.
With this declaration, the total number of landless and homeless-free districts has reached 58 and the number of landless and homeless-free Upazilas has gone up to 464 across the country.
The houses were constructed under the government’s flagship housing programme, Ashrayan-2 Project, aiming to ensure housing for all.
On Tuesday, the prime minister distributed 1,282 houses in Lalmonirhat, 261 in Cox’s Bazar, and 1,234 in Bhola districts.
Earlier, the prime minister distributed 63,999 houses in the first phase, 53,330 in the second phase, 59,133 in the third phase, and 39,365 in the fourth phase of the Ashrayan-2 Project across the country.
Under the project, each landless and homeless family is provided with a semi-pucca house on two decimals of land, with ownership jointly granted to both husband and wife. Each house consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, and a veranda.
The rehabilitation programme for homeless people was initially introduced by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1972.
Following that PM Hasina initiated the Ashrayan project in 1997 to provide ownership of houses and lands to homeless and landless people.
Since its inception, the Ashrayan project has rehabilitated a total of 771,301 families, benefiting an estimated 3,856,505 individuals. Across all programmes, 4,340,000 people from 867,904 families have been rehabilitated, including 2,910,265 people from 582,053 families under the Ashrayan Project.