In an effort to prepare houses for the landless and homeless under the Ashrayan project, the government has freed 5,512 acres of public land from the grip of influential people who had been illegally occupying them across the country, reports bdnews24.com.
The retrieved lands together cost a staggering Tk 30 billion.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has allotted Tk 1.08 billion for the project and the authorities bought 155 acres of land to provide permanent shelter to the extreme poor.
The government has delivered 117,329 houses under Ashrayan-2 in its first two phases. Another 65,474 homes are being constructed in the third stage, which includes remedies for issues from the houses in the earlier phases.
Officials said lands were available in different places, though all of them were not suitable for building houses. In those cases, new lands are being bought to build homes.
Some public lands are in the grasp of influential people who are keeping possession of these assets using fake documents for a long time.
The authorities evicted illegal occupants from 1.41 decimals of land in Shimulia Union's Gohailbari area in Savar and are building 40 houses in the third stage of Ashrayan-2 on top of the 24 homes which were raised there in the previous phase.
"A businessman named 'Idris' had annexed the land before Shanghai Ceramics Company bought it off in 2013," said ABM Azharul Islam, chairman of Shimulia Union.
"The company piled soil to make ceramic products in heaps there. In 2021, the land was recovered and the dumped soil removed for the Ashrayan project."
Savar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mazharul Islam said, "No illegal occupiers will be spared as we move with the project at the government's directives. We will keep doing our work."
Md Ferdous Khan, a director of the Ashrayan-2 project said, "The project is a dream of the prime minister. We are building tin-roofed houses for the marginalised people."
"The houses are being built on three types of lands around the country. Some are government lands, some were recovered from illegal occupiers while the others were bought."
"We've freed 5,512 acres of land from illegal occupiers that cost around Tk 30 billion. Another 155 acres of land were purchased."
Authorities recovered 10 acres of land in Sirajganj's Khokshabari Union in the third phase and are constructing 266 houses there.
Sirajganj Deputy Commissioner Farook Ahmed said, "Locals used the government land for farming. We've reclaimed the land and those residing there now are living on small businesses, driving auto-rickshaws…".
To celebrate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his daughter Hasina has undertaken providing 885,622 poor families with homes and lands around the country.