Steps to rehabilitate landless people taken

Talha Bin Habib | Published: April 05, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Talha Bin Habib
The government has undertaken measures to rehabilitate landless families in different areas of the country with an aim to ensure their basic rights of shelters and also enabling them to be self-reliant, a ministry official said. To this effect, the government will spend taka 1872.9 million to implement its ongoing cluster village project through the ministry of land for rehabilitating landless people in 207 cluster villages at 188 upazilas under 61 districts across the country. Under the ongoing cluster village project, about 10,650 landless families will be rehabilitated. Each of the landless families will get a 300 square-foot house having basic facilities. A multipurpose hall will also be built at every cluster village. During the current 2010-11 fiscal, about 2,300 families will be rehabilitated in 40 cluster villages. To implement this, taka 404 million was allocated under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of which Taka 288.5 million will be spent for construction of cluster villages. The government, under its electoral pledges, started rehabilitation porgramme for the landless people on March 31, 2009 under its Climate Victims Rehabilitation Project (CVRP). So far, after the inception of the project, a total of 3,990 families have been rehabilitated in 90 cluster villages at 70 upazilas of 43 districts. During the current 2010-11 fiscal, about 1,875 landless families will be rehabilitated in 40 cluster villages with the same number of multi-purpose halls. Land Minister Md Rezaul Karim Hira said the government will continue its efforts to rehabilitate landless people through providing them shelter. He said the government also has a plan to give the landless people proper training as a means of their livelihood. "We also have a plan to give the landless people training in different fields such as rearing cattle, fisheries and sewing. After the training, they will be provided with loan at low interest rate from Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) so that they could earn their livelihood and maintain a dignified life," the minister told the FE Monday.