Over 175,000 landless and homeless families across the country have got shelters and livelihood through one of the Prime Minister's 10 priority initiatives, 'Ashrayan Prakalpa'.
"The government has undertaken the project to give the homeless people a meaningful life through providing shelter and assistance for making them self-reliant," Prime Minister's Principal Secretary M Nojibur Rahman told BSS on Sunday.
He said the activities of the project will be accelerated more in the future to alleviate poverty for fulfilling the 'Vision 2021' and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Talking to BSS, Project Director of the Ashrayan-2 Project Abul Kalam Shamsuddin said a total of 175,483 families were rehabilitated so far in three phases across the country since 1997. The project started in 1997 and the first two phases of the project were completed in 2010.
In 2010, he said, the government has undertaken the Ashrayan-2 project for providing shelter for around 250,000 families at a cost of Tk 48.40 billion within 2019. Under this project, he said, the government has rehabilitated a total of 69,570 families from July 2010 to December 2017.
During the same period, the project director said, the government has constructed 7,543 barrack houses and rehabilitated 39,425 families there. The government has rehabilitated 29,587 families, who constructed houses on their own, he added.
He said a total of 802 villages under project already got electricity connection and around 0.4 million trees were planted in the project areas, where the rehabilitated people are living happily with income-generating activities and their children going to schools to become worthy citizens of the country.
The local government division has been implementing comprehensive social safety-net activities under the project for mainstreaming the rehabilitated people to be self-reliant with support, training and assistance from the government.
The adult male and female members of the rehabilitated families are receiving training on awareness about various issues, expertise and human resources development so that they can be engaged in income-generation activities.
