Govt move to expand \\\'one house, one farm\\\' project

The government has initiated a move to push forward the ongoing 'Ektee Bari, Ektee Khamar (One House, One Farm)' project through increasing the number of Gram Unnayan Samity (village development associations) to make the rural people self-reliant, officials said.

"There will be 23,139 more Gram Unnayan Samity which will include 1.4 million members to push the project forward," an official of the project told the FE Wednesday.

The 'Ektee Bari, Ektee Khamar project is now being implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives to help rural people become self-reliant.

The allocation for the "Ektee Bari, Ektee Khamar project has been increased by 111 per cent in the second revision to cover all unions of the country.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project's second revision with a cost of Tk 316.29 million to gear up the ongoing project.

The project started in July 2009 with an estimated cost of Tk 12 billion. The project will expire on June 30, 2016.

At present there are 17,300 samity. The members of the samity are now 1.04 million. Each of the union has 9 Gram Unnayan Samity. Each samity has 60 members.   

Each of the samity gets Tk 1,50,000 revolving loan from the government annually. The samity initially provides Tk 10,000 loan to its members for maintaining their livelihood through agriculture, fisheries, rearing livestock and gardening.    

"We have started forming 23,139 new samity. We will be able to complete our task by December this year to make rural people self-reliant," the official said.