Dream houses are being built for about 800 homeless people in Thakurgaon with the slogan 'Right to Asylum is Sheikh Hasina's gift'. On the occasion of Mujib Barsho, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will gift these houses to the landless and homeless people of the district.
On January 23, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to hand over these houses to the homeless people of the district along with other beneficiaries across the country simultaneously through video conferencing.
About 2.34 acres of Khas land in Baradeswari area under Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila had been in the possession of local influential people for a long time. The district administration rescued it and started the construction of 87 houses there for the homeless people.
These houses are being constructed under the Asrayan-2 project of the Prime Minister's Office. For the construction of each of these semi-pucca houses with two-rooms, a toilet, a kitchen and a tube well Tk 1.71 lakh has been allocated. In order to hand over the houses built in the first phase, the work of filling the houses with soil, putting corrugated tin on the celling and the work of painting is currently going on in full swing.
Construction of 789 houses in 5 upazilas of Thakurgaon district is now in the final stage. Among these 790 houses, 333 in Sadar upazila, 85 in Pirganj upazila, 70 in Ranishankail upazila, 65 in Baliadangi upazila and 236 houses are being constructed in Haripur upazila of Thakurgaon.
Parveen Begum, Abdul Jalil and several other beneficiaries said, “We used to live on someone else's land until now. We could not build a house like the one we are getting as gift, with the little wage we get through day labor. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has fulfilled our dream by providing us with a dream house and we are grateful to her for that”.
Thakutgaon Sadar Upazila’s Dholarhat UP Chairman Simanta Kumar Barman Nirmal said the homeless people who are being rehabilitated could never build such houses on their own. These homeless and helpless families have expressed their gratitude to the government for constructing them a permanent houses.
Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Abdullah Al-Mamun said that the construction of 333 houses in his upazila is in the final stage. All the houses have been constructed as per the design of the Prime Minister's Office.
He added, Deputy Commissioner of Thakurgaon has been supervising the quality of work from the very beginning. Beneficiaries have already been selected in collaboration with the UP Chairmen and each homeless family will soon be handed over papers of 2 decimal land and the keys to the house built on it.
Thakurgaon Deputy Commissioner Dr. KM Kamruzzaman Selim said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has made arrangements to provide houses to the homeless and landless on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As part of this, landless and homeless people have been identified in Thakurgaon.
There are about 7,800 homeless people in Thakurgaon. In the first phase, 789 people are being rehabilitated among them. Immediately after the official inauguration by the Prime Minister, the land deeds will be handed over along with the acceptance and Namarari forms and these families will get full right of the residence, he added.
