The government is going to extend the tenure of Ashrayan-II Project till June 30, 2017, and enhance its cost to Tk. 2,204 crore, ahead of the next general election. The project aims to rehabilitate more than 34,000 landless families. The revised project (Ashrayan-II) will be placed before the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in Sher-e-Banglanagar here on Tuesday. The ECNEC chairperson, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, will preside over the meeting.
The government took up the project in 2010. It was scheduled to be completed within 2014 to rehabilitate 50,000 landless and homeless families, especially those who were rendered homeless by deadly cyclones in the coastal region, river erosion and flood on khas land, resumed land and donated land.
The project aims at creating dynamic villages and stimulating socio-economic development of the people of Ashrayan-II.
According to Planning Commission sources, a total of 16,000 landless families has already been rehabilitated.
After coming to power, the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government began the second phase of the project to alleviate the poverty of the landless as well as the homeless by providing shelters and human resource development activities at a cost of Tk. 1,169 crore.According to the revised DPP, the project cost will increase to Tk. 2,204 crore from the original estimate of Tk. 1,169 crore.
The second phase of the project would render benefits to 50,000 people who have been hit by the cyclones Sidr and Aila.
Sources said the poverty alleviation project, under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), would provide civic facilities, including electricity, pure drinking water, sanitation, basic education, healthcare and skilled development of income-generating activities, to ultra-poor families.
The project will work directly with civil and human rights issues of the target population. It aims to distribute the title deeds of land ownership, so that poor people could express their political preferences and fall under the net of services provided by the government.
Under the revised DPP, multi-storey buildings will be constructed in city corporation and municipal areas at district and upazila levels to rehabilitate the landless. Besides, special attention will be given to the people living near the Cox’s Bazar airport, who were affected during the construction of the runway.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had launched the rehabilitation campaign, Ashrayan-I, in 1997, and 108,646 families were rehabilitated till 2010.
-With The Independent input
