Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday vowed to ensure houses for all the homeless people at a programme marking the handing over about 33,000 government-built homes to another batch of extremely poor families as her Eid gift.

“We’ve been able to ensure electricity for 100 per cent people. Now 100 per cent (homeless) people will get the houses. None will remain landless and shelter-less in Bangladesh,” she said.

The prime minister was addressing the house distribution function among 32,904 homeless and landless families across the country under the third phase of the Ashrayan-2 Project.

She inaugurated the distribution of semi-pucca abodes, joining a virtual function from her official residence Ganobhaban in the morning.

Sheikh Hasina exchanged views with beneficiaries from the four cluster housing places at Nagarkanda Upazila in Faridpur, Barguna Sadar Upazila, Sirajganj Sadar Upazila and Anwara Upazila in Chattogram through a videoconference.

The PM said she doesn’t know whether such a housing initiative was taken in any other country across the world.

“To me, power is to serve the people and work for the people. So, today I’ve been working so that not a single person will remain homeless or shelter-less in Bangladesh,” she asserted.

Also read:Ashrayan-2: About 33, 000 homeless families get homes as PM's Eid gift

She said alongside building Digital Bangladesh with modern technology and knowledge, the biggest goal of her government is to change the fate of the destitute people --who have no future or can’t dare to dream. “We’ve been working to execute the goal,” she said.

Hasina, also the president of Bangladesh Awami League, asked her party leaders and activists to follow the ideology of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to bring smiles on the faces of unhappy people.

“We have to go forward overcoming all barriers. Inshallah, we’ll build ‘Sonar Bangla’ as dreamt by the Father of the Nation,” she said.

The PM said the government rehabilitated not only destitute people, but also the neglected communities like leprosy patients, Bede (water gipsy) and transgender by providing houses under the Ashrayan project.

She said her government has given recognition to the transgender community by giving them with a separate identity. No transgender child should be separated from the family. Islam has also ensured their rights in the family, she added.

Noting that Bangladesh has earned global dignity, she said no one now can ignore Bangladesh and dare to term it a disaster- and famine-hit country. “Rather Bangladesh is a role model for development,” said the prime minister.

Also read:PM’s Ashrayan Project: Homeless Hanufa, thousands more to get own homes on Tuesday

Hasina expressed her gratitude to the people and voters for giving her scope to serve them by electing her time and again.

All costs behind vaccination needs to be counted: Hasina

In an oblique reference to the recent TIB’s claim that spending on Covid vaccination lacks transparency, the PM said it would not be enough to count the prices of vaccines only, rather it needs to count all the expenditures spent during the vaccination programme.

She said it needs to count the expenditures spent behind the volunteers, health workers and doctors, vaccination centres, procurement of refrigerators to keep vaccines at minus 25-70 degree Celsius, construction of AC rooms in the rural areas to supply the vaccines up to Union-level, procurement of vaccination kits including syringes and personal protective equipment (PPEs) for the manpower of the vaccination programme, and other purposes.

“If you add all the costs, you will get accurate information and know how many thousand crore taka was spent behind it,” she said, adding that the government vaccinated the people at free of cost.

Referring to the resurgence in Covid-19 infection rate in different countries, Hasina asked all to remain cautious and follow the health protocol.

The distribution of the houses along with land came as part of the government’s initiative to provide houses to all landless and homeless families on the occasion of “Mujib Year” as the prime minister promised that no one will remain without a home in the country.

Each unit has two rooms, a kitchen, a toilet and a veranda costing Tk 259,500 without tax and VAT. The amount is Tk 330,000 with tax and VAT.

Alongside the houses, the ownership documents of a two decimal land were given to each family.

Earlier, the government had given 63,999 houses on January 23, 2021 in the first phase, while 53,330 houses on June 20, 2021 in the second phase under the Ashrayan-2, a project of the Prime Minister’s Office, during the Mujib Year.

The Ashrayan Project also rehabilitated 507,244 landless and homeless families from 1997 to December 2022.

PMO Senior Secretary Md. Tofazzel Hossain Miah conducted the house distribution function.