At 90 Sundari Begum relies on a wooden stick to move around.

Until last year Sundari had no home that she could call her own. With a son, a daughter and several grandchildren she used to live in a ramshackle house that belonged to a neighbor.

The housing woes of her family ended when she was given a house and a piece of land last year under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Ashrayan Project-2 at Pabna Sadar union.

PM declares 12 districts, 123 upazilas free of homeless people

“Since I got the house no one can call me a homeless destitute. I am happy now as Hasina (Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina), gave me the house,” she told a visiting UNB correspondent. “May Allah give her a long life.”

The project has provided land and shelter to thousands of poor people since the celebration of Mujib Year marking the 100th birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during 2020-21.

Two more upazilas to be declared free of homeless and landless in Chandpur

On Wednesday another 22,101 people became beneficiaries of the project after PM Hasina declared another 12 districts and 123 upazilas free of homeless and landless people under Ashrayan-2 project.

She made the announcement and opened the distribution of the semi-pucca houses to the homeless and landless families through a videoconference from her official residence Ganabhaban.

With the 12 districts and 123 upazilas, a total of 21 districts and 334 upazilas throughout the country have so far become homeless and landless family-free ones.

The keys of 22,101 houses and the ownership documents of a two-decimal of house lands were handed over to the families in different districts of the country. Some 115,000 people are being rehabilitated in the houses.

The premier was connected virtually with the beneficiaries and local people of three places while distributing the houses to the landless and homeless families on the sixth occasion since Mujib Year.

PM Hasina to provide free houses and lands to over 22,000 families Wednesday under Ashrayan project

The three places are Barasat Sonar Bangla Palli Ashrayan Project site in Terokhada Upazila under Khulna, Chakla Ashrayan-2 project site in Bera Upazila under Pabna, and Amanullahpur Ashrayan project site in Begumganj Upazila under Noakhali district.

The 12 districts that earned the distinction of becoming free of landless and homeless families are Manikganj, Rajbari, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Natore, Pabna, Kushtia, Pirojpur and Jhalakathi.