PM Hasina urges affluent people to stand by destitute

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday urged the affluent section of the society to come forward and stand beside the destitute people, saying her government is working to ensure house for each landless and homeless people.

“Not a single person in Bangladesh will remain landless or address-less. That is our goal,” she said while a delegation of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) called on her at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the capital.

Prime minister’s deputy press secretary KM Shakhawat Moon briefed newspersons after the meeting.

He said in the function 36 banks donated a total of Tk 113.25 crore (over 1.13 billion) to construct the houses for landless and homeless people under Ashrayan project.

Calling upon the well-off persons to come forward to build houses for landless and homeless, Sheikh Hasina said, “not only the government, but also we all will take the country forward on the road of development.”

She said the lifestyle of many landless and homeless people have changed after getting land and home.

The prime minister also said most of the landless and homeless people have already been given land and home and there are few left which are also being constructed.

“Nothing can be greater than the smile and satisfaction of those people who got a house in the Ashrayan project,” she said.

She said many people who got Ashrayan houses on two-decimal lands are also growing vegetables, rearing chickens, getting involved in cottage industries and opening shops there.

“They’re finding a way to have a (decent) living. The life of the people is changing (improving),” she observed.

The prime minister thanked the BAB and bankers for providing donations on different occasions saying, “I don’t even need to tell you (for providing assistance). You all come spontaneously and help during any disaster and crisis.”

Focusing on the outcome of her government’s initiative to open banks in the private sector, she said 300,000 graduates were employed due to the establishment of private banks. “It’s a big matter,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina said the country is marching to prosperity overcoming all natural and manmade disasters.

Referring to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war on the global economy, she said, “We’re not in big trouble, unlike other countries. We are overcoming it.”

Conducted by prime minister’s principal secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah, BAB chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder also spoke at the meeting.