Happy abode for landless people

Landless people of Sicharpara village and surrounding areas under Sonatola upazila of the district are delighted to get houses in the newly built cluster village.

The village was built in two years under Climate Victim Rehabilitation Project (CVRP) of the ministry of land. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated it on February 26 this year and 40 landless families started living in the allocated houses from the beginning of this month, he added.

The cluster village was built on 8.34 acres of land in the char areas of Bangalee and Shukdaha rivers at Khodadil village in Jorgaca union at a cost of Tk 63.72 lakh, Upazila Project Implementation Officer (PIO) Ziaur Rahman said.

Each house stands on four decimals of land and has a living room, kitchen, sanitary latrine and stove, the PIO said, adding that 40 families share one tube-well and a three-bigha pond. A cooperative has also been formed by the residents, the PIO added.

Beneficiaries Joygun Bewa, 55, and Jobeda Begum, 45, of Velurpara, Shamsul Haque, 55, Kona Begum, 45, of Goshaibari village, Azadul Mondal, 27, of Thakurpara village, Abdur Rashid Mondal, 30, of Khodadil village under the upazila said they had been living on others' lands or with relatives, adding that the government has made them free by giving them the houses and other facilities.

Jorgaca union parishad Chairman Rostom Ali Mondal said the government has taken an initiative to ensure housing for the landless and erosion-hit people of the chars in the Jamuna and Bangali rivers under the upazila. The people urged the authorities concerned to build more cluster villages for the remaining landless people.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Shakila Dil Hasin, also the president of the project, said residents of the cluster village can breed cattle, chicken and fish there.

Local lawmaker Abdul Mannan said it is a pledge of the present government to ensure housing for all, and it has spent more than Tk 1 crore for building two more cluster villages for 60 landless families in the same upazila.