ZCZC
BSS-11
ASRAYAN-BENEFICIARIES-GRATITUDE
Asrayan Prokalpa ignites heaps of hope for homeless people
By Syed Altefat Hossain
COX’S BAZAR, July 24, 2020 (BSS) – What one feels when he or she sets eyes on homeless people? The grim sight that portrays homeless people breathe and battle in a painstaking world of poverty can grab him or her.
No one requires any further reminding that food, cloth and house are essential to human life, but refugees and displaced persons bereft of these basic needs feel like a fish out of water.
From the very beginning, after she took the oath as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina has been on a mission to provide all necessary amenities to the homeless people of the country. As a sequel to it, her government has embarked on a scheme titled Asrayan Prokalpa to provide flats to the homeless families living in dilapidated shanties or under open sky.
Septuagenarian Jamal Uddin, an inhabitant of Kutubdia upazila, had been living in a shanty with an 11-member family for the last three decades in the airport area of this southeastern beach town after being turned homeless following the deadly 1991 cyclone.
But luckily enough, he is now set to spend the rest of his life in a five-storey building having all modern facilities for the first time in his life, thanks to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s landmark Khurushkul Asrayan Project, also the world’s biggest housing scheme for the climate refugees.
Jamal is one of the 600 climate refuge families who were provided a 456.07 square feet flat each in exchange of only Taka 1,001 on Thursday in the first phase of the Khurushkul special rehabilitation scheme here under the Asrayan Prokalpa-2, one of the Prime Ministers Special 10 Initiatives.
The 600 families have been rehabilitated in 20 just-built special structures having 32 flats in each building equipped with ramp system for people with disabilities, solar panels, safe drinking water, electricity, sanitation, waste management, drainage, cylinder gas and burner in Khurushkul area on the outskirts of the town.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened the landmark project and handed over abodes to the homeless families through a video conferencing from her official Ganabhaban residence in the capital on Thursday.
Talking to BSS, elderly Jamal Uddin, father of six sons and three daughters, said the 1991 devastating cyclonic storm had left nothing to make their livelihoods.
“I took shelter at a shanty at Kudubdia Para in the airport area here after the 1991 cyclone.
Since then, I have been leading a miserable life with a large family,” he said.
He also said that they had always to remain alert about any maritime signal and run towards the shelter centers like other coastal people during any natural calamity, a painful reality of their life.
“But, after getting the honorable Prime Ministers gift (a 456.07 square feet flat with modern facilities), I am feeling relaxed as from now on we will have not to run towards shelter centers in case of a maritime signal,” the septuagenarian added.
Expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for taking such a landmark initiative for rehabilitating the climate vulnerable people, Jamal said, “I have no word to express my gratefulness to the premier. I just want to utter Honorable Prime Minister! Assalamu Alaikum. Thank you.”
According to the Coxs Bazar district administration, a total of 4,409 families, all of them were inhabitants of Kutubdia upazila and victims of the 1991 fatal cyclone, had taken shelter in the Kutubdia Para, Samiti Para and Najirar Tek in in the airport area on the outskirts of the district town after losing everything in the sea during the cyclone.
The government, however, has taken the Khurushkul special rehabilitation scheme under the Asrayan Prokalpa-2 to rehabilitate all of them by constructing 139 five-storey buildings on 253.59 acres of land at a cost of Taka 1800.39 crore.
Jahanara Begum, also an inhabitant of Kutubdia Para and another beneficiary of the first phase of the Khurushkul special rehabilitation scheme, echoed the sentiment of Jamal and said she had been living at the Kutubdia Para for the last 30 years with her husband, an Imam of a local mosque, and four children — three sons and a daughter.
“We came here falling prey to the 1991 fatal cyclonic storm that took away everything of our life,” she said.
Appreciating the government for taking such initiative of rehabilitating the families appeared to be climate refugees, embattled middle-aged Jahanara said, We are grateful to the present government and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Another beneficiary of the Asrayan project, physically-challenged Yousuf Jamal (55) breathed a sigh of relief with the hope that they were going to be freed from problems like waterlogging, floods, tidal surge etc.
“Kutubdia Para where we had been living for the last three decades is a low lying area which is usually inundated by tidal surge,” he said.
“But now there would have no such problem in the rehabilitation area as the government has taken holistic approach to make us safe from natural disasters and create employment in a single place,” Jamal, father of two sons and a daughter, said.
“I pray for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and I wish her a sound health and a long life,” he added.
Abul Bashar and Rokeya Begum, residents of Samity Para in the airport area are among the 600 families, who got the flats in the Khurushkul special rehabilitation project, now see a better future.
Ashrayans project director Md Mahbub Hossain on Wednesday said that apart from the rehabilitation of the 600 families under the first phase of the Khurushkul project, 119 more buildings will be constructed to rehabilitate the rest of the 3,809 climate refugee families by 2023 under the management of Bangladesh Army.
The project area will be well-equipped with rain water harvesting systems, deep tube-wells, small bridges, a helipad, a power substation, canals, two jetties, a primary school cum cyclone shelter, a secondary school cum cyclone shelter, two separate cyclone shelters and mosques, he said.
Hossain said the Khurushkul Asrayan Prokalpa would have four zones a residential area, a tourism site, a dried fish processing area or shutki mahal and a buffer precinct with greenery.
The blend of commitment and continuation of the project is making the scheme full of opportunities for the rehabilitated families and certainly, it would help to achieve the goal of house for all.
BSS/SPL/SAH/KU/1418 HRS