PMO rehab projects in Kurigram in tatters

Two Ashrayan projects, run by Prime Minister’s Office at Porar Char under Kurigram sadar, seem to have been abandoned, with most of the inhabitants having already left the houses built under the projects.
Inaugurated by prime minister Sheikh Hasina in February last year, the rehabilitation projects — Brahmaputra and Begum Rokeya — have been taken to accommodate 220 landless and homeless families in 44 barracks.
But absence of basic amenities and dilapidated condition of the structures have driven most of the inhabitants to seek for better habitation.
During a recent visit to the projects, it was found that a few of the houses, called barracks in the project documents, have one or two inmates while most others were completely abandoned, with no roofs, doors, windows and other basic facilities including tube-wells and toilets.
The two adjoining projects under the Ashrayan-2 project, located on Brahmaputra river basin, were also found marooned by floodwater.
Joshna Banu, a dweller of Brahmaputra Ashrayan, said two months after the inauguration a storm swept over the area, badly damaging most of the barracks of the two projects.
‘As the roof, doors and windows of most of the barracks were badly damaged and have been left without repair since then, most of the families left the barracks in search of better dwellings,’ she said.
Joshna said that she had been living along with her four-member family in a room, the roof of which was not damaged by the storm, as she was yet find any shelters at other places of the district.
A dweller of Begum Rokeya Ashrayan project said that materials including CI sheets, iron angles, doors, windows, and brick were being stolen from the two projects but no initiatives taken by the government to stop such stealing.
Asad Ali, a resident of Porar Char and also member of ward 7 of Jatrapur union, alleged that the two projects were badly affected by a storm few months after their inaugural as poor construction materials were used in the work by the construction firm named Arif Enterprise.
He said that they had complained about the poor construction works but the authorities paid no heed.
SM Hamidul Haque, assistant director of PMO’s Ashrayan project-2, told New Age that they were yet to be informed by the deputy commissioner and the upazila nirbahi officer concerned about the dilapidated condition of the two projects.
‘We will take steps to repair houses under the projects if the UNO and DC place the demand,’ he added.
About the poor construction works, he said that they did not receive such allegations but they would go for action if anybody filed written allegation about it.
Kurigram sadar UNO Md Aminul Islam, however, said that they had formally informed the Ashrayan-2 project office shortly after the storm had hit the two projects.
The PMO has been executing the Ashrayan project with the assistance of Armed Forces Division, different government agencies and departments and district and upazila administration since 1997.
Under the Ashrayan-2 project, 50,000 landless, homeless, distressed and rootless families, specially victimised by the cyclone in the coastal region, river erosion and flood, will be rehabilitated in the shelters on government land.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net