Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said her government would try its best to rehabilitate the country’s homeless people during its remaining period, reports UNB.

‘Some two years and eight months are still left for our current tenure to complete, and we’ll have to provide these poor people with home during the period,’ she said.

The Prime Minister said this while presiding over a review meeting on implementation, progress and future action plan of Ashrayan-2 Project, One House One Farm project, Cluster Village project, Ghorey Phera programme and Housing Fund Project at her office.

The meeting was informed that there are some 10 lakh landless families now in the country while the number of homeless families is 2.80 lakh.

About micro-credit’s impacts, Hasina said poor people could not come out from the vicious cycle of poverty as the microcredit with the high interest rates nurtures poverty. ‘We want to enable people to make savings; we don’t want to nurture poverty.’

The Prime Minister directed the officials concerned of the projects to work in a coordinated manner and further expedite implementation of various projects under the Prime Minister’s Office to ensure houses for every homeless of the country.

She said the aim of her government is to remove income inequality and reducing gap between the rich and the poor as well as further alleviate poverty from the country. ‘Our goal is also to improve the living standards of rural people, not only the urban people.’

Sheikh Hasina stressed the need for working together to create awareness among the poor people so that they themselves can develop their own fate availing of the government supports.

She directed the authorities concerned to maintain the records of those who are being provided of shelter or houses so that no one could take undue benefits from government programmes.

The Prime Minister stressed the need for marketing of agro-based products and their processing.

Pointing to some cases of selling materials of the houses built under Asrayan project in the past and taking possession of such houses by the influential persons, Hasina asked the officials concerned so that such malpractice cannot take place again.

She stressed the need for protecting houses through constructing barracks and forming cooperatives to ensure the living of people there.

About the rehabilitation of slum dwellers in the capital, Hasina said rented flats could be built for those people on its outskirts like Kamrangirchar.

Prime Minister's Advisers HT Imam and Dr Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, PM's Principal Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad, PMO Secretary Suraiya Begum and Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim were present.