More than 5,000 slum dwellers in Rajshahi city are going to get housing facilities, valued at around Tk5 crore, for the first time in the metropolis.
Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) is providing the facilities under its Community Housing Development Fund, with financial support from Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP).
The Local Government Engineering Department has been implementing the project in the city in association with the UNDP and financial and technical supports from UKAid and UN Habitat, reports BSS.
As part of his continuous launching programme, City Mayor Mosaddique Hossain Bulbul inaugurated the construction work of a house at Assam Colony slum yesterday as chief guest.
RCC Ward Councillors Munir Hossain, Momtaj Mohal Laily, Executive Engineer Nur Islam Tusser and UPPRP Town Manager Mahbubul Alam were present on the occasion.
According to the officials concerned, the project’s aim is to improve the living and livelihood condition of more than 250,000 impoverished – especially the females – in Rajshahi city by March 2015.
Under the project, more than 71,000 slum households and other underprivileged families across the city have come together in an anti-poverty savings scheme.
Through the savings and credit programmes, the communities now can operate their own savings schemes, and create a revolving fund from which they can manage their own credit operation.
Besides, under the socio-economic fund, education grants are being disbursed among drop-out school children, which also encourage them to continue with their education.
The programme promotes household- and community-level urban food production technology demonstrations, providing small input to support especially high-yielding varieties of vegetable and fruits seeds, saplings and poultry vaccination.