Everyone to have an address: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the government is working to ensure access to affordable housing options for all so that no one in Bangladesh remains without shelter.

“Everyone will get an address,” she said while distributing newly-constructed flats among 300 families who had been living in slums in the capital.

She handed over allocation papers for the new flats in three 14-storey buildings on a rental basis. The Ministry of Housing and Public Works implemented the project at Mirpur 11.

“This is the Bangladesh of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Everyone in Bangladesh will get a better life ... that’s our goal,” she said at a programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Center after joining it virtually from Ganabahban.

Hasina said she thinks that materialising Bangabandhu’s dream is synonymous with the development of the country.

“Our only responsibility is to implement the dream of the Father of the Nation. I think that’s the development of Bangladesh,” she said.

Hasina said Bangabandhu thought about the welfare of the country and the people in a way that no one else could.

The prime minister said the government would arrange proper accommodation for the people living in slum-like areas.

Had Bangabandhu been alive, the people of Bangladesh would have had a developed life within 10 years of independence with urban-rural balanced development, she said.

“This is unfortunate [for Bangladesh] that he didn’t get the time as August 15 took him away. He didn’t get the chance to materialise his dream to reshape every village in a planned way,” said Hasina.

About the multi-storey integrated office building in Madaripur, where all government services will be available under one roof, she said saving the country’s land should always be kept in mind while carrying out development activities.

She said the government would gradually undertake such projects in every district and upazila.

Hasina said the government plans to construct flats at the upazila level to mitigate the accommodation problem of public servants. State Minister for Housing and Public Works Sharif Ahmed and Secretary Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker also spoke at the programme.