The government plans to begin construction by the end of September on 2,364 flats for families of people killed and injured in the July uprising, State Minister for Housing and Public Works Ahmed Sohel Manzur said.
The project would build 804 flats for bereaved families and 1,560 for injured people whose names appear in the official gazette, Manzur told Amar Desh at the Secretariat on Tuesday. He said the tender process had been completed and the bids were under evaluation.
Manzur said the government hoped Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would inaugurate the project and lay its foundation stone. He said providing housing in Dhaka for affected families was a major government responsibility.
The government plans 33 buildings in Kalshi, Mirpur: 12 10-story buildings and six 14-story buildings for families of those killed, and 15 14-story buildings for injured people. Manzur said the project could be completed within three years if work starts in September.
He said the initiative was intended as recognition of the victims’ sacrifice and that the government was continuing allowances and other support for bereaved families and injured people.
Manzur said he also remained in contact with affected families in his home area of Pirojpur.
He said the July uprising had grown out of a longer series of protests, including BNP demands to restore the caretaker-government system, and alleged that people had become frustrated by corruption, repression, disappearances and disputed elections under the Awami League government.
He said BNP student leaders joined the quota-reform movement and asserted that leaders now associated with the National Citizen Party had later acknowledged support and direction from the current prime minister while he was in London. Those political claims were made by the minister.
Manzur said the government would uphold every provision of the July Charter, while accusing opposition Jamaat-e-Islami of trying to divert discussion of the charter in Parliament.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report