Flood victims yet to get house building grant in Bogra

As a result thousands of people are still living under open sky, according to a responsible officer in the district administration.

The fell victims due to flood, incessant rains and river erosion in the month of August.

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District Relief and Rehabilitation Office (DRRO) sources told this correspondent over 54, 389 houses were fully or partly damaged in Dhunat, Shariakandi, Sonatola and six other upazilas including Sherpur.

At least 23, 255 houses were damaged in Dhunat upazila alone due to flood, rain and Jamuna erosion while more than 15,000 houses got damaged by flood and erosion by the Jamuna and Bangali rivers in Shariakandi upazila.

Shariakand Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Akbar Hossain told this correspondent, the authorities distributed one lakh 38,000 taka which was sanctioned earlier to rebuild houses. But the grant was insufficient. It is not possible to distribute allocated one lakh and 49 thousand taka among flood victims in Dhunat upazila area as the amount was insufficient, according to local UNO Al-Amin.

DRRO sources said, government realised four lakh taka house building grant to rebuild 400 houses in the affected areas. But the government is yet to respond to the demand for additional allocation of over 20 lakh taka required for repair of damaged 54,000 houses said, a responsible official of DRRO.

On average, the government allocated Tk 13 for rebuilding each house. About 38,000 houses were damaged in flood affected Sherpur upazila, according to sources in local administration. An amount of Tk 4,000 was allocated to rebuild 1,345 damaged houses in Gabtoli upazila, according to DRRO sources.

Concerned officials said the government allocated 1,792 metric tons (MT) of rice for maintenance of 1,702 kilometer (KM) road, 17 km embankment, 187 small size bridges and culverts and 501 other establishments under post flood Test Relief (TR) Programme.

All the upazila authorities are yet to submit their project proposal (PP), according to DRRO sources.

Work on the TR Project was supposed to be started by October 15, according to a senior official of the district administration.