Karachi: The Sindh government has said that in three days it has transferred Rs 2.14 billion to over one million low-income families in the province to help them during Ramadan.
This was disclosed by Sindh Information Minister, Sharjeel Inam Memon while speaking at a press briefing held to apprise media about progress in executing a special cash assistance programme for needy families during Ramadan for subsidising their expenditure on purchasing wheat flour.
Memon informed media persons that so far over 3.8 million families in the province had received text messages on their cellular phones confirming their status as the recipient of the special cash assistance.
He said the Sindh government using the database of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), comprising verified needy families, had adopted such a system for special cash transfers that the deprived people were not required to stand in long queues for receiving assistance.
He said such a payment strategy had been devised keeping in view recurring incidents in the rest of the country where people had to face serious hardships and often had to endanger their safety to get free wheat flour.
He told journalists that the Sindh government had reserved a sum of over Rs 15 billion for speedy cash distribution among 7.8 million needy families in Ramadan.
Memon said the concerned provincial authorities were willing to allocate another Rs 5 billion if more deserving families contacted the BISP centres for verification of their eligibility to receive the special cash aid. The applications of such deserving families will be processed within 24 hours.
While terming the recent deaths of 12 people during the distribution of food rations and cash assistance among needy people by a private factory in Karachi a heartbreaking tragedy, he said that ample arrangements hadn’t been made by the mill owner for conducting the relief campaign.
He said the concerned donors and philanthropists from the private sector should inform the district administration and police before conducting such a charitable activity so that ample arrangements could be made in advance to ensure the safety of the deserving people who turn up in very large numbers at such distribution points.
He informed media persons that the Sindh Chief Minister had announced Rs 500,000 compensation for the families whose members died in the stampede in Karachi and Rs 100,000 assistance for the people injured in the incident.
