LAHORE: Distribution of financial assistance under the federal government’s Ehsaas programme began in Punjab on Thursday as around 2.2 million poorest of the poor women will get Rs12,000 in the first phase within the next six days.

The poorest of the poor women, selected for the first phase, were earlier getting financial assistance from the Benazir Income Support Programme.

Since the Punjab government had merged its Rs10 billion Insaaf Imdad Programme (IIP) with the federal government’s Ehsaas Programme, an official told Dawn that the provincial government had provided all fresh applications’ data to the federal government along with the allocated funds. “The federal government is currently sifting the applications’ data from Punjab to avoid duplication and will begin distribution of accumulated financial assistance of Rs12,000 by the middle of next week.”

In Punjab, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has set up some 480 camps in different buildings in all districts to provide financial assistance to the women besides 16,000 Easy Paisa and Jazz Cash shops.

While the PDMA ensured proper disinfection activities as well as social distancing in the designated buildings, the authority had also got the Easy Paisa and Jazz Cash shops exempted from the Section 144.

The Punjab government had launched the Rs10bn IIP to offer financial assistance of Rs4,000 to 2.5 million vulnerable families and sought applications from deserving families on SMS or through the specifically designed cell phone App and website.

As the Punjab government collected applications, it had to send all the data to the federal government for verification from Nadra as well as BISP.

In the meanwhile, sources told Dawn that the Punjab government realised that there might be some duplication so it offered the federal government to include the IIP in its Ehsaas Programme and offer accumulated financial assistance of Rs12,000 to the deserving families.

Upon the federal government’s nod, the Punjab government not only provided the latest applications data but the IIP’s allocated amount of Rs10bn to sift data and offer accumulated Rs12,000 financial assistance to the needy families. “The assistance through centralised system will help end any risk of duplication,” a Punjab government official said.

The official said the Punjab government had separate verified data of some 170,000 people getting zakat and it added its Insaf Imdad Programme’s Rs4,000 to the six-month zakat of Rs9,000 and paid the accumulated Rs13,000 amount to the zakat recipients during the last month.

GUJRAT: As many as 21,000 families have been identified for the financial assistance in the district.

The distribution started at 14 centres across the district, including eight in Gujrat, four in Kharian and two in Sara-i-Alamgir.

As many as 12,000 families of Gujrat teshsil, 8,700 of Kharian and 2,000 of Sara-i-Alamgir would be among the initial beneficiaries of the scheme.

He said the recipient families were already benefiting from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and the data of more people would be prepared by NADRA as per the government instructions.

BAHAWALPUR: The district administration began distribution of assistance to the deserving 1,02,000 people at 45 centres.

The administration completed the arrangements under the supervision of assistant commissioners where the instructions of social distancing were followed.

The DC inspected the camp at a school ground at Chak 12-BC.

CHINIOT: Use of the same biometric device for fingerprints for Ehsaas programme may cause spread of the coronavirus.

The government is providing aid to 23,000 needy women of the district through six centres. There were some 1,000 chairs separated by six feet distance in each centre and more than 100 teachers and as many policemen, patwaris and security staff were posted for smooth functioning of the centre besides the bank staff with biometric machines.

Chiniot DC Muhammad Riaz said Rs276m would be distributed among 23,000 needy women in the district.

Although the staff was providing hand sanitisers at entry point but many of the rural

women stormed the gate without sanitising their hands. At the counter, the same biometric machine is used to take fingerprints without disinfecting the sensor. This may pose risks to the recipients.

The citizens have demanded the authorities concerned skip the biometric verification and provide the assistance on presentation of the CNICs.

MUZAFFARGARH: Nineteen centres for distribution of relief in four tehsils of the district started distributing aid among the deserving.

However, a centre set up at Government High School Rangpur could not start and the administration said it would be functional today (Friday). As many as 120,000 beneficiaries of the would receive the assistance.

SIALKOT: DC Dr Nasir Mehmood Bashir said the financial assistance would be given to 16,000 deserving families in the district.

He said 10 centres in the district had been established for facilitating the recipients.

SARGODHA: Commissioner Dr Farah Masood said distribution of aid among 125,000 women already registered with the BISP had been started in the division.

She added that in addition to union councils, over 50 distribution centres had been set up and all the DCs had been instructed to take precautionary measures for coronavirus.

SAHIWAL: Around 36, 000 deservingpersonsstarted getting assistance at nine centres in the district.

DC Zeeshan Javed said 23,000 of the recipients belonged to tehsil Sahiwal while 13,000 belonged to tehsil Chichawatni. Six centres have been set up in tehsil Sahiwal while three in tehsil Chichawatni.

RAHIM YAR KHAN: Seventeen centres have been established in the district for distribution of the aid.

Six centres have been established in tehsil Sadiqabad, five in Rahim Yar Khan and three each in tehsil Khanpur and Liaqatpur.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020