LAHORE, May 25 As many as 25,000 internally displaced families from Swat and other areas of the region will be issued 'Benazir Smart Cards' that will entitle them to get free health facilities, life insurance and vocational training to one of their members.

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Farzana Raja told a press conference here on Monday.

She said the issuance of the smart cards had begun from Peshawar, adding some 529 displaced women from Fata living at a camp there had been issued the cards.

She said the card holders would get monthly stipend of Rs1,000, besides free healthcare facilities at public hospitals, life insurance in case of accident and vocational training for one member of the family.

The families having BISP registration were also being issued the smart card, she said.

The card would bear thumb impression of the holder instead of her picture, she said, adding it would also serve as poverty score card containing all details of financial status of the holder.

Farzana said the government had set up 21 camps in Malakand division to register the displaced families under the BISP.

She said President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had also issued directives to include the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the BISP.

She said 2.6 million BISP forms had been under process. Some 1.8 million families had started receiving the stipend, she added.

She said Rs11 billion had been disbursed among the deserving families so far. The government had allocated Rs34 billion for the programme which would be doubled in the next budget.

Farzana Raja said a total of 3.5 million deserving families would benefit from the programme by the end of June this year.

She said under a transparent mechanism, some 400,000 forms had been rejected for not fulfilling the prescribed criterion. She said action had been taken against a dozen employees of Post Offices on the charges of corruption in the delivery of BISP funds.