30 centres set up across city for distribution of cash

Assistant commissioners are supervising operation of cash disbursement

LAHORE: The government has started disbursement of financial aid of Rs12,000 per family in the provincial capital under the Ehsas Emergency Cash Programme (EECP) – the biggest-ever cash relief scheme of Rs144 billion in Pakistan.

Lahore Deputy Commissioner Danish Afzal, on Saturday, highlighted that the local administration has established 30 cash disbursement centres in all five tehsils of the metropolis. “As many as 59,000 needy families would receive financial assistance of approximately Rs71 million on the first day,” he said.

The assistant commissioners are supervising the operation of cash disbursement among poor while police and army had been deployed to maintain law and order and to avoid any untoward incident, he indicated.

All assistant commissioners, he said, had been instructed to make sure needy families would get the full amount as announced by the government. Afzal pointed out that necessary safety measures had been taken to maintain social distancing at cash disbursement centres. He also visited various cash disbursement centres in the city to check arrangements.



Speaking to The Express Tribune, a middle-aged woman expressed her satisfaction over the financial aid arrangements. She was all praise for Prime Minister Imran Khan on his financial assistance to the poor families during this emergency. She highlighted that her husband had failed to find any work since lockdown and it had become really difficult for them to eat two meals a day.

“I will use this money to buy grocery for the family and milk for the infant,” she said.

Another woman, Zohra Begum, pointed out that she along with her daughters made decorative items of papers and beads for weddings and other functions. “This lockdown has snatched our livelihood. We have no work for the past two weeks as the entire city has been closed. I also worked as domestic help but the viral disease has closed this opportunity too,” she lamented.

The list of cash disbursement centres showed that special centres have been established in Government CDG School, Main GT Road, Shahdara; Government Model School for Boys, Chamra Mandi; Government Ayesha Degree College, Timber Market; Government Central Model School, Rattigan Road; LDA School for Boys H-Block, Sabzazar; and CDG Girls High School, Multan Road in City Tehsil.

Similarly, cash disbursement centres have been set up in Government High School, Maraka Multan Road; Government High School for Boys, Multan Road Manga Mandi; Government Girls High School, Chung; Government Girls High School, Arian; Government High School for Boys, Raiwind; Union Council 256 Office, Ali Raza Abad; Government High School, Babliana; and Government Primary School, Mauza Mank in Tehsil Raiwind.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2020.