Registration of Ehsaas Ration drive to be sped up

In a bid to expand the Ehsaas Ration Registration drive, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Senator Dr Sania Nishtar met Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal on Tuesday to discuss a detailed plan to expedite the registration process.

DG Social Welfare, Secretary of Food, commissioners and deputy commissioners of all the districts of Punjab attended the meeting.

A detailed plan was shared with the Punjab district administration to expedite the registration of Kiryana retailers and families under the ongoing Ehsaas Ration Registration drive.

Outlining the details of the Ehsaas Ration programme, Dr Sania urged the district administrations in Punjab to support the ongoing registration drive with Kiryana retailers and families.

“The successful roll-out of Ehsaas Ration programme relies on onboarding Kiryana stores who are not currently part of the digital ecosystem. The government will provide a subsidy amount and eight per cent specialised commission to Kiryana retailers directly in their bank accounts. Every quarter, lucky draws will also be held to award cars, motorcycles, mobile phones and several other prizes to the best performing Kiryana owners”, she said.

During the meeting, all commissioners and their sub-ordinates of Punjab were encouraged to conduct awareness campaigns in lower-income areas to raise cognizance of the Ehsaas Ration drive, conduct meetings with all local trader associations to apprise them of the programme and ask them to encourage their member Kiryana stores to register for the programme, visit Kiryana stores to answer their questions about the programme and advertise the programme to potential participants.

Read SAPM rejects graft in Ehsaas cash

Under the programme, 20 million deserving families will avail a monthly subsidy of Rs1,000 on flour, ghee and cooking oil apart from pulses. Kiryana retailers can also enroll in the programme through the web portal: https://ehsaasrashan.pass.gov.pk/.

Kiryana retailers all over the country need to have a bank account for registration. Those without bank accounts can contact any branch of NBP for account opening.

The authorized Kiryana retailers will be able to participate in the programme by installing the mobile point of Sale App on their cell phones for which they will receive training from the National Bank of Pakistan.

Punjab chief secretary and district administrations widely lauded the Ehsaas Ration programme and ensured full support for its registration drive.

It was agreed that a regular weekly meeting will be convened to track the registration drive across all districts of Punjab.

Poverty Alleviation Secretary Muhammad Ali Shahzada, Social Safety Division Cap (retd) Saeed Ahmed Nawaz, Additional Secretary of the Division Humayun Sajjad, chief digital officer NBP and other senior officials of the bank were also part of the briefing.