CM approves ration subsidy scheme

Programme will provide the poor flour, pulses, cooking oil

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has approved the Ehsaas Ration Subsidy Programme under which needy people of the province will be provided a stipend of Rs1,500 per month.

Presiding over a meeting of the Ehsaas Programme on Sunday, the chief minister said the ration subsidy programme will provide poor people subsidised flour, pulses, cooking oil and other essential food items.

The chief minister constituted a steering committee under the leadership of Dr Sania Nishtar and advised the rapid constitution of a separate authority to execute public welfare programmes of the provincial government.

He also ordered officials concerned to prepare draft legislation for the ‘Ehsaas Act’, which will be passed by the provincial assembly, to provide legal cover besides constitution of a working group and monitoring mechanism for smooth functioning of the public welfare schemes of the province. He underscored that promulgation of the legislation will not only provide legal cover to public welfare projects but will not allow the future provincial governments to roll back the schemes initiated under the act.

He underscored that the programme would help in reducing poverty and provide food security to underprivileged strata of the society.

He said it is the responsibility of the welfare state to give protection to the underprivileged population. The government has initiated the process to review all public welfare schemes with an aim to integrate them for better and efficient utilisation of available resources.

Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan had directed the Punjab government last month to restore the flagship Ehsaas programmes of his government in Punjab.

He instructed the Punjab chief minister to swiftly restore the public welfare schemes targeted at the low-income population of the province.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2022.