‘Flood aid not reaching the deserving’

NA panel grills officials on flood aid distribution

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation grilled the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) officials on Monday, saying that a number of flood victims were still deprived of the assistance announced by the government through their institution.

The committee chairperson Saira Bano told the BISP secretary that she had videos of so many people, who complained that the flood aid had not reached them. She summoned the officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for further briefing on the matter.

BISP secretary briefed the committee members about the assistance distribution. The committee was informed that more than 2.8 million families in the flood affected areas had been given cash assistance.

The secretary further said that the NDMA had completed the survey of the affected areas. To a query, the secretary said that previously door-to-door survey was carried out but now the practice had been changed to house-to-house survey.

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The secretary added that they would be open for 24 hours for registration of the affected persons from January 15 and anyone who believed they were eligible for the programme would be able to register themselves.

Committee member Zulfiqar Behan claimed that people registered their names in the BISP by paying Rs10,000. Behan told the official that the ground reality was different from what the officials had been saying. Another committee member, Shagufta Jumani, said that the BISP should have focused on women working at home.

Jumani also raised the issue of the death of a person, who died in a stampede at the sale point of cheap flour in Mirpurkhas. She added that wherever the flour was sold at the government-controlled price, there appeared to be chaotic scenes.

The chair observed that the help had not reached the deserving people. She pointed out that even a village, located near a police training centre, had not received the flood assistance till date. She said that the problem lay in the hiring of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by the BISP.

The assistance was not reaching the deserving people, Bano told the committee. The committee then summoned the NDMA officials in the next meeting regarding relief in the flood-affected areas.