Ramazan relief data found wanting

Local officials struggle to trace deserving families

JARANWALA:

The local administrations are facing difficulties in verifying the data of families registered with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the distribution of food bags under the Nigehban Ramazan programme of the Punjab government.

Sources said the provincial government had provided the data for over 4.044 million families comprising in Faisalabad district, including 1.05 million in the city tehsil and 57,000 in the rural areas of Saddar, who would get food hampers at their doorstep after the verification.

The bags carry 10 kilogrammes of wheat flour and 2kg each of sugar, rice, ghee and chickpea flour.

The government had provided the data through the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB).

To verify the data, the district administration had sought the services of patwaris, secretaries of union councils and other government departments.

To make the campaign successful, the assistant commissioners of all the six tehsils of the district were directed to monitor the process of verification as well as distribution of the food bags. The distribution process will continue from Tuesday till March 15.

However, the Secretary of Union Council 182 Ramdiwali, Muhammad Fahad, said the district administration had provided a list of 1,088 families of four villages to verify the data.

“After five days of hectic efforts, we have been able to confirm the data of only 300 families as being correct,” he added.

In the remaining data, the addresses were incomplete, national identity card numbers missing, postal addresses changed, residences changed by families, telephone numbers incorrect, houses rented out, people had migrated between rural and urban areas. The data provided could not be verified on the ground, the official said.

Read Ramazan ration bags delivered

He said the local administration had provided the partially verified data to the higher authorities but they were stressing complete verification through repeated efforts I this regard.

An assistant commissioner said seeking anonymity that out of the data of 4.05 million families, only 30 per cent had been found correct.

He warned that if the situation persisted, it would not be possible for the district administration to meet the target of distribution of the Ramazan ration bags among the Benazir Income Support Programme beneficiaries living below the poverty line.

He said the local administration had intimated to the PITB management the issue of incorrect and incomplete data.

The official said it was likely that PITB team would visit the district soon to take steps to rectify the data in view of the limited time left before Ramazan begins.

Additional Deputy Commissioner for Revenue Noman Afzal
Awan said the district administration had earlier engaged the services of patwaris, UC secretaries and other officials of the local government to complete the verification of process.

“Now we have also directed the district health authorities to depute lady health workers and other paramedics already involved in polio eradication campaigns for the purpose, because the staff concerned have information about every household in the rural as well as urban areas,” the district administration official added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2024.