Punjab govt to collect data of whole population

CM says information from BISP, NADRA clubbed and verified for Ramazan package

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has declared providing relief to the people at their doorsteps her mission.

Addressing a news conference, she said the Ramazan package had been prepared in just nine days under the guidance of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to provide relief to deserving people during the holy month.

”People of Punjab will no longer have to stand in queues during Ramazan to get their right,” she said.

She added that ration bags with QR codes would be provided under the programme. More than 30 million people in Punjab will benefit from the Ramazan relief package.

The chief minister explained, "Due to paucity of time, the data of the BISP and NADRA beneficiaries have been clubbed, cleansed, physically verified and relied upon for the time being.

However, in the next phase, we will collect data of all the 125 million people under the Punjab Socio-Economic Registry Project within the four months for effective government interventions in the future.”

Each Ramazan package hamper contains 10kg of flour, 2kg each of ghee, sugar, rice and gram flour.

The CM directed the district administrations and Punjab Food Aithority to ensure the best quality of food items in the hampers.

She said the commodities had been selected after approval of samples.

"Four mills producing substandard products have been sealed," she added.

The chief minister tasked the district administrations to check the hampers randomly to ensure the quantity and quality of the commodities.

"The delivery mechanism of the hampers is fully digitised. The PITB has developed a dedicated application for the purpose. Union council delivery teams will distribute these hampers at the neighborhood level. Police security teams will accompany the delivery teams to avoid any untoward incident," the CM said.

She said, "All data of distribution of hampers is being collected live. There will be/complete digital record of distribution of 6.5 million hampers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2024.