Watan Cards: Let no one be left behind

As many as 1,350 affected widows, senior citizens and disabled people never received a Watan Card, says NGO report.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

A fresh survey should be conducted in areas affected by 2010 floods to ascertain the number of people who had yet to get a Watan Card, and the promised relief, Citizens’ Commission for Human Development (CCHD) project officer Shahid Saleem said on Friday.

He was speaking at a media briefing on flood relief and rehabilitation activities in Rahim Yar Khan.

Saleem said a recent CCHD survey in a third of the affected areas had shown that at least 1,350 widows, senior citizens and disabled people had been missed in the distribution of Watan Cards. He said it appeared the timing of the surveys for phase I and II of the distribution was responsible for this failure. “These surveys started as soon as water receded from affected areas. It is possible that many people had yet to return to their homes when the surveys were taking place,” the CCHD project director said.

He said the number of people missed in the remaining two-thirds of the affected areas could be much higher. A fresh survey should be carried out to identify all the people who had yet to receive relief through Watan Cards, he added.

He said the CCHD was also holding group discussions to learn about other problems faced by residents of the affected areas. So far, he said, 109 such sessions had been carried out. Saleem said the issues raised in these sessions were being communicated to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and the United Nations Humanitarian Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as well. He said the CCHD officials was assisting people with the filling of application and dealing with objections to the applications. The CCHD official said it was learnt during these sessions that 306 complaints of irregularities in distribution of funds had so far been registered with the police.

He said Rs520 million had been distributed through Watan Cards in the first phase. Another Rs520 million would be paid to the same recipients during the next phase which is to begin from April 16.

He said the CCHD and the Rahim Yar Khan district administration had jointly carried out the distribution in the phase that had recently ended.

CCHD monitoring officer Dr Mahmood Qureshi, Legal Advisor Advocate Azhar Ali and Rahim Yar Khan district coordination officer Qazi Ahmed Javed were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2012.