1,400 Watan cards issued in five days

Nadra and UBL set up a counter at Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto to issue cards to survivors in Ratodero and Larkana.

RATODERO: Over the last five days, more than 1,400 Watan cards have been issued to flood survivors by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and United Bank Limited (UBL), according to a statement issued on Sunday.

Nadra and UBL set up a counter at Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto on Tuesday to issue Watan cards to survivors in Ratodero and Larkana districts. However, the flood-hit people of Kambar-Shahdadkot have not received the cards as their names have not been entered into the Nadra database due to which their verification has been delayed.

People from Balochistan, Jamshoro, Ghouspur, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Dadu and other villages in upper Sindh have thronged Ratodero to get financial assistance of up to Rs20,000 through this card. The current CNIC database is also being updated by two Nadra mobile services in the area.

Fahad Jamal Dawoodpoto, a UBL supervisor, said that after 48 hours, the card is automatically activated and works just like an ATM card. “The holder can get cash from any ATM machine in the country or any UBL branch,” he explained.

Dawoodpoto said that everything is online to make the service quick and transparent for the benefit of the people. Laptops and other latest electronic machines have been provided to them and to the staff working at Nadra counters, he said.

Nadra has been given the task of distributing the cards to ensure transparency. Moreover, the process is also being monitored by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

How it works

A watan card is like an ATM card that allows flood survivors to draw out money up to Rs20,000. Survivors can go to the information counter, located at the designated Verification and Card Issuance site. Here, they get their CNIC validated from the beneficiary list. Once the cards are proven to be valid, a registration form will be issued to the survivor and their CNIC number will be entered on the form.

The operator will also add a reference ID on the form after taking fingerprints and a photo at the biometric counter, while all details will be entered on the form at the counters.

The bank will issue the applicant’s watan card, which will be operational after a verification of credentials from the Nadra database.

During the distribution of the watan cards at Islamia College, Sukkur, five people were injured when police baton charged flood survivors for not following regulations. According to witnesses, some people disrupted the queue in an attempt to get the card earlier than others.

The baton charging also resulted in a stampede and chaos ensued.

According to the flood survivors, the authorities were extremely slow in the card distribution even though they had all the necessary facilities and arrangements. PPI/ our correspondent

Published in The Express Tribune, September  20^th, 2010.