Almost 90% survivors have received Watan cards: Farooqui
Over 435,000 cards worth Rs10 billion were issued and the remaining 10 per cent will be issued soon, she said, during a joint press conference with Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) director-general, National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) Sindh general manager and bank officials.
Farooqui said that, in the initial phase, the survivors will receive Rs20,000 in compensation and the remaining Rs80,000 will be given to them in the second phase.
The authorities faced a lot of difficulties in the distribution as the same families applied for more than one card. NADRA was able to track down such cases and blocked their cards within 48 hours, she said.
“There were a few cases in which Watan cards were issued to the male member of the family but their female members also applied for new cards,” she said. “NADRA has yet to update its data on those women who are now widowed so many women, whose husbands had already received the card, also applied for one by saying that they are widowed now.”
Farooqui said that the government has directed NADRA to refrain from issuing cards to women unless there is proper verification. “Those who face problems in getting cards can complain at the DCO office, which will then refer their cases to NADRA through PDMA,” she said.
United Bank Limited (UBL) and Habib Bank Limited (HBL) are the two banks distributing Watan cards. UBL has disbursed cards worth Rs5.9 billion out of which people have withdrawn Rs5.7 billion. Similarly, HBL has disbursed cards worth Rs2.2 billion and most of it has been withdrawn by cards holders.
The main reason why the Watan cards process took so long is because a majority of the survivors had either lost their cards or had the non-computerised version, she said. Many villages were submerged and there was no land route so NADRA officials had trouble accessing residents from such areas, she added.
NADRA Sindh general manager Brigadier (retired) Ahsan said they have issued a total of 430,000 Watan cards till November and 20,000 of these were bogus.
Once the card is issued, activation takes 48 hours and the authority managed to trace duplicate cases within this time, he said. “The cards were issued to only those people who suffered losses in the floods and not those people who remained safe from the calamity,” he added.
Muhammad Ali, who was representing the banks at the news conference, said that the compensation money can be withdrawn from any of the 350 UBL branches with 100 ATMs and 104 HBL branches with 38 ATMs. He added that the cash can be withdrawn at any time.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2010.
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