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| October 31, 2006 | Tuesday | Shawwal 7, 1427 |
The poor to get subsidy in cash: Coupons target not met
FAISALABAD, Oct 30: The Punjab government has decided to give subsidy in cash instead of coupons issued by the district governments to deserving families availing the `Chief Minister’s Sasta Ration Programme’ as the latter could not come up to the expectations of the former, it is learnt here.
Sources told this correspondent that services of post offices were being acquired to implement the new policy. The coupons issuance system would continue only for the current phase. The duration of this programme would also be extended to six months further and families would get cash from post offices instead of coupons from union council secretaries.
The programme had been launched in August this year and the Punjab government issued instructions to all district governments for making it a success. It was decided that through DCOs the revenue staff and secretaries of union councils would circulate coupons to needy families. But the alleged lethargic attitude of bureaucracy created a number of impediments and scores of coupons could not be issued to poor families identified by the DCO offices. Besides, all district governments had also been asked to furnish lists of deserving families for fair distribution of coupons.
The sources said despite repeated requests a number of district governments failed to fulfill the task. During a meeting held on Sept 24 with chief secretary Salman Siddique in the chair, all DCOs had been directed to accomplish the task on urgent basis, but to no avail.
They said the inability of district officials had compelled the government to change the entire structure of the plan and now the Punjab government was engaged with post offices to chalk out a new mechanism to assist the deserving families free of any hassle. All districts would constitute lists of the deserving families with their complete home addresses where eligible persons would be informed about the monetary assistance.
The sources said the Punjab government had devised a strategy to facilitate one million deserving households, but the district governments identified 910,382 families and 832,060 were availing themselves of the programme. The remaining 78,322 households were yet to be facilitated.
A target of 45,694 deserving families had been set for Rawalpindi, but coupons were issued to 38,581. In Jhelum, out of 12,727 target, 11,673 people were benefited; Sargodha 36,216 (34,713); Khushab 12,306 (11,507); Mianwali identified 14,357 families but 12,262 were facilitated; Faisalabad 73,756 (43,396); Toba Tek Singh 22,032 (14,588); Gujranwala 46,195 (17,436); Okara 30,317 (29,000); Sheikhupura 27,818 (26,335); Vehari 28,389 (9,027); Sahiwal 25,034 (7,944); Multan 42,338 (31,536); Khanewal 28,090 (5,601); Muzaffargarh 35,805 (24,400); Bahawalpur 33,048 (32,060) and the target for Lahore was 86,834 families, but its administration could only benefit 84,500 poor households.
Under the programme, the deserving families are purchasing sugar, two types of pulses and flour on cheaper rates.
Sources said a single instance showed the `performance’ of the officials engaged in the programme. A couple of days ago, the Saddar DDO (revenue) had issued a notice to naib tehsildars, girdawars, patwaris and UCs’ secretaries of Madina and Iqbal towns of the city.
The notice read: “It has been noted with grave concern that you are not paying due attention to this important national task due to which, this office has to face embarrassing situation before the higher authorities. Improve your performance otherwise names of the officers showing poor performance will be reported to highups for strict action.”
A district officer confirmed that the Punjab government was considering replacement of the coupons policy with cash assistance for convenience of the public.
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