August 15, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 12, 1429

MIANWALI, Aug 14: More than 22,000 applications received for the food stamp scheme throughout the district have been verified twice by the district administration.

The rejected applicants are piling pressure on their respective MPAs with threats that they will not vote them in next elections if their names are not included in the scheme.

This scenario has created problems for politicians’ office managers and they are helpless to oblige their voters.

Although none of the MPA is available in the district due to their ‘obligatory’ presence in Lahore in view of the prevailing political situation in the country.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Babar Shafi said the four MPAs in the district had recommended 22,108 applications as against the 20,000 limit.

The DCO said the quota of 5,000 deserving people had been allotted to each of the four provincial constituencies in the district.

He said the applications were verified through the revenue staff while a committee, headed by the EDO (community) with its members EDO (literacy), EDO (education), EDO (health) and EDO (agriculture), had been formed to re-verify them to make the process crystal clear.

Mr Shafi said the committee formed 50 different teams, comprising employees of education, agriculture and health departments, which worked tirelessly under the supervision of EDOs for door-to-door verification of applicants.

He said it was the district administration’s duty to verify the contents of applications without any discrimination and make this scheme transparent.

Out of total 22,108 applications, 4,503 had been rejected after the verification process, he said.

The DCO said any deserving man or woman, who had not applied for the scheme, could submit the application to his office or with the EDOs concerned.

To fight shy of any malpractice and registration of non-deserving persons, he said the data of applicants and verifications were being compiled and fed with the centralised computer network of the Punjab government.

“The feeding process is in progress under the supervision of the EDO (community) and 9,671 applications have so far been computerized,” he said.