November 28, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The government has expanded the scope of the newly launched Benazir Income Support Programme which will now also cover internally displaced persons (IDPs), programme’s chairperson Farzana Raja told Dawn on Thursday.

“We are initiating an emergency relief project to help those who are affected by disasters,” she said.

“It has become quite difficult for the IDPs to leave their camps to get Rs1,000 under the programme. Therefore, BISP teams will reach their camps to provide the relief money,” Ms Raja said.

She said that under the emergency relief project, the government would help disaster-affected people anywhere in the country in future.

She said that usually women of tribal areas hesitated to leave their camps and visit concerned offices to get relief money. “For them we are forming teams of women officials,” she added.

President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the BISP to devise a special project for the disaster-affected people of Balochistan and internally displaced persons.

At a meeting on Thursday, the president said that the IDPs and earthquake-affected people needed special attention. He urged the BISP chairperson to visit their camps and devise a special project for them.