ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the multi-city roll-out of Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye (EKBNS) programme on Monday.

The programme is being expanded to three major cities of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before Ramazan.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar told the press that distribution of free meals would help the labour class to save their hard-earned earnings for their families.

Later this year, the programme will be upscaled phase-wise to other parts of the country, The upscaled programme will serve free meals to labourers, daily wage earners and piece rate workers who cannot access Ehsaas Panagahs and Ehsaas langars.

Through a virtual groundbreaking ceremony, the prime minister will be joined by the chief ministers of KP and Punjab together with parliamentarians to inaugurate the free food service through multiple truck kitchens in Peshawar, Lahore and Faisalabad.

Each truck will feed 1,500-2,000 people daily on specified service points. The meals will be cooked, stored and served from a truck kitchen.

The initiative was officially launched by the prime minister on March 10 to serve free meals to deserving populations in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

In the initial phase, 37,827 meals have been served so far across the twin cities.

Earlier this year, the PM had declared that EKBNS would be introduced to make sure that no one goes to bed hungry.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2021