BATTAGRAM: Special assistant to prime minister on poverty alleviation and social safety Dr Sania Nishtar here on Friday said a new survey had been conducted to include more families in the Prime Minister’s Ehsaas Kafalat Programme.

She stated this while talking to people during a visit to the Ehsaas centres in Battagram.

She met the beneficiaries, particularly women, and asked them about the issues they were facing in receiving the cash.

Later, talking to reporters at the deputy commissioner’s office, Ms Nishtar said registration desks were being established at the tehsil level to include those people who were left in the survey.

Ms Nishtar, who is also chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Ehsaas Kafalat Programme, said those

who were receiving Rs12,000 stipend could also register their schoolchildren from class nursery to grade 12 to be able to get education stipend.

She said a web portal had been launched where all the relevant details about the people registered during the survey would be available.

She said anyone could log onto the portal by entering their CNIC number or the survey token registration number to know about all details, including family, livelihood and whether they were eligible for the programme or not.

She said Ehsaas centres were established after the people’s complaints that retailers were not paying them full amount.

Answering a question that those who possessed passports and had travelled abroad were excluded from the survey, she said according to the set formula these people were not eligible for the stipend.

She, however, said a review of the programme would be launched in December 2021 to include the people who were now unemployed.

Ms Nishtar claimed that stipends to girl students from class 1 to 12 had also been initiated around the country.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2021