RAHIM YAR KHAN: Due to the condition of having CNICs for getting free flour facility of the government, the rush of people has increased at the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) offices and some women allegedly fainted at these offices due to suffocation during the last few days.

Both offices are located adjacent to each other near the New General Bus Stand on the Bypass Road.

When the distribution of free flour for the downtrodden started, the CNIC was a basic requirement and many people remained deprived of the facility as their CNICs were not having chips. At this, these people rushed to Nadra office to get their chip-based CNICs, multiplying the load of the applicants.

The BISP beneficiaries are also eligible to get free flour. Besides, after the BISP’s recent tranche started, the women in huge numbers started visiting the BISP office situated along Nadra office.

The rush of people and long queues on the road further created hurdles to the flow of traffic on the Bypass Road. The quarrels between shopkeepers and motorcyclists looking for parking also became frequent.

Adnan Jalil Bhatti, a resident of the locality, said he could not reach his home in his car due to the rush of the visitors and the road blockade. He had to take a lengthy route to reach his home. He demanded shifting of Nadra and BISP offices out of the city area.

BISP Assistant Director Rana Rehmatullah told Dawn 324,000 women beneficiaries of the BISP in the area were also eligible for free flour. In addition to this, the families below the poverty line were also getting free flour and these people started visiting the BISP office for the survey for the scheme, which they had missed.

He said the capacity of his office was 200 persons for BISP existing visitors and 80 to 90 for new survey and this number of staff was not enough to deal with the number of people. He hoped that after the 27th of Ramazan, things would get normal.

Nadra in-charge Muhammad Usman admitted the problems due to rush and told this correspondent that mostly those people were visiting his office who wanted to get their CNICs renewed.

He said his office was issuing more than 500 tokens nowadays due to the rush.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2023