TAXILA: Deputy Commissioner Dr Hasan Waqar Cheema on Thursday said as many as 464,245 bags of free flour had been distributed among deserving so far in Rawalpindi district under the Ramazan special package. Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, as per available data there are 1,447,755 deserving households in the district.

“The district administration has set the target to distribute over 1.44 million flour bags among deserving people in the district under the free wheat flour scheme of the Punjab government and this target will be completed by Ramazan 25,” he added.

He said the implementation of the Ramazan package of Rs53 billion is going on rapidly and noted that more than 100 million people of Punjab will benefit from the scheme.

He added that the entire government machinery is active for the fair distribution of free flour and all provincial ministers and secretaries are visiting the free flour points.

He said that today (Thursday) as many as 87,892 flour bags were distributed across the district while Wednesday’s distribution was 93,019 bags the highest in a day.

He said that in Rawalpindi City as many as 120,795 bags had been distributed so far, 44,927 in Rawalpindi Cantt, 76,860 in Rawalpindi Saddar, 81,196 in Gujar Khan, 50,751 in Taxila, 35,370 in Kahuta, 14,708 in Kallar Syedan, 11,842 in Kotli Sattian while 27,796 in Murree. He said seven mega distribution center established in tehsil Rawalpindi and remaining tehsil have one centre each while each mega centre has 40 counters for distribution and also equipped with help desk, health desk, police desk, district admin desk and complaint desk, also having wheelchairs and push carts.

Responding to a question Mr Cheema said that each centre remains functional from 6am to 5pm where operators and handlers perform duties in two shifts.

He said that separate queues with chairs for male, female and senior citizen and disabled person while separate waiting areas had also been established.

He said that 30 helpers had been deployed at each mega centre to help senior citizens and females.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2023