Elected representatives urged to cooperate with poverty survey teams

KARACHI – The elected representatives should facilitate and help out the poverty survey teams in their respective constituencies to achieve the desired results under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), said Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo on Monday. She said this during a meeting with BISP Sindh Director General Akbar Aleem Shamim at her office. MPAs Amanullah Mehsood, Shama Arif Mithani, Farzana Baloch and Najma Saeed Chawla attended the meeting. Palijo – also the BISP poverty survey in-charge – said that after the survey, many other incentives and welfare projects would be initiated for the relief of poor masses of the province.
While reviewing the progress of the survey launched in Karachi, she directed that tangible efforts be made to approach all elected representatives and take them on board for cooperation.
The culture minister said that after holding meetings with the elected representatives, notables and prominent people of the area concerned, detailed meetings would be convened to review the overall progress of the poverty survey.
“This is the first comprehensive door-to-door survey at the union council level initiated by the BISP staff,” she said, adding that the programme in Karachi must be completed in May, with the full support and cooperation of elected representatives.
Palijo said the present government is taking concrete steps for providing maximum relief and benefits to the poor people of the country under the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and the PPP’s manifesto.
A detailed meeting of the Karachi division would be held on March 10 (Thursday) with all elected representatives concerned to further discuss the modalities and the line of action to make the programme successful. The BISP poverty survey was launched to make the identification of deserving families about their eligibility for receiving cash grant more effective and transparent. It was estimated that two million families would benefit from the BISP in the next two years. The BISP was initiated by the government with an initial allocation of Rs 34 billion for the financial year 2008-09.
The allocation for the last fiscal year was Rs 70 billion to provide cash assistance to five million families, which constitute almost 15 percent of the entire population. Thus the programme aims at covering almost 40 percent of the population below the poverty line.