‘Waseele-e-Taleem to be launched by April’

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Farzana Raja said that BISP will launch Waseele-e-Taleem programme by April.
Talking to PTV, she said that Waseela-e-Taleem progamme will enroll one million children in schools of under privileged families to eradicate poverty from the country.
She said around one million children would be registered in the schools for free education in the first phase. However, the programme has planned to enroll 10 million children. Farzana said that six million beneficiary families had been included in the programme, however, the number will reach up to seven million after completion of survey in Fata.
To a question, she said that BISP had provided the facility of life insurance to its 2.5 million beneficiary families.
The BISP chairperson said the pilot project under health insurance scheme being launched in district Faisalabad would benefit 75,000 beneficiary families. She said BISP had also started vocational and technical training to female beneficiary under Waseela-e-Rozgar programme and as many as 150,000 beneficiaries will be given technical training to produce skilled manpower for the country every year which will enable these families to become self-reliant. She maintained that the vocational courses of one month, six months and one-year duration had been announced both for men and women, however, each trainee be given a stipend of Rs 6,000 every month.
She said that the steps were taken to ensure more efficient and accurate beneficiaries’ targeting system so that the most deserving can be benefited from the programme.
Commuters facing transport shortage on Sihala-Raja Bazar route: Commuters are facing acute shortage of public transport service on Sihala-Raja Bazar route as they have no option to travel other than the Suzuki van.
Thousands of people daily travel on this route which starts from Raja Bazar, Rawalpindi and culminate at Sihala Bazar – a rural area of the federal capital. People especially students, government employees and factory workers talking to APP said that Suzuki van service is extremely insufficient to cater to the needs of the area.
They have demanded of the concerned authorities for plying of Toyota Hiace van and bus service between Sihala and Raja Bazar route to create an atmosphere of healthy competition among transporters and provide a respectable journey to commuters.
“Women are among the worst sufferers as there is no proper seating arrangements for them in Suzuki vans, which has the sitting capacity of 12 persons,” said Rehmat Ali – a resident of the area. Another resident, Muhammad Sultan said earlier the Varan bus service was launched at the route but it was not allowed to operate by owners of Suzuki vans. “They (owners) have made their monopoly and do not allow any other service to operate at this route by force,” he added.
He recalled that when the bus service was initiated, Suzuki owners had blocked the Grand Trunk road near Swan bridge besides damaging three buses of the Varan company.