KARACHI – A high-level meeting presided over by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah was held at the Chief Minister’s House on Friday to discuss union council-based poverty alleviation programmes.
According to an official handout, the chief minister said the present PPP government under its party manifesto given by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto has initiated many programmes for the welfare and well-being of people. He said the union council-based poverty reduction schemes are very important for alleviation of poverty in the province.
Shah maintained that better results were achieved in many districts but due to heavy floods in the province, some of the districts were badly affected and inhabitants suffered a lot. The chief minister was of the view that problems being faced by the poor people in the rural areas particularly union council-based communities should be addressed to achieve the target and the poor people provided relief.
He opined that programmes initiated under Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA), Benazir Shaheed Youth Development Programme and Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) should be coordinated for prompt training of youth in the province. Appreciating the role of SRSO, he hoped that housing projects in Garhi Khairo, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Jati and Sajawal be proposed and initiated as Turkey is constructing a town while Iran and other countries are also providing housing projects, whereas, the Shaheed Benazir Housing Cell is also constructing 83,000 houses.
Provincial Planning and Development Department’s Sindh Growth and Rural Revitalisation Programme (SGRRP) in-charge Dr Shireen Narejo, in her presentation, gave details of the project initiated in Shikarpur and Kashmore districts on pilot basis in February 2009 for a period of 30-months, which was later extended into two more districts, Jacobabad and Tharparkar, in April 2010 for 30 months.
The programme is being executed by SRSO and Thar Deep Rural Development Programme, she added. The SGRRP is targeting approximately 250,000 of around 470,000 households in four districts of the province planning social mobilisation, income generating grants, community investment fund, vocational training, CO/VO training, community physical infrastructure, primary and early children education, low-cost houses, village improvement, micro-health insurance, productivity enhancement interventions and TBA trainings.
With regards to up-to-date progress, Narejo stated that 41 union councils in four talukas of Tharparkar district were provided 141,207 scorecards and 100 percent targets achieved. Under social mobilisation, 41 union councils were covered in Tharparkar district and an amount of Rs 14.679 million has been disbursed to 3,638 beneficiaries in 37 union councils, while 66.31 million rupees have been disbursed in 488 voluntary organisation’s accounts.
Regarding the target of 2,500 low cost houses, she said that 1,000 houses were built until February and 814 persons benefited from the scheme, while against the target of 195, 35 persons benefited. She added that with the target of 5,896 persons, 1,000 people have been imparted vocational training from which 621 households took benefit. The participants of the meeting were informed that 87 persons were imparted training under livestock and poultry farming management while 138 under agricultural development.
Speaking at the meeting, SRSO CEO Sono Kangrani said that 3,19,885 households in Shikarpur, Kashmore and Jacobabad districts under poverty scorecards were surveyed while 11,934 community organisation and 3,929 voluntary organisations have been formed. Kaugrani stated that as far as traditional birth attendants’ training in Shikarpur and Kashmore districts was concerned, against the targeted 4,200 personnel, 2,539 women have been imparted training.
Under the vocational training programme, 1,324 of the targeted 26,811 youth were imparted training, he added. He said that Rs 353.397 million were provided as small flexible loans to women of three districts under Community Investment Fund and Rs 29.04 million as income generating grants to 2,931 women from extremely poor households.
Under community physical infrastructure, Rs 20.562 million have been disbursed to 3,043 beneficiaries of Shikarpur and Kashmore districts for village improvement and Rs 80.557 million to 21,339 beneficiaries of both districts for improving drinking water supply scheme. Under micro-health insurance, Rs 31.097 million were paid as premium to 339,246 beneficiaries in Shikarpur and Kashmore districts for hospitalisation, day-care treatment, diagnostic tests and accidents, etc.
After floods, the SRSO arranged CNIC registration of 80,312 people in camps along with regular MRVs in three districts while four organisations for local support were formed, with two each in Shikarpur and Kashmore. Two eye camps were also organised where 220 surgeries were held with the supply of eye drops to 1,052 patients and spectacles to 610 patients.
A total of 43 villages having 10,424 households were rehabilitated, while cooked food was served among 229,909 persons in 54 relief camps; dry food to 323,300 households in 42 union councils; sunflower seed to 22,532 farmers in 39 union councils; wheat seed to 29,080 farmers in 33 union councils; emergency shelter to 12,500 in 34 union councils; and 1,547 elderly people of 8 union councils were supported.
Kangrani further informed that 10,500 houses in 23 union councils of three districts were provided non-food items and 24 water filtration plants supplied for the benefit of 7,804 families. Sindh Chief Secretary Abdul Subhan Memon, Adviser to Chief Minister on Planning and Development Kaiser Bengali, Additional Chief Secretary (Planning and Development) M Ishaque Lashari, Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch and Secretary to Chief Minister Alam Din Bullo among others were also present in the meeting.
