KP cabinet okays Rs5bn relief package for 1.9m poor families

The provincial cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Friday approved a relief package for 1.9 million poor families and announced a relief of Rs5 billion in provincial taxes in wake of the affects of the coronavirus on the life of poor families and business community.
The meeting of the provincial cabinet held here with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair. Provincial Ministers and administrative secretaries attended the meeting.
Briefing media about decision of the relief package of the provincial government advisor to KP CM on information Ajmal Wazir said that the details of the relief package would be released soon saying that the package would benefit one third population of the province.
The cabinet extended the closure date of educational institutes and shutdown of the business activities and the ban will remain intact till May 31, 2020 while ban on public and private gatherings and ceremonies was extended till April 30.
The cabinet extended public holidays in the province from March 28 to April 5 and decided to suspend all tests and interviews for new appointments till May 31, Ajmal said, adding that meanwhile all wholesale markets and religious events like Urs and festivals have also been banned till April 30.
The cabinet also decided to keep markets shutdown till April 10, however, courier services and money transfer shops would be exempted from this ban.
The cabinet decided that inter and intra district transport services, OPDs at all district hospitals and dental services would remain suspended till April 5, he said.
In order to control the corona pandemic, the cabinet approved constitution of 500 rapid response teams to cope with any emergency. It was also decided that retired, students and other volunteers would be hired as back-up staff of health workers on daily wages.
The cabinet approved Rs17.5 billion for procurement of wheat to meet the demand of the province, Ajmal said and added that people would be allowed to do shopping on CNIC and for the purpose the data of Benazir Income Support Programme would be utilised.
The cabinet expressed satisfaction on overall measures taken so far in the province to overcome corona outbreak and also appreciated the cooperation of masses in this regard.
The cabinet noted that lockdown bore positive results and several precious lives were protected from being infected or death. It emphasised upon the need of extending lockdown to keep the mortality minimum.
The cabinet expressed apprehension on delay in taking precautionary measures by Italian government and expressed grief over loss of many lives there due to corona pandemic.
It further observed that USA had also not taken the pandemic seriously due to which serious repercussions were emerging.
The cabinet decided to engage private sector hospitals in testing of coronavirus disease and expressed resolve to adopt more precautionary measures for one more month to wipe out corona.
The cabinet approved Rs8 billion supplementary grant with immediate release of Rs500 million for health department to purchase necessary equipments for all district hospitals to be exempted from KP Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.
Ajmal said that the cabinet decided to set up fever clinic outside all public hospitals to control the spread of coronavirus.
The cabinet also approved SoPs for industrial estate and decided that all workers would be made bound to use sanitizer while entering or leaving the workplace. It also decided that owner of industrial units would make special arrangements for workers having fever, flu or cough to avoid outspread of coronavirus.
The industrial units would arrange gloves and masks for their workers and would ensure a distance of at-least 3 feet among each worker. Similarly the industrial units would arrange tissue papers for workers instead of cloth towel.
The cabinet also decided that factory workers above the age of 50 and females would be given 15-day leave with pay and suspected corona workers would be shifted to quarantine centre.
The owners of industrial units have been required to carryout disinfectant spray regularly in the factories and industrial units and also ensure cleanliness of washrooms. The owners of factories and industrial units would prominently put on display the SoPs in urdu language within the factory premises.