Current government is committed to the cause of helping the poor segments of our population and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is the most important tool for the purpose. This was said by Secretary BISP, Shabbir Ahmed, who was briefing a gathering of journalists on the recent developments at the Programme.
Secretary BISP apprised the journalists of the targets of BISP and said that the Programme is committed to the expansion of cash disbursements to the poorest of the poor. He said that transparency and efficiency would be given highest priority while ensuring the smooth delivery of services to the poor.
BISP has recently picked up the pace of its activities in the field, with over 70,000 beneficiaries have been provided fresh Debit Cards for receiving quarterly cash benefits of Rs 4500. In December, BISP has released Rs 21.3 billion for 4.7 million beneficiary families for the second quarter of CFY; a figure which stood at 4.63 million in the last month. Payment for over 22000 children at Rs 200 per month has also been released for Waseela-e-Taleem initiative of the Programme.
Secretary BISP said that some of the major activities in BISP are in the pipeline, like extension of Waseela-e-Taleem initiative for the beneficiary children in 32 districts around the country. A significant degree of work has already been completed and registration of children into the initiative will commence during the next month. He said that the initiative is looking to target an enrolment of 1.5 million children in primary schools in the next two years.
Secretary BISP informed during the briefing about the mechanisms at BISP to ensure transparency and efficiency and talked about the grievance redressal system and modern payment mechanisms. He said that transparency is the first priority of the administration and for this purpose BISP is taking necessary steps including a 'payment verification interface', which aims to eliminate unnecessary delays in payments to the beneficiaries and ensures a real-time monitoring by all stakeholders of the Programme.
Secretary BISP explained the state-of-the-art targeting system of BISP and informed that the Programme is looking for improving the quality of data of 27 million households, collected through the Poverty Survey. He held that the necessity of revisiting the National Socio-Economic Registry is being assessed. Best international practices would be kept in mind while taking any decision in this regard.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.