Chairperson, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), MNA Ms Marvi Memon has said that BISP extends financial assistance to over 5.3 million women and gives stipends of Rs 4,700 every three months. She said that the budget amount of BISP has been increased from Rs 40 billion to Rs 115 billion due to commitment from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar and PML-N government's commitment towards poverty alleviation and management.
She said this while addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club (KPC) here on Monday. She said that a survey is being done in line with international best practice of five-year surveys. BISP aims to be number one in the world through this survey, she added.
She pointed out that the process of survey was initiated in 2015, when the new Chairperson took charge, it took one year for preparation because provinces were consulted as well as detailed technical evaluations done. Reason for afresh survey was that new people entered into poverty and some existing graduated so they may not need to be in new survey, she said.
MNA Ms Marvi rejected the report appeared in some segment of the media that the survey was being conducted because of corruption. She said that to curb corruption BISP has its internal audit system, data sanity checks, staff involved in malpractices had been suspended and payment mechanisms made transparent by introducing biometrics system. Speaking about the new Resurvey-NSER National Social Economic Registry, she said that it started from Haripur district on June 15, 2015. In 2016, 16 districts will be covered. Rest of Pakistan will be covered in 2017 and early 2018, she said adding well before next general elections all districts will be covered. Speaking about donors and government funding, she said that 90 funds were being provided by government and resent from ADB, World Bank and the DIFID.