Around 10,271 families in earthquake hit Harnai, Balochistan have received one- time assistance of Rs. 12,000 under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash (EEC) program so far, as an immediate relief.
The cash disbursement process was underway to all families of earthquake hit Harnai as an immediate relief. Overall, 15,398 families will benefit from the cash assistance of Ehsaas.
District Harnai was badly affected by an earthquake on October 7 that hit different parts of Balochistan.
On Prime Minister’s special instructions, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar visited Harnai instantly after the earthquake to review the initial extent of post-earthquake assistance needed from the federal government.
Within two days, after the PMs’ approval on October 9, the federal government had announced Ehsaas Emergency Cash package for all families of Harnai.
According to official sources, to-date 67 percent of the total resident families in Harnai had received their EEC.
“To delve into why 33% families in Harnai have still not collected their Ehsaas Emergency Cash, we conducted a midcourse review district wide. Results of quick telephonic survey revealed that the most of the people who had still not received their Ehsaas cash of Rs. 12000 were unaware about it.
This is understandable given the dire earthquake situation. We are rapidly mobilizing all necessary information resources to reach out to remaining families”, Dr. Sania said while speaking to press media.
“Each family of Harnai will receive Ehsaas Emergency Cash of Rs. 12,000. To reach out to the remaining families, we are also releasing instructional video detailing people centered information on Ehsaas relief cash payment”, she added. Dr. Sania also made an appeal to local media, district administration and residents of Harnai to create awareness about EEC.
As indicated by the findings of quick survey, 52 percent of respondents in Tehsil Harnai, 18 percent in Sharag and nine percent in Khost reported lack of information about EEC disbursements.
However, 21 percent of respondents informed that they went to collect payment but were unbale to do so because of expiry of their Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC) expiry, biometric failure and family registration missing in the database.
All payments were being made based on valid CNICs. Those whose CNICs were expired, should get their identity cards renewed to be eligible to get Ehsaas cash.
