The Federal and Punjab Governments on Monday announced a historic initiative of providing targeted relief to the poorest segments of the society during the holy month of Ramadan. At separate high level meetings chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi respectively, they approved schemes for provision of free-of-cost wheat flour to those earning less than Rs 60,000 a month while another programme was afoot to provide subsidized petrol to rickshaw and motor-cycle owners, for which details are being worked out.
This is, indeed, major relief for inflation-ridden people that would contribute a lot in mitigating sufferings of the ordinary people during the holy month, enabling them to save something for Eid. The two identical schemes would benefit millions of people living in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Punjab and one hopes the governments of Sindh and KP would respond positively to the appeal of the Prime Minister to join the programme so that the relief is extended to all deserving people across the country. The beneficial nature of the scheme can be gauged by the fact that about one hundred and fifty thousand households would be covered in the outskirts of the Federal Capital while the Punjab package would benefit 1.58 crore families or 10 crore individuals. Almost 90% of the population in Punjab will benefit from the free wheat flour package which will be available at specific grocery stores, trucking points and utility stores. The distribution of free wheat flour will begin on the 25th of Sha’ban and continue until the 25th of Ramadan. It may be mentioned that the Punjab Government is already distributing subsidized wheat flour in different parts of the province through mobile trucks which is widely benefitting people as is evident from the fact that trucks distribute wheat flour bags of 10 kilogram among people within no time. The Punjab Chief Minister is continuously working to improve the programme for provision of relief to the people. In this regard, he has directed that the number of stores and trucking points should be increased across the province and further ordered the large stores to set up special counters for this purpose. The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has prepared a software for distribution of free wheat flour bags and the families registered in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) will be able to get a special package of free flour, while unregistered families can get free flour by registering over the phone. The prime minister too has instructed the authorities concerned to take advantage of modern technology to ensure transparency in the distribution of free wheat flour. While welcoming these initiatives, we would urge the Federal and the Punjab governments to take adequate and foolproof measures to avoid misuse of the programme. We have seen in the past when items sold at subsidized rates through the network of Utility Stores found their way to the open market. The decision to use information technology for distribution of wheat flour and petrol has the potential to check the misuse effectively. This is important because the two governments would be spending huge sums on the programme which must not be wasted to provide benefits to undeserving people. We hope together with the Ramadan package to be implemented through the Utility Stores Corporation (USC), these programmes would provide substantial relief to the common man.
