The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has once again emerged as the most effective and reliable social protection intervention during the recent floods devastation.

“It has executed the task of disbursing cash relief of Rs25,000 per family to the flood-affected people across the country,” an official of BISP told WealthPK.

He said the task of disbursing Flood Relief Cash Assistance among the flood-hit people assigned to the BISP by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif which was being carried out. He said the BISP rolled out its operations in the flood-affected areas within no time and the relief activities were operational in 69 districts by establishing more than 400 payment sites.

The BISP had disbursed over Rs 20 billion among 813,753 flood-affected families across the country till last Monday, said the official. He said 93,685 affected families had received Rs2,342,125,000 in Balochistan; 478,718 families had received Rs11,967,950,000 in Sindh; 101,049 families had received Rs2,526,225,000 in KP and 140,301 families had received Rs3,507,525,000 in Punjab.

The official said all the payment centres are kept open on holidays for the disbursement of payment to the affected. The administration of the BISP has directed the staff to fully cooperate and assist the people in their respective regions. The affected families could send their CNIC number to 8171 for registration in the flood relief programme. Upon receiving a payment message, he said, they could visit their nearby campsite to receive their payment.

The official said a control room had also been established at the BISP headquarters to ensure smooth payments.

Meanwhile, federal minister Shazia Marri has announced that the flood-affected pregnant mothers and children will be covered under the Benazir Nashonuma Programme in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP). An additional amount of Rs1 billion would be allocated for the mothers and children apart from the existing beneficiaries.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk