Sania Nishtar visits South Punjab Secretariat; holds meeting on Ehsaas payments

MULTAN, Mar 21 (SABAH): Special Assistant to PM on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar, together with Additional Chief Secretary, South Punjab Captain (Retd) Saqib Zafar co-chaired a high-level meeting in Multan on Monday with district administrations, Law and Enforcement Agencies, partnering bank and regional officers of Ehsaas from South Punjab. The meeting aimed to discuss coordinated steps to improve the quality of Ehsaas Kafaalat payments in field.

The meeting took place at the Secretariat of Additional Chief Secretary, South Punjab. It was also agreed that 20 more payment campsites will be organized to facilitate Ehsaas payments in all 11 districts of South Punjab.

“Today’s stakeholder meeting has provided us with deep insights on improving Ehsaas payments in South Punjab. We have discussed collaborative measures around how to strengthen coordination to refine the overall quality of Ehsaas payment operations”, said Dr. Sania.

With the disbursement of new Kafaalat tranche of Rs. 71 billion that commenced on March 7, 2022, the six-monthly stipend amount of Ehsaas Kafaalat has been increased from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 14,000 for all beneficiaries. Also, families whose children are enrolled in Ehsaas School Stipends are getting the higher amounts. Ehsaas is also taking coordinated actions to deal strictly with fraudulent deductions, most of which are reported from South Punjab and Sindh.

Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Regional Police Officers, District Police Offers and senior officers from FIA, ISI, IB and Anti-corruption Establishment from Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur Divisions of South Punjab assured full support to Ehsaas to improve the operations of Ehsaas disbursements.

Dr. Sania also thanked the district administrations and Law and Enforcement Agencies for their continued support in executing Ehsaas disbursement operations across 42 Tehsils of South Punjab.

To-date, 66% of the total 1.3 million Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries in South Punjab have been served the payment for January to June 2022. Besides, 2.1 million children have been registered for Ehsaas School Stipends in the region.