KP govt yet to find decent way of distribution

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is still clueless about finding a decent way of distributing free flour bags among the poor people of the province, where four people had so far lost their lives and many others suffered injuries in stampedes in various distribution centres.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on March 8 announced the free food package for the poor people affected by the record inflation that was supposed to cost Rs73 billion to the national exchequer.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, according to senior government officials, didn’t receive any additional funds for the prime minister’s poor free food programme.

Provincial Caretaker Food Minister Fazal Elahi Khan said they were constantly working on providing relief to the price-hike stricken people.

He said they had already developed an application to facilitate people where all card holders of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) can check their details before visiting the distribution centres to avoid inconvenience.

Fazal Elahi Khan, a businessman by profession, told The News that 57, 50908 families were registered under BISP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and to facilitate these families, the KP government was spending Rs19.77 billion to distribute 24800 metric tonnes of wheat flour bags to 57,50,908 families under the BISP.

In some places like Peshawar, he said, they had raised the number of distribution points from 400 to 800, where each family was entitled to receive 30 kilograms of flour bag free-of-cost.

The food minister said they had provided 44, 57, 574 flour bags to 15, 39, 478 families so far.

He also confirmed that the federal government had not yet provided them funds for the free flour scheme.

According to Khan Ghalib of the KP Food Department, there were 5333 dealers in KP, including 5122 registered dealers (shops), 103 utility stores and 18 mobile supply services, contributing to the distribution process.

Caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan had recently taken note of mismanagement in the flour distribution centres and directed the government to involve senior administrative officials to personally supervise the distribution process.

It didn’t help so far as in some places, including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mohmand, Mardan, Abbottabad and in southern parts of the province, some of the people lost patience and climbed up the trucks and started looting flour bags.

Some of the people blocked the busy Peshawar-Kohat road for more than four hours on Wednesday for traffic to lodge their protest over the distribution mechanism.

The government is widely being criticised for its ill-planned distribution system that is causing humiliation to the people, mostly women.

They said there could have been better ways to give relief to the poor people. Last time the PTI-led government had deposited cash amounts into the bank accounts of BISP card holders during the corona pandemic and it would have been better had the present government followed the same procedure.

Also, those receiving the flour have criticised its quality.