Needy families in Sindh to get food bags today, says energy minister

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, who heads the committee constituted by the Sindh chief minister to carry out the COVID-19 emergency relief work in the province, has said that needy people in the province whose livelihoods had been affected due to the coronavirus lockdown would get food bags by Saturday evening (today).

A handout issued on Friday quoted the Sindh energy minister as saying that Rs20 million had been initially given to each of the district in the province for the purpose of emergency distribution of rations.

He said a six-member committee had been constituted in each district under the supervision of the deputy commissioner to carry out the emergency relief work. The committee comprises an elected representative, a representative of a local community, and a representative of a welfare organisation.

The committees in every district will make sure the distribution of the rations to the needy people by today’s evening. In this connection, the data of the deserving people is being collected by the committees.

He said in view of the lockdown enforced in the province, the monthly subsistence of the Zakat beneficiaries in the province had been increased from Rs3,000 to Rs6,000 for a month. The committee constituted by the Sindh CM to oversee the emergency relief work also met on Friday at the office of the Planning and Development Department to make sure a speedy dispatch of the rations to the needy families.

The energy minister said the government would do its best to feed the needy families during the lockdown, keeping in view their grave economic sufferings in the present times. He said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had given directives to provide with rations to the needy families on a daily basis during the lockdown.