Applying for Ehsaas cash assistance should be free, says Nasir Hussain Shah

Sindh’s information and local government minister has appealed to the federal government that the people applying for the Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme through their mobile phones should not be charged for sending the required text messages.

In a video message released on Wednesday, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that mobile telecommunication companies have been charging the people who send text messages for enrolling in the Centre’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme.

Shah said that mobile telecom subscribers who apply for the cash assistance are charged for every text message they are required to send for the purpose. He said the people applying for cash assistance are already short on money, so they should not have to lose their mobile phone credit because of the application process.

The minister said the federal government should bear the expenses of the text messages being sent by the applicants for the Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme. The needy citizens should get the facility to register for the cash assistance programme free of charge, as this would help the masses who have been facing serious hardships because of the lockdown imposed in view of the COVID-19 emergency, he added.