By Zulfiqar Ali
PESHAWAR: Technical glitches and lack of oversight have delayed payment of cash assistance to thousands of displaced families a month after they were ordered to leave the restive North Waziristan tribal region, causing despondency and anger.
Officials said that 1,100 of an estimated 45,000 displaced families could receive cash grant through a private cellular company’s SIM (subscriber identification module) so far as the system developed hitches and rejected the beneficiaries in bulk. SIM was introduced to make the system more efficient and transparent.
Slow disbursement of the relief assistance is causing anxiety among the displaced families as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan immediately removed Fata Disaster Management Authority director general Arshad Khan from his post on Monday, citing poor performance as the reason for his removal.
The displaced people had complained to the governor during a ceremony in Bannu about the slow disbursement of assistance by the cellular company.
The officials said that the governor instead of taking action against the company ordered removal of FDMA DG.
The government’s relief agencies and the relevant quarters have been engaged in a blame game trying to shift the responsibility to others and holding them responsible for the uncertainty in the disbursement of the relief to internally displaced persons (IDPs).
After launching military operation against militants in North Waziristan Agency on June 18 the federal government had announced to provide cash assistance to IDPs. The officials said that the KP governor and Civil Secretariat had decided to disburse cash assistance through SIMs instead of smart cards.
FDMA had signed an agreement with Zong (China Mobile Pakistan) on July 8 under which the company would disburse Rs1 billion among 45,000 verified families through SIMs within six days.
Under the agreement, the company would offer free SIM to head of each displaced household and the government would disburse cash assistance grant through Zong. However, the company had disbursed cash assistance to 1,100 subscribers so far.
The company would disburse Rs41,000 cash grant to each family through SIM. The federal government has announced Rs40,000 and Punjab government would also pay Rs7,000 to every displaced family. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced the cash assistance for IDPs in Bannu on Monday.
Official sources said that FDMA had deposited Rs300 million in bank and also provided a list of 3,000 households to the cellular company being verified by National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). However, the company could disburse cash money to 800 beneficiaries on first day and total 1,100 people had been facilitated so far.
An official claimed that the problem existed at the Zong’s end, because FDMA had already provided Nadra’s verified lists of the households to the company. “The governor instead of taking action against the company made the DG scapegoat,” he remarked, adding that Zong had never carried such a huge exercise in Pakistan before.
“FDMA’s job is to provide verified lists and the money. Disbursement of money is the responsibility of the contractor,” he said.
Chief administrative officer, Zong, Sajid Mehmood, when approached, said that the format provided by FDMA was faulty which caused the delay in disbursement of cash to the first batch. He said that FDMA provided list of 2,929 displaced people and the system rejected 1,900 names.
“Problem may occur during compilation of data and our system rejected 1,900 names,” said Mr Mehmood. He said that the company could disburse up to Rs170 million a day if accurate data was provided to them.
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