Islamabad: The government has announced to increase the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme from PKR 144 billion to PKR 203 billion in a bid to facilitate the public demographic hailing from the low-income segments of the society, according to a news report published on July 17.
Briefing a press conference on Tuesday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Safety and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar said that almost half of the national population will be covered with the said expansion. She said that under this programme – launched on April 9 – 12.86 million beneficiaries across the country have received a one-time cash assistance, totalling to PKR 155.64 billion. The one-time assistance was in addition to PKR 144 billion and over PKR 10 billion were distributed form other resources.
Under the initial phase of the programme, some 12 million families were given a four-month stipend of worth PKR 12,000 – and now with the expansion of the programme, it will be able to accommodate around 17 million families.
Nishtar said that the government’s largest social protection initiatives ‘Ehsaas’ is playing a lead role in expanding social safety nets and mitigating the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan.
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