PESHAWAR
People of walk of life here Thursday highly appreciated the Prime Minister’s Social Protection Program covering housing, agriculture, technical education and food ration subsidy under one umbrella that would immensely help facilitate poor people and low income groups across the country.
Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Mohibullah Khan while terming the Prime Minister’s social protection program rolled out by the premier during his visit to Peshawar on Wednesday as historic, said that all beneficiary farmers of Naya Pakistan Card would get interest-free agriculture loans up to Rs 500,000.
He told APP that farmers having 12.5 acres land were eligible for Naya Pakistan Card under the PM’s social protection program.“This is the biggest ever relief program for farmers and agriculture growers of Pakistan.
The huge interest free loans could be spent on purchase of seeds, agriculture machinery, leveling of fields and making infertile land’s cultivable,” he added.
As per vision of the Prime Minister, he said two new agriculture universities were being established in DI Khan and Swat district while work on setting up a state-of the art Veterinary University at Swat was expedited.
The Minister said the KP Government has started a Rs one billion project to bring 32lakh acres infertile land under agriculture net. In the past, he said only two billion rupees were allocated in the budget in the past while the PTI Government has increased it to a record Rs100 billion in the current fiscal year.
The Minister said different agriculture uplift projects worth Rs14 billion for storage of rainy water and soil conservation programs have been launched.
Wisal Khan, a prominent housing builder of Peshawar said great relief was provided to poor people and low income groups to become masters of their own houses.
He said provision of interest-free loans up to Rs 500,000 to 3.7 million households was a significant relief to poor people to construct their own houses. The poor people mostly spend their hard earned money on paying rent after hiring a house and wait for a long to construct their own houses due to their low financial power.
Wisal Khan said there as a shortage of housing units in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and PM’s package would help provide houses to about 37,00,000 people that would give enormous boost to the construction industry.
Misal Khan, a retired Information Officer told APP that PM’s social protection program was historic in which maximum relief was provided to all key sectors of life including Rs120 billion for food subsidy to 20 million families.
He said 30 percent discount on flour, pulses and ghee/cooking oil was a significant relief provided by the PTI Government to people besides ebbing away inflation and price hike. More than 130 million people covering 53percent population would be directly benefited from PM’s Ehsas Ration Program in the country.
Families having less than Rs50,000 per month income could register themselves under the Ehsas Ration Program by sending their identity cards through SMS to 8171 while Kiryana stores can also register themselves through Ehsas web portal. A subsidy of Rs 1,000 per month would be granted to each of eligible families on purchase of these food items.
Former Nazim Bahadar Khan while appreciating the Prime Minister’s health insurance program said that free treatment up to Rs one million to each patient suffering from lethal and chronic diseases including orthopaedics, ENT, Gyane and Obstetrics, Cardiovascular, Dialysis, cancers and Liver Transplant was a huge amount and now no patient would sell his property or land for purchase of quality treatment.
Health insurance to every family to the tune of Rs one million would facilitate poor people to get quality and free treatment to patients in any top paneled hospital of the country.
Officials in KP Health Department told APP that 750,326 families were provided free treatment in 2017 while the number of beneficiaries has swelled to 7,590,944 families this year.
Similarly, the number of Sehat Plus Card’s panel hospitals in the country have increased to 679 and 193 in KP. As many as 760,908 patients were provided admission facilities in hospitals while 7,590,944 families were registered for admission.
The official said Rs18.3 billion were spent on provision of free treatment to patients of heart, mother-child, kidney dialysis, orthopaedics, urology, ENT and others ailments under Sehat Cards Plus Program.
Professor Dr Muhammad Naeem of Swabi University said free vocational and technical training to 3.7 million Pakistanis under the PM’s social protection program was a landmark initiative of the PTI Government would help provide jobs opportunities to people besides preparing skill manpower to cater the market’s demands.
