Prime Minister’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash program receives 38 mn SMS.

Islamabad: Since the launch of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash program, the government has received over 38 million text messages from people seeking financial assistance amid the lockdown imposed to contain the going COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new source. As per the publication, this number is three times higher than the projected number of families the initiative is intended to support.

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While talking to the media, the Ehsaas Programme spokesperson said that it is possible that the reason the number of received SMSs was so large was that all members of a family may have applied for the cash assistance via separate messages. So, in order to check for the authenticity of each text, all the applications will be verified through the National Database Registration Authority, the local government, and the National Socio-economic Registry.

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Under this program, the government will provide PKR 12,000 to each family registered with the authority concerned. In order to accommodate as many families as possible, the government has indicated that additional resources will be released for the initiative — in addition to the PKR 144 billion funds that have already been allocated for this purpose.