PM Imran Khan has announced a relief package for daily wage workers, hit hard by recent lockdown in the country, due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the planning and execution of the relief package in Punjab are unscrupulous.

For applying for relief package (maximum 8,000, rupees 4,000 per month) the poor people are required to apply online. A cruel joke with illiterate masses. It is a well-known fact that mobile having internet facility are quite costlier and almost out of reach of daily wage worker, how can they apply online. Preferably, it should have been carried out by civil administration in collaboration with a large welfare organisation that is already busy in such activities.

Presently, it would be difficult to provide benefits to the grass-root level of society. Why do not the government ask NADRA to analyde population data of the whole country and furnish a detailed record of daily-wages workers? This information can easily be traced from the CNIC record of all populations. For further check, UCs may be put into action for providing complete bio-data of their residents. The mobile numbers of these people are also available in the data-bank of NADRA which should be retrieved and produced to the government for swiftly making relief package decisions. In a digital world, we must be pro-active in developing strategy, how to combat COVID-19.

We must take preemptive measures instead of making things hotch-potch and waiting for some miracle to happen.

IFTIKHAR MIRZA,

Islamabad.