The Punjab government has introduced a new program to help flood-affected citizens with specially issued ‘Maryam Nawaz Sharif Flood Relief ATM Cards’ with the objective of making direct financial aid available as per authenticated losses.
The relief cards will be given only after proper verification process, undertaken by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), the Punjab Land and Revenue Authority (PLRA), and Nadra, says Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General Irfan Ali Kathia.
The action is part of an overall push to provide transparent and focused assistance to the victims of recent catastrophic floods.
The government has initiated a province-wide survey across the affected districts to assess individual and farm losses, which will be the basis for determining how much will be distributed to each card.
These relief cards with debit-style functionality will enable flood victims to directly access their compensation from ATMs without the need for intermediaries, reducing the chances of misuse.
As per the recent PDMA report, 1,314 survey teams are working right now in 27 inundated districts of Punjab. The data so far has been recorded from 41,735 people, while crop loss information from 28,632 farmers on 49,510 acres has also been gathered.
