Govt plans to start 2nd phase from Nov end

KATHMANDU, OCT 25 -
 
The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) has planned to initiate the second phase of the poor ID card distribution programme from November end.

The central coordination committee (CCC), which is tasked for the purpose, said the programme would be launched on the basis of the field work after the Constitution Assembly’s election scheduled for November 19.

“We will start the second phase of work soon after the election,” said CCC’s Executive Vice-chairman Durga Bhattarai. She added that they were assessing feedback from the first phase programme. “We conducted several interactive programme at the regional level to collect the feedbacks from local people and members of local coordination committee formed to monitor the card distribution.”

In the second phase, the CCC will cover the remaining 50 districts for the preliminary work. The committee is on the verge of completing the first phase of identification process of the poor in 25 districts.

Achham, Bajhang, Bajura, Kailali, Jumla, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, Kalikot, Jajarkot, Bardia, Rukum, Rolpa, Pyuthan, Arghakhachi, Kapilvastu, Tanahu, Baglung, Gorkha, Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Rautahat, Siraha, Khotang and Bhojpur are the districts that were covered in the first phase. “We are at the end of the preliminary work in Dolpa,” Bhattarai said.

The CCC has initiated processing the data gathered from 25 districts. “We have already called for the interested private firms to process the data through e-bidding,” she said. “The work is expected to be over within the next four months.” The government had allocated Rs 9.9 million for the first phase programme of identifying the poor.

Initiated under the Poverty Alleviation Fund last year, the work on the poor ID cards distribution was later transferred on to the MoCPA in a bid to implement a one-door policy.

The poor ID card is an ambitious social security drive aimed at benefitting the poor by providing attractive facilities to them. However, the government has yet to decide on the type of such facilities. “As the programme is a comprehensive social security package, we will hold discussions at the macro level to decide on the possible benefits to be provided to them.”

Under the programme, people receiving less than 2,220 calories per day are considered as being poor. Besides, human and social indicators and income levels have also been considered to categorise the absolute poor.

Depending on the people’s living conditions, three types of poverty cards have been planned under the programme. The CCC is considering to distribute separate ID cards to extreme poor, medium poor and normal poor which will be categorised based on the people who do not have enough to eat for three months, six months and nine months.

Source: The Kathmandu Post