Govt to list poor in Gorkha to issue poverty ID cards
KATHMANDU, JAN 15 -
The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) is scheduled to start identifying the poor from Gorkha district by January-end so that they can be issued poverty ID cards.
The government gave the MoCPA the job of managing the card distribution which was originally planned to be given to the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF). The recipients of the poverty identity cards will get subsidies on education, health facilities, transportation and food, among other benefits.
According to the ministry, it has deployed 200 enumerators and 25 supervisors in Gorkha which has a population of 66,000 households.
“The ministry has planned to distribute the cards by mid-April,” said Durga Bhattarai, executive vice-chairman of the central coordination committee formed to carry out the task. Bhattarai, who is also a board member of the PAF, said the task had been transferred to the MoCPA in a bid to implement a one-door policy.
Following the decision, the government has appointed the Minister of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation as the chairperson of the central coordination committee formed under the National Planning Commission for the purpose. Bhattarai said the PAF would now work together with the ministry.
Meanwhile, the ministry has started amending the directives for distribution of the poverty identity cards. MoCPA secretary Rana Bahadur Shrestha said they were now working to amend some of the points in the directives to make them compatible with the changed management. “After amending the directives, we will form a new working guideline to continue the work of issuing poverty identity cards,” he said. For the last four months, the government has been working to identify the poor through the PAF. The programme has considered people who are receiving less than 2,220 calories per person per day as poor. In addition, human and social indicators and income levels will be determined to categorise the absolute poor. It has planned to distribute three types of poverty cards depending on the living conditions.
In the first phase, 25 districts including Achham, Bajhang, Bajura, Kailali, Jumla, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, Kalikot, Jajarkot and Gorkha were selected for the purpose of identifying and distributing poverty cards. Shrestha said they would continue their work in these districts first.
As per the plan, a district level monitoring committee led by the chief district officer has been formed in each of the 25 districts. A total of Rs 9.9 million has been allocated to each district to distribute identity cards to the poor.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
