Over-smart teachers land in trouble in bid to rob the poor

Education authorities have suspended services of six teachers in the Bannu District for adding names of their ‘undeserving relatives’ to the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme beneficiary list.

The district education officer in Bannu has notified suspension of the services of the six teachers who allegedly tried to help their ‘undeserving relatives’ benefit from the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme, which is meant to help the poor hit hard by the lockdown triggered by the coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan.

It is said that these teachers were part of a committee formed by the Bannu deputy commissioner at the village council level to collect data of labourers working against daily wages. The committee consisted of village council secretary and government schoolteachers. Six of these teachers added names of their ‘undeserving relatives’ to the beneficiary list in place of deserving people.

The Pakistan government’s flagship Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme was launched on Thursday. Under the programme, each poor family will get a onetime compensation of Rs12,000 to make the ends meet during the lockdown. The government has set up 17,000 points countrywide where cash would be distributed to the poor.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had launched the project last week with the assurance to people that funds would be distributed on merit.