PESHAWAR: A number of social welfare institutions, including orphanages for girls and boys, rehabilitation centres for drug addicts, women crisis centres and senior citizens homes have been closed down due to non-supply of food across the province for the last four months.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak also took note of the matter and called an emergency meeting of the officials concerned on Wednesday to resolve the issue.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat told The News that the chief minister, acting on a complaint lodged by the in-charge Dar-ul-Aman, (centre for women in distress) Mardan, Yasmin Ara that the centre was to be closed down as it was not getting any food supply for the last four months, called the director of social welfare and women development Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Abdul Hameed Khan along with a deputy director and other officials concerned to his office and directed them to rush to Mardan and probe the matter.
The sources said it was brought to the notice of the chief minister and special assistant to the chief minister on Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Dr Mehar Taj Roghani that a number of social welfare institutions, including Dar-ul-Aman, Darul Kafala (rehabilitation centres for child and adult beggars) Welfare Homes (orphanages for minor girls and boys), Women Crisis Centres, and Senior Citizens Homes were closed due to non-supply of food. It was learnt that in some of the institutions the employees of the department were supplying food to the inmates on their own to keep them open.
They said the inertia on the part of the government and lethargy of the bureaucracy was fast leading to the complete closure of these institutions as the authorities concerned could not finalize the food tenders since July. They said the tenders for supply of food items were floated four times costing around Rs2.4 million, but these were cancelled for one reason or the other.
The authorities failed to extend the food contract of the old contractors even though they could extend it for at least three months. The contracts also couldn’t be awarded to new contractors, the sources added.
The sources said in Peshawar the Welfare Home, housing street children and orphans, Dar-ul-Aman providing shelter to the shelterless women, Dar-ul-Kafala serving as the rehabilitation centre for child and adult beggars, the Welfare Homes orphanages for girls and boys, and Senior Citizens Home were closed down for non-supply of food. The Women Crisis Centre where 39 women had taken shelter was being supplied food by the centre in-charge. A clerk at the Institute for Blind (Boys) Peshawar is personally providing food to the two institutes for blind girls and boys, the sources said. They added that the old contractor continued to supply food to the Halfway Centre (a drop-in centre for homeless women) without any legal contractual arrangements.
Dr Mehar Taj Roghani told The News that she was trying to resolve the issue of food supply to all the institutions at the earliest, but transparency in the award of food supply contract was also an issue of paramount importance for their government. “After sensing a sort of hanky-panky in the food supply by the old contractors and lack of transparency in the process of the tender I cancelled it and brought the matter to the notice of the chief minister,” she said. She added that the chief minister gave her a free hand to deal with the matter.
Dr Mehar Taj Roghani said the delay in the award of contract was due to that lack of transparency. “But now we have directed our district officers to purchase food items from the Utility Stores outlets in their respective districts so that supply to these institutions could continue. Except Mardan there is no serious problem in other institutions. She said soon the procurement from the Utility Stores would begin and the district officers on the production of receipts would be paid the amount as we have allocated funds for the purpose,” she said.
