The Ministry of Social Affairs is actively considering paying electricity and water bills of poor families listed on the social security lists. The project has been delayed upon the insistence of the electricity department that all due payments must be paid before any decision is taken in this regard, Dr. Yousuf Bi Ahmed Al-Othaimeen, Minister of Social Affairs, has said. The minister was speaking at a ceremony in his honor hosted by noted sociologist Ehsan Saleh Taiyeb. The minister also met with a number of journalists, businessmen, legal luminaries and experts in culture and sociology. Dr. Al-Othaimeen said National Charitable Fund – earlier known as Poverty Fund – is tasked with formulating programs and schemes and not only grant financial assistance. The government supports the fund with an annual grant of SR300 million. The minister said tackling poverty does not depend on conventional methods of providing the poor with money; the fund would rather prepare programs to turn poor families into productive ones through free-of-interest loans, educational scholarships and working-from-distance programs. He said he has already signed a SR23 million contract of educational scholarships for the needy in Makkah Region and SR10 million contract for Madina Region. The minister believes that the private sector and charitable societies beneficial in turning his ministry into productive, free-of-bureaucracy body, with executive commissions carrying out most of its tasks of charitable work with private sector playing an active part. The minister cited businessman Yahya Bin Laden's initiative of conducting a comprehensive field two-year study on poor families in Makkah. “The study is of great value,” he said. He added that the ministry would give regular grants to charitable societies according to their performance and not according to the allocations aiming to create an atmosphere of competition. – Okaz __
