TEHRAN: Iranian President Hassan Rowhani faced harsh criticism from conservatives Wednesday over what they say is a poorly implemented scheme to distribute food to low-income families in the sanctions-hit country.

Rowhani, a moderate elected last year, has already drawn fire over a landmark nuclear deal with world powers and diplomatic overtures that have been broadly welcomed in the West but slammed by hard-liners at home.

Both the diplomatic push and the social program are aimed at alleviating the effects of crippling Western sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects is being used to develop weapons, charges denied by Tehran.

The program aims to hand out packages of frozen chicken, rice, vegetable oil, cheese and eggs to poor families ahead of Iranian New Year celebrations in mid-March.

But critics say the program has forced people to stand in long queues in cold weather and local media reported that an elderly man had died while waiting in the western Kermanshah province.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani has urged the government to “immediately amend the distribution method,” the Khorosan daily reported.

The hard-line Kayhan newspaper said Rowhani should apologize over the program and called for officials involved in it to resign.

“This plan could have been a gesture that the government cares about the poor ... but it has turned into a damaging measure accompanied by insult and humiliation,” it said in an editorial.

“Making huge numbers of poor people wait in long lines in freezing weather ... has been used by enemy media to portray a dark image of Iran.”