No sign of Sasti Roti scheme in 2011-12 budget

The Punjab government has quietly abandoned its flagship project of Sasti Roti in the provincial budget 2010-11, indicating a clear admission that scheme was a another fiasco as was the case with Food Stamp Scheme.

Interestingly, last year the Punjab government again quietly dropped Food Stamp scheme, another flagship scheme initiated by the PML-N to politically compete with the PPP, which was already successfully running the Benazir Bhutto Income Support Programme. The Punjab chief minister not only wrapped up this project but also sent packing its in-charge SA Hameed for his failure to execute the scheme.

The political circles are quite surprised to find that there was no mention of Sasti Roti Scheme in the budget presented on Friday with a price tag running into billions of rupees.

The omission of the scheme from the budget showed that the project was least sustainable in the first place. Interestingly, Sasti Roti like Food Stamp Programme, was one of the initiatives in which the Sharifs used to take special pride but which later turned out be yet another liability for the province and its financial managers with a political cost for the Sharifs.

The Punjab government initiated these schemes with a bang involving all the razzmatazz in the world, employing the greater chunk of provincial resources and administrative machinery for its success. But soon Shahbaz had to face the music from the opposition and its own ranks for depleting the treasury, forcing the provincial government to go for overdraft from the State Bank revealing the province financial predicament.

The provincial government picked fights with the federal government to squeeze more funds. Even smaller provinces could not swallow the cake’s shrinking size as Punjab stretched its overdraft limit raising all kinds of eyebrows. Now we seldom hear about the schemes as Punjab moved on to new schemes with price tag running into billions of rupees, again being criticized by different quarters.

It is learnt that the failure of these schemes also weighed heavily on the mind of the PML-N supreme, Nawaz Sharif who this time made it a point to keep tabs on everything happening on the budget-front.
Another interesting aspect of the budget is the introduction of Yellow Cab Scheme by the PML-N government yet again, but on a limited level.

Per details, the scheme this time is meant only for the people of South Punjab when such cabs have more utility in urban areas with proper network of roads and people who could afford this luxury.
“Is this the making of another goof up by the PML-N by keeping the scheme limited to Southern Punjab?” commented one opposition leader.

Opposition leaders reacting to the budget claimed that they saw same announcements in the budget 2011-12 which they had noticed in the 2008 budget. One example is the claims made in energy sector in the budget, they added.