Opp rejects Punjab budget as joke with masses

Rejecting the Punjab budget 2011-12 as a joke with the masses, Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz said the budget would only benefit PML-N workers through the proposed yellow cab scheme.
Addressing in the Punjab Assembly on Monday during the budget debate, Riaz said Shahbaz Sharif’s government used the Sasti Roti Scheme to bless its workers in the previous budget and the purpose would be served this year by the yellow cab scheme.
The PPP leader said no one could stop the creation of the Siraiki province after the budget, as southern Punjab had not been given its rights by the Punjab government. Calling the Rs 70 billion allocation for southern Punjab inadequate, Riaz announced such moves were forcing the people of the Siraiki belt to strengthen their demand for a separate province and his party was ready to support them.
He asked Nawaz Sharif to become the chief minister of Punjab, as “Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is unfit to govern the province adequately”.
The speaker warned the opposition leader to avoid such suggestion, as some suggestion could also be put forward by the treasury against the PPP. Riaz claimed that although the PML-N government had announced 25 percent reduction in the budget for the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, he did not believe the announcement as a similar decision was announced in the previous budget as well but nothing had been done about it.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who was present in the session, stood up on a point of order to clarify his position on the CM Secretariat’s budget, saying the amount allocated for his secretariat was Rs 266.4 million and he had not spent any extra budget on the secretariat. However, Riaz refused to accept the clarification. The opposition leader was also critical of various development schemes – Sasti Roti Scheme, yellow cab scheme, Ashiyana Housing Scheme and Daanish Schools – saying all such schemes would fail due to corruption, lack of team work, non-cooperation of the bureaucracy and the poor performance of the government.
He also criticised the government for continuing the Daanish Schools project and reducing the health and education budgets. Riaz said the government had already spent over Rs 3 billion to establish only six Daanish Schools, while it was going to establish eight more schools in the next year, adding that it was a waste of public money. Reading out the allocations and utilisation of funds for development projects during the last year, Riaz said the Punjab government had allocated Rs 80 million for information technology in the budget 2010-11 but used more than Rs 460 million in this sector. He asked the government to explain to the House where the extra amount had been used, as there was no development in the said sector during that time.
The opposition leader said lack of team work and coordination among the authorities had resulted in the failure to use Rs 5 billion allocated for five different departments – food, agriculture, irrigation, forest and livestock.
Criticising the Sasti Roti Scheme, Riaz said it had been rolled back by the government in the budget 2011-12 as it was “the biggest failure of the PML-N-led government in Punjab”.
He asked the government to provide the details of funds of Rs 5 billion allocated for the scheme in budget 2010-11, and inform the House where these funds had been spent.
Lashing out at the Ashiyana Housing Scheme, he asked Finance Minister Kamran Michael to inform the House from where funds for the scheme would be obtained, as there no allocation had been made in the budget for the project.
He said the Punjab government’s yellow cab scheme was an “election stunt” to please PML-N workers.
An exchange of hot words was also witnessed between Raja Riaz and Rana Sanaullah over the presentation of wrong figures by the opposition leader.
After the opening speech by the opposition leader, Dr Asad Moazzam, Tahir Khalil Sindhu, Samina Khawar Hayyat, Dr Ashraf Chohan and Dr Ghazala Rana also spoke on the budget 2011-12.
Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan later adjourned the proceedings until today (Tuesday).