Five months after a budget speech that is proving to be overambitious, it has become clear that improving the province’s power generation ability is not a priority on Punjab government’s list.
Not even a single power generation project has been initiated from the hefty Rs 9 billion allocated for the same in the ongoing fiscal year.
Punjab Finance Minister Kamran Michael, while unveiling the budget, had claimed that the government understood the ‘need of the hour’ and had thus allocated this huge chunk of the budget to power generation.
He had also announced the formation of a separate energy department, which is unheard of to date.
The 120-megawatt project, Taunsa Barrage, a 500 megawatt project to be accomplished by the private sector and solar power-based tube wells, for which a separate Rs 1.36 billion were earmarked, have still to make it to the realm of reality.
“The CM should pay attention to the citizen’s basic needs instead of holding useless rallies with his brother,” said Shafqat Raza, a rickshaw driver.
Punjab govt’s power projects hanging fire
