The Punjab government’s Orange Line Metro Train is an embodiment of flawed development strategy because the limited resources should be spent on better projects like hydle power generation on the rivers and canals of Punjab than the show piece project, said Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo in a statement issued on Tuesday.
He urged the government to restore the hydle power generation comprehensive plan on the rivers and canals prepared during his chief ministership in 1995. He said that the execution of that plan would make available affordable electricity to the farmers and the consumers because this mode of power generation was the cheapest and moreover climate friendly.
He predicted that with the availability of affordable electricity the provincial agriculture would get desperately needed boost bringing revolution in the rural life considerably thus reducing difference of regional economic disparities that had been widening since the PML(N) government came to power. The Orange Metro Line Railway will further strengthen the perception, and perception is bigger than reality, he argued.
He pointed out that the government was planning to spend Rs 162 billion on the Orange Line Metro Train that would undoubtedly provide comparatively better commuting facilities to the residents of the provincial capital but the people of the rest of the province will rightly feel it at their expense, he observed. It is bad governance that leads to ill- will among the people, he added.
It will be appropriate from the development priority point of view if the money is spent on the projects benefiting the entire populace of the Punjab.