Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali shah expressed his surprise and sorrow that only Rs 12.05 billion out of Rs 800 billion has been allocated to Sindh for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2016-17).
“This is against the commitments and announcements by the prime minister and is an injustice with the people of Sindh,” he said while presiding a review meeting of the proposed PSDP.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Finance and Development Syed Murad Ali Shah, Principal Secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Additional Chief Secretary Mohammad Waseem, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput and others.
The senior minister for finance and planning and development (P&D) said that the federal government has proposed a Rs 800 billion PSDP for the next financial year. The chief minister when asked about the number of on-going schemes of Sindh and their allocation, Shah said that only 25 schemes with an allocation of Rs 12.05 billion have been included in the proposed PSDP. The chief minister said that it is a peanut and injustice with Sindh.
He said the prime minister had announced the rehabilitation of Guddu Barrage and the construction of motorway from Hyderabad to Sukkur but no funds are allocated for the purpose.
Talking about new schemes in the next PSDP, the minister said that the federal government has included 180 new schemes in its next PSDP, out of them only 11 are Sindh-based for which Rs 120.77 billion have been earmarked which constitutes 6 per cent of the amount.
The meeting was told that the in the next proposed PSDP, the federal government has included 180 schemes of Rs 644543.8315 million against which Rs 120.77 billion allocation has been proposed. Punjab is given 26 schemes of Rs 140100.543 million against which Rs 16599.025 million funds have been allocated which constitute 14 per cent of the cost. Sindh is given 11 schemes of Rs 130475.471 million with an allocation of Rs 6550.881 million which comes to 6 per cent of the amount. Khyber Pakhtunkha is given 18 schemes of Rs 115927.99 million with an allocation of Rs 2721 billion which is 10 percent of the cost. However, Balochistan is given 28 schemes of Rs 43439.715 million with an allocation of Rs 28356.403 million which is 16 per cent of the cost. Gilgit Baltistan is given 7 schemes of Rs 15394.5465 m with an allocation of Rs 1100 million which is four per cent of the amount. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir has got two schemes of Rs 3733.453 million against which Rs 765 million have been allocated. It makes one per cent of the cost. Islamabad is given 88 schemes of Rs 195472.113 million with an allocation of Rs64678.408 million, which makes 49 percent of the cost.
The chief minister said that six new schemes of Sindh with an adequate allocation are included in the next PSDP. They include Indus highway from Jamshoro to Sehwan dual carriageway, Sukkur Barrage rehabilitation project, up-gradation of flood infrastructure, short term mitigation and measures to counter sea intrusion, planting of 25 million trees to combat climate change effect in Sindh and lining of Kalri Baghar feeder upper canal for better water supply to the city.
He said that he would urge the federal government to enhance the allocation of some important schemes. The federal government has allocated only Rs 500 million for K-IV which may be increased to Rs 5.3 billion so that it could be completed within two years. This is Rs 25.551 billion scheme in which the federal and provincial governments have to equally share the cost.
The chief minister said that Makhi Farash link canal project (phase-II) is meant to supply water to Thar coal to meet the requirement of Thar coal project. The total cost of the project is Rs 10.61 billion with equal cost sharing by federal and provincial governments.
“I would urge the federal government to enhance its proposed allocation of Rs 50 million to Rs 2 billion,” he said.
Additional Chief Secretary Wassem said that the federal government has proposed only Rs 10 million for lining of distributaries and minors. It should be enhanced to Rs 3 billion, he said.
He said that a meager amount of Rs 1 billion has been kept as normal annual development programme (emergent flood scheme), PSDP 992 for the whole country, whereas Sindh has submitted many important schemes costing more than Rs 16 billion.
The chief minister said that this allocation has been kept for whole of Pakistan and it should be enhanced to Rs 10 billion. “I had discussed this requirement with the prime minister but I don’t know why meager amount has been proposed,” he recalled.
Waseem told the chief minister that the share of Sindh government in PSDP for vertical programmes comes to Rs 3.93 billion against which only Rs 1.76 billion is released. The vertical programmes include expanded program on immunisation, prevention and control of influenza, blindness, hepatitis, TB, malaria and others.
The chief minister said that the Sindh government has provided Rs 1.922 billion as bridge financing for the vertical programmes of health department for which he would urge the federal government to reimburse.
Moreover, the federal government has to reimburse Rs 842.590 million of the Hyderabad package.
