LAHORE: Opposition members in the Punjab Assembly questioned on Monday the ‘misplaced’ priorities of the Punjab government in the budget 2015-16 and its failures in the outgoing year.

Opposition Leader Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said Rs1.3 million were being spent on the Chief Minister House daily as Rs450 million had been spent on the Chief Minister’s House in 2014-15 against the allocation of Rs210 million. “In 2015-16, the Chief Minister’s House budget has been doubled,” he said.

He said 52 per cent of the funds allocated for education could not be spent in 2014-15. Similarly, on the food, industry, IT and livestock sectors, less than two per cent of the allocated budget were spent. On women development, special education and energy, the Punjab government managed to spend 50 per cent, 30 per cent and 35 per cent of the allocated budget 2014-15, which showed Punjab’s commitment towards these sectors, he said.

The opposition leader added the Punjab government had failed to achieve its revenue targets for 2014-15. Against the revenue target of Rs174 billion it could collect only Rs114. The government only collected Rs14 million against the target of Rs500 million in terms of luxury tax. The government only received Rs200,000 in tax on farm houses against the target Es15 million, he said.

Mr Rasheed as why the Punjab government had allocated Rs62 million for Jati Umra, Raiwind residence of the prime minister. “Jati Umra is the residence of the prime minister and the federal government should allocate budget for it,” he said.

He said 12 million children in the province were out of schools and the province was witnessing worse law and order but the government had allocated Rs94 billion for police, almost two times from the last year’s budget. “What is the good of such a huge allocation for the police which have failed to deliver. The Anti-Corruption Establishment has pinpointed in its report that the police department is leading in corruption,” he said and suggested that the chief minister had better transfer the police budget to any other department.

Mr Rasheed asked the chief minister why no relief was given to farmers in the budget while a subsidy of Rs12 billion and Rs6 billion had been given to sugar mills and flour mills.

He criticised the government for ignoring the suggestions of standing committees and the opposition in the budget. “It amounts to insulting the people as the legislators represent the masses,” he said, adding the “good governance claim” of the chief minister stood exposed (by these steps).

PPP parliamentary leader Qazi Ahmed Saeed was also critical of the Punjab government for not allocating enough for health and education sectors. He was also not happy with the opposition leader for not highlighting any issue of south Punjab. “I wish the opposition leader had talked about south Punjab. We (the people of the south) are not given their rights. Rana Sanaullah and Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood had presented resolutions for the creation of Bahawalpur and south Punjab province in the Punjab Assembly but no progress has been made on it,” Mr Saeed said.

Drawing chair’s attention towards the police performance, the PPP MPA said as police had been deployed on protocol duties, how would they do other duties. Ruling party’s MPA Rana Shamshad was killed but his killers could not be arrested. “Let the police do its duty instead of deploying them on protocol duties,” he suggested.

Mr Saeed said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had promised to control loadshedding but the PML-N Punjab government had failed to add even 200MW to the national grid in the last two years. “Who knows this government also fails to fulfill its promise of ending the loadsheddng by 2018,” he said.

PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal asked the opposition leader to suggest the PTI leadership to develop a consensus in Kyber Pakhtaunkhawah on Kalabagh Dam. He also suggested the government to improve the condition of public hospitals.

Waris Kalu, Rana Arshad, Mazhar Abbas, Abdur Rauf Mughal and Ejaz Shafi also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2015

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