LAHORE, Jan 26: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on Thursday inaugurated the Ring Road’s interchange near river Ravi and said when the government was building huge infrastructure in Punjab, certain elements (the PPP) were harming its interests.
The project inaugurated by President Pervez Musharraf in November 2004, has been completed in 13 months at a cost of Rs846 million as against the estimated amount of Rs940 million.
The interchange marks the beginning of construction of the 61-km ring road which, the chief minister said, would be completed by August next year, making it possible to reach anywhere in the city within 12 to 13 minutes.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by a number of provincial ministers, MPAs and senior government officials.
The chief minister said it was the commitment of the government with the people to provide them with all facilities, development and jobs. And in fulfilment of this commitment it was executing development projects all over the province.
“The government is doing this with a positive approach but this development is not being tolerated by certain elements,” he said.
The chief minister said the PPP always posed itself as the party of poor people but it snatched ‘roti, kapra and makaan’ from them, suppressing especially the poor farmers. “During their (the PPP) government, the independent power producers sold electricity at the rate of Rs3 per unit whereas the price was Re1 in Bangladesh,” he said.
He said now when the government was trying to arrange for water and power for the poor farmers, the PPP was opposing it, exposing its real face to the people. They had no manifesto but the plan of how to further befool the people to get their votes.
“This should be a source of concern for the people of Punjab and a few those who are still supporting the PPP. A party which snatches the morsel of bread from farmers should not be supported,” he said.
The chief minister said Punjab was providing food grain to the entire country even sending it to Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics but they (the PPP) wanted to turn it into a barren land.
“Punjab twice gave its share of water to Sindh in 2001 and the issue of Kalabagh dam has been unnecessarily exploited to hamper progress and prosperity of the country. These retrogressive elements want to again hoodwink the people but the latter have now understood their real objectives,” he said.