The Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader and former Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Alhaj Sikandar Hayat Bosan, called the Federal, as well as the Provincial budget, as disappointing, as these had failed to provide any relief to the common man, industrialists, exporters.
Talking to newsmen, here on Tuesday, he said that the Government had imposed agricultural tax secretly through the withdrawal of subsidies on farm-inputs and the levy of carbon surcharge on petroleum products. He said that now DAP fertilisers would be available at Rs 4000 to 4500 per bag, and Urea at Rs 3000.
He alleged that in 2008-09, a Rs 160 billion development budget was announced by the Shahbaz-led government, which had promised to constitute a Price-control board, launch air-conditioned buses for students, generate 350-megawatt electricity, establish cold storage for perishable commodities in 10 districts etc from these funds. But none of the announced 'projects' could be fulfilled . He asked, why the conversion of the CM Secretariat to the (women's) IT University had not been finalised" as yet, as promised previously by the Punjab government.
He said that an announcement had been made to sell luxury cars, but "when the (cars) were sold, what was their selling price and under what head had the amount been utilised?" He asked, "How many roads had the provincial government constructed during one year? Did farmers receive the actual price of wheat and flour? And whether the promise to purchase a single grain of wheat had been fulfilled?." According to him "The Punjab government had announced to provide medicines, free of cost, to patients of all public hospitals. But this facility was withdrawn, even from the Emergency wards of the hospitals".
He further said that the promise was made by the N-led government to establish model schools in the province. The public wants to know how many model schools have been set up." The Punjab government, during the Budget speech, had announced the provision of low-cost houses to low-paid citizens at the cost of Rs 1 billion." The PML-Q leader asked how many houses had been constructed in one year.
He also asked how many tractors were given to farmers under the Green tractor scheme? And "How many tractors are given to small cultivators?" The Provincial government pledged to earmark Rs 5 billion to equip 4,574 secondary schools with modern computer labs. He questioned, "How many laboratories had been set up in educational institutions?"
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