KARACHI: Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has said that introducing energy saving technologies in rural areas could bring a big revolution in the agriculture sector and make Pakistan a grain basket of the region.

He said with dole-out programs we can only make our poor people more dependent but could not empower them economically.

He said we should eradicate poverty and not promote it with government sponsored schemes like Benazir Income Support or Ehsas programs.

He hoped that the upcoming elected government would disband the politically motivated dole-out scheme and divert these funds to empowerment of the low income families. He demanded from the government to empower poor families instead of making them beggars.

He said the government is spending billions of rupees on dole-out programs like PPP’s Benazir Income Scheme and PTI’s Ehsas Program. These programs in their essence are not aimed at empowering the poor families but to get their political loyalties. Every political government starts their own version of these dole-out programs.

He suggested that all such politically motivated programs must be abandoned. Such programs are useful for buying loyalty and votes but they don’t change anything for the nation and the country.

He suggested that the Pakistan government should instead distribute solar panels to the poor villagers, free of cost. That would take load off the main grid, reduce the energy import bill, create technology awareness in the rural populace and the money spent would be paid back in terms of oil import savings.

Altaf Shakoor said that the government needs to focus on job generating activities. He said if every low income household gets free solar panels it could reduce their monthly energy expenses to a great extent.

They could use this money for buying food and educating their children. He said that we should adopt solar energy to cater at least our energy needs at household level.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024