LAHORE, June 22: The opposition blamed the Punjab government on Friday for spending Rs57 billion of the supplementary budget (201112) on projects, which were not of immediate nature, without the approval of the house and in violation of prescribed rules and regulations.

`The rules only allow the government to use the supplementary budget on projects/schemes of immediate nature and not for launching the Bus Rapid Transit system, laptops distribution, fixing grills along both sides of the canal and other such projects,` opposition member Ehsanul Haq Naulathia criticized the government while giving his input during a debate on the supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2011-12 in the Punjab Assembly session.

He said, according to rules, it was mandatory for the government to get an approval from the house immediately even after spending Re1. But the government neither spent the supplementary budget on projects of immediate nature nor tabled a detail of expenses before the house for approval.

`I just ask the government as to why, except the money it spent on emergent projects like flood victims and denguehit people, it spent huge money on the BRT, grills along the canal and widening of roads/crossings without the prior approval of the house, he questioned.

About the allocation of Rs9 billion for launching power generation projects in Punjab in 2011-12, he said the government failed to spend even Rs1 billion that showed its clear disinterest in reducing load-shedding in the province.

The Punjab government has again allocated Rs10 billion for such projects in the budget for 2012-13. `But I am sure the fate of the allocation will be no different from the previous year,` he added.

Syed Hasan Murtaza said that had the government avoided spending supplementary budget on the BRT and other projects and used it for energy-related project, it could have averted the ongoing loadshedding in Punjab. He said the constant role of middlemen and negligence of the government had ruined growers in southern Punjab.

`Due to middlemen, they (growers) are unable to receive the actual price of their cash crops for which they work hard round-the-clock, he said, lamenting that whenever he saw excellent roads in Lahore, he felt fragrance of the cotton from them.

Another opposition member Mian Muhammad Rafique said since the province was passing through a severe water crisis, the government must focus on the issue and spend money for ensuring water supply to the agriculture land. `I can predict a war between India and Pakistan on the water issue.

Although it was the prime responsibility of the federal government to talk to the Indian government to avoid constructing dams and stopping due water supply/share to Pakistan, the Punjab government should also take up this issue with the federal government.

He also quoted a World Bank`s report that claimed a complete absence of water in Lahore by 2020.

He urged the Punjab gov-ernment to ensure provision of equal rights to minorities and departmental promotions to the staff working in the agriculture department since long.

Another opposition member said the government should have also spent the supplementary budget to ensure provision of missing facilities in hundreds of schools in the province instead of spending it massively on Danish schools.

In a tit-for-tat action, the treasury members rejected the opposition claim, declaring that the Punjab government had set a unique precedent of good governance.

They held the federal government responsible for the prevailing energy crisis, claiming that it was creating hurdles in the way of the Punjab government in launching power generation projects in Punjab.

`In my own constituency, the Punjab government intends to launch a pilot project of 8MW power generation through the solid waste management,` Ali Asghar Munda said, adding that learned members of this house could never imagine how the government tried to stop this scheme by using delaying tactics in issuing an NOC for launching this project,` he said He said though the government had planned to launch this time and applied for the NOC last year, the federal government through Nepra sent an NOC to the Punjab government just a couple of days before.

He said the Punjab government rightly spent the supplementary budget on various immediate natured projects as per rules and regulations.