The ministry had sought about Rs4 billion for 29 ongoing and 21 new projects.
ISLAMABAD:
Science and technology seems to be lowest on the government’s development agenda. A drastic cut has been slapped on recurring budget or allocations for new projects. Some projects being executed by the Ministry of Science and Technology have been shelved.
A meagre amount of Rs903 million has been set aside for 31 projects in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2014-15 for various ongoing and new projects against Rs2.1billion allocated for 51 projects in the last fiscal year. Nine of its ongoing projects have been abolished.
The ministry had sought about Rs4 billion for 29 ongoing and 21 new projects. The finance ministry approved Rs2 billion but the Ministry of Planning and Development Division slashed it to Rs903 million, without giving any reason.
An official of the ministry, who did not want to be named, told The Express Tribune that they were shocked to see the cuts in the PSDP.
The decision will affect renewable energy, biotechnology driven economic development, nanotechnology and development of hydrogen fuel cell technologies.
Besides, the funds have also been declined for two new projects relating to enhancing technical skills of youth in Balochistan.
Nine ongoing projects that have been abandoned include water testing laboratories making 208 employees associated throughout the country bleak.
The ministry had demanded Rs130 million for the laboratories in the new budget but got nothing.
Twenty-four laboratories were established in 2006 under the Pakistan Safe Drinking Water (PSDW) project in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Bahawalpur and 19 other cities and towns.
According to the ministry record, the government has spent Rs1.31 billion on the project by conducting survey of over 10,000 water supply schemes and imparting training to 2,600 officials. The 208 staffers at the laboratories have yet to receive their salaries for May.
Dismayed by the cuts, Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid has written a letter to Minister for Planning and Development Division Ahsan Iqbal.
“It is disturbing to note that the science and technology is not a priority for the planning division. This has deprived nine ongoing projects of allocation.
Over 200 employees of 24 water testing laboratories will become jobless,” the letter reads.
The minister asked the Planning Commission to reconsider its decision and increase the allocations for 2014-15 to at least the same level of current year releases of Rs1.650 billion.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2014.
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Recipe for disaster: 1. Allocate major share of national budget to "defense" spending that doesn't even work. Spend most of that defense money on amassing conventional warfare regiments and hardware, and amass them on a border, all against an enemy who is not going to attack Pakistan. 2. Also spend a ton of money on developing and building nuclear weapons, no good for anything other than proclaiming shamefully how proud we are of owning weapons of mass death. 3. All this while our people starve to death, and the real enemy within us bleeds us with a thousand cuts. 4. Don't allocate any funds for education and research and anything that can lead to a meaningful improvement in the collective psyche and awareness levels. Keep enforcing millenia old traditions and culture, and despise analytical and logical thinking.
Recipe for success: 1. Allocate major share of national budget to education (real education, not rote-learning and authority-enforcing propaganda). 2. Let the people flourish as intelligent grown up adults rather than cloistered children who can not handle the truth about the world. Stop nonsense such as banning of sites and youtube etc on a whim. Stop teaching children that women are less than men and that men can not control themselves, hence the women should stay at home. Don't set low expectations, this lowest-common-denominator thinking is why we have the loutish behavior from our males 3. Result: success and growth as a nation.