PUNJAB Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Monday approved the granting of one-kilowatt solar systems to 50,000 households in Punjab. Presiding over a special meeting on the “Light without Electricity Bill, Chief Minister’s Roshan Punjab Programme” in Lahore, the CM was briefed on technical issues of the solar system for domestic consumers.
The CM said the initiative is aimed at freeing the poor from expensive electricity but in reality it was a perfect gift for people of the province on the occasion of the Earth Day as it is a step towards protection of the environment. Elsewhere in the world, the Governments are focusing on electricity generation through alternative resources to save the environment and maximization of the programme in Punjab would go a long way towards realization of this cherished objective. Otherwise too, this would be a significant relief to the inflation-ridden citizens who are finding it increasingly difficult to pay heft electricity bills but are also unable to switch to solar energy due to the investment involved. In fact, based on practical experience of the project in Punjab, it needs to be emulated by other provincial governments and supported by the federal government by way of tax exemptions on small solar panels and their other components. Realizing that in all such projects, as we also observed in the case of laptop scheme, quality is compromised by implementers for personal gains, the Chief Minister has given clear instructions provision of the best quality solar plates, inverter, batteries, and other accessories and we hope a fail-proof mechanism would be adopted to realize this noble objective.
