Beijing: A top official of a Chinese province has
apologised to inmates of a poverty stricken village for
forcing them to spend large amounts of money to paint
exteriors of their houses to make them look nice for
outsiders.
Wen Fei, chief governor of Pingle County in southwest
China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said local
government resorted to the measure while seeking quick success
and immediate gains without thinking of villagers' actual
needs, official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
The apology came after reports appeared in the
official media that poverty-stricken villagers, living
alongside a highway linking Guilin to Wuzhou, were ordered to
spend several thousand yuan to paint their exterior walls in a
bid to make the houses look nice for people coming from other
areas.
Under the government's image project some of the
villagers who can not afford even doors for their houses were
forced to mobilise money to paint their houses, the report
said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, November 03, 2010, 16:07