In an effort to woo the underprivileged voters, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today vowed to construct 1,00,000 houses for the poor people after the civic body polls in Chhattisgarh.
Nine municipal corporations, 26 municipalities and 119 nagar panchayats will go to polls in two phases on December 21 and 23. As many as 12,307 candidates are in the fray to get elected to the civic bodies. The ruling BJP today released its election manifesto for the civic body polls, offering a number of sops for the poor people.
"We will take up the project to build 1,00,000 houses for the poor people in various cities across the state," public works department minister and convenor of election manifesto committee, Brijmohan Agrawal, said. "The project will be completed in five years," he added. Slum-dwellers in the cities would be allotted the houses, Agrawal said, adding that houses without concrete roof constructed within an area of 500 square feet would be exempted from taxes.
Layout of the houses constructed within 1200 square feet would not require the nod of civic body as the architect would be authorised to do the job. The government would terminate the provision of allotting houses of state-run housing board and other agencies on lease by giving freehold to the owners, the manifesto said. Under the Shraddhanjali scheme, Rs 1,000 would be given to people living below poverty line for cremation.