Chhattisgarh's biggest housing project has led to a tussle between senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The state government has come up with Kamal Vihar project to develop housing infrastructure on the outskirts of Raipur. The project will be developed in 2200-2300 acres with an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore in the first phase.
In all, the executing agency, Raipur Development Authority (RDA), had planned to develop eight sectors in about 16,500 acres. The project will be in the line of model townships in Noida and Chandigarh.
Before the project could take off, the biggest housing infrastructure project in Chhattisgarh had spilled out simmering political differences between ruling BJP's top leaders in the open. The government is finding itself in a peculiar situation as leaders from its own party are lashing out over the project.
"The state government should not work as property broker or real estate developer, fumed BJP's chief whip in the Lok Sabha and Raipur Member of Parliament (MP) Ramesh Bais. The former Union minister opposed the project and said it was not in the interests of the people as the government was acquiring farmland.
Bais was more political as his differences with chief minister Raman Singh was an open secret in state. As criticism came from a senior leader, the state government swung into action even as party organisation took strong exception.
"The state government sent RDA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amit Katariya yesterday with a mission to explain Bais about the project," a senior state government official told Business Standard.
The CEO convinced Bais that the RDA would not construct a single structure and would only develop basic infrastructure before handing over the land to the people.
Katariya, however, succeeded in his mission with Bais going somewhat soft later in the day.
"If the project is in the interests of people, the state government must go ahead," Bais said. It was indeed not a clean chit.
For, Bais added that the government should first display the project model in open and implement after noting people's response.
