In its first cabinet meeting held a day after the oath taking ceremony, the Vishnu Deo Sai government in Chhattisgarh has approved sanctioning of 18 lakh houses under the PM Housing scheme for the rural poor.
Addressing a post-cabinet press conference on Thursday, Sai said that the PM Housing for 18 lakh rural poor, who were deprived of the facility during the previous Congress government, was a ‘Modi guarantee’ and part of the poll manifesto of the party.
“During the campaign, PM Narendra Modi had promised that the first thing the BJP government will do after coming to power will be to sanction these houses and we have kept our promise,” the CM said.
In reply to a question, Sai also said that the government will pay the pending paddy bonus (worth Rs 4,200 crores from the last tenure of Raman Singh-led BJP government) to the farmers on December 25 – the birth anniversary of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
During the press conference, the chief minister constantly attacked the previous Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government, saying that it had economically hollowed out the state, but the BJP government will keep 100 per cent of its promises to honour the massive mandate that it has received.
He also said that the Congress always considered the tribals as a vote bank, but after late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then the Modi government, along with the BJP government in the state, undertook welfare works for the community, it understood that only the BJP could ensure their welfare and development.
“In 2018, due to populist promises of the Congress, the tribal people had got misdirected, but they have corrected the wrong this time,” Sai said.
He, however, avoided answering a question on liquor ban and just smiled in response.
The chief minister said that the schemes initiated during the Congress government will be reviewed and decisions would be taken on the basis of the utility of the schemes. Those found not effective will be closed down while positive changes will be made in others as required.
On the question of recent spurt in Maoist incidents – two security personnel were killed in the past two days – he said that in the earlier 15-year tenure, BJP had fought Maoist extremism strongly and in coming days, too, strong fight against Maoism will be taken up.
Deputy chief ministers Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma were also present at the press conference.
