S. P. Pandey, Chandigarh, Mar 12, 2009 :Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Chandigarh Parliamentary seat, Mr Harmohan Dhawan announced to get the houses regularized outside the ‘lal dora’ area and to facilitate land acquisition rates upto Rs 2 crore per acre to the villagers. However, the current land rate is hardly Rs 18 lakh per acre.Addressing a gathering of over 500 villagers, including scores of Panch and Sarpanch came from around 22 villages, at his residence here today, the BSP leader also advised people to vote the contestants “for their past performance and not merely for their dry promises”.
The villagers blamed Congress MP and Minister of State for Finance, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal for his inaction and for neglecting rural problems despite being in power for over 15 years. They highlighted their two major demands including regularization of houses constructed outside the Lal Dora mark and land acquisition rates at par Punjab.
Mr Dhawan told the villagers that neither Pawan Kumar Bansal during his 15 years in power, nor Satyapal Jain in his 3 years duration as MP did anything worthwhile for the welfare of the villages. On the other hand, “When I was elected in 1989, I ensured increase in the land acquisition rate upto Rs 1 lakh per acre and I got reduced the water rates from 85 paise to 25 paise,” claimed Dhawan. He also went on record that he ensured pukka roads, street lights and sewerage system in the villages besides frequent telephone and gas connections to the villagers.