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.