Poverty-stricken county in eye of storm
Print Edition
A COUNTY in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, which is the recipient of poverty relief funds, is in the eye of storm after spending millions of yuan from the grant in building a new government office.
Hailun is a county-level city rich in agriculture. The local per capita income was 6,695 yuan (US$1,103) in 2010 with year-on-year increase of 19.5 percent. But the city government did not report the progress to the provincial government in order to retain the state allowances, Xinhua news agency reported.
Hailun applied for grants under poverty-relief measures in 2010, claiming 17,000 villagers earned no more than 1,300 yuan every year while 70 percent of farmers lived on debts.
A local government official claimed county leaders tried their best with “guanxi” — relationship with influential figures and senior officials — to be included in the poverty list.
Some of them visited Beijing several times even though the provincial government had the authority to allocate the state allowances, he added.
In 2012, Hailun started receiving state funds.
But the funds were misused in improving the living standards of the local officials instead of funneling them into efforts to lift the tens of thousands of destitute families, Xinhua said, citing the newly-built government building as an example.
The building was put into use this year. It has 820 offices and 40 meeting rooms.
The city Mayor Yang Quansheng insisted that the old building was too shabby after years of neglect and could not be used any longer and tore it down. But his subordinates said local residents blame them for living extravagantly.
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