Lesson 1: Issues that need to be addressed

(Baonghean)The land clearance and upgrading of National Highway 1A is a major policy of the Party and State of Vietnam aimed at serving the modernization of the country. The land clearance work has received the consensus of the majority of the people and all levels of government; however, as the project nears completion, there are still outstanding issues that need to be resolved definitively to accelerate construction progress.

The land for the section of National Highway 1A passing through Quynh Van - Quynh Luu has not yet been handed over.

In the past, the clearance of the construction corridor for National Highway 1A in Quynh Luu district had been generally smooth. However, on March 26, 2014, hundreds of households in Quynh Van commune prevented local authorities and construction units from passing through the area along a 1.13 km stretch of National Highway 1A from Hamlet 16 to Hamlet 17, causing a disruption to construction. This was an unprecedented event since local authorities in various areas began protecting construction along National Highway 1A within the designated corridor.

The reason given by some households is that they have not received compensation for the land area specified in their land ownership certificates issued by the local government between 1995 and 1999. This is precisely the area that, according to Clause 3, Article 5 of Decision 04/2010/QD-UBND of the People's Committee of Nghe An province dated January 19, 2010: "For land areas that have been cleared by the State during the implementation of policies and guidelines over the years, and which the land users no longer use or are using but are re-encroaching upon (including cases where there has been no decision to reclaim the land), the land will be reclaimed without compensation."

Currently, Quynh Van commune has 333 households with land ownership certificates issued between 1995 and 1999, with land areas located within the previously cleared PMU1 boundary. Along the 2.9 km stretch of National Highway 1A passing through the commune, Quynh Van has only handed over 940 m², including 500 m² of agricultural land.

Similar to Quynh Van commune, Quynh Giang commune has 172 households currently holding land ownership certificates for areas within the PMU1 boundary marker corridor. These households are still demanding compensation for the land designated as garden land, which was granted by the authorities from the edge of the road. Explaining this situation, Mr. Le Xuan Trach, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Giang commune, said: “The land area in the land ownership certificates that some commune officials previously granted to households along National Highway 1A in Quynh Giang commune was due to land conversion under Decree 64. Commune officials were not fully aware of the PMU1 boundary marker area and granted the entire plot, allowing households to use that land without clearly noting that it was public land.”

In Quynh Luu district, 582 households have been granted land ownership certificates for land within the PMU1 boundary marker corridor. After a long period of campaigning and persuasion by local authorities at all levels to encourage people to hand over the land, residents in the two communes of Quynh Van and Quynh Giang have still not agreed.

Mr. Le Duc Cuong, Chairman of the District People's Committee, stated: "The issuance of land titles within the cleared area of ​​PMU1 by the authorities at all levels during the period of 1995-1999 was wrong. We have organized many dialogues and directly apologized to the people, hoping that they would prioritize the national interest and quickly hand over the land to ensure the road is open on time. However, people in the two communes of Quynh Giang and Quynh Van are still deliberately clinging to the land area already granted within the corridor with land use right certificates to demand compensation."

According to a petition signed by 70 households in Blocks 7 and 8, Quynh Thien Ward, Hoang Mai Town, sent to Nghe An Newspaper, they petitioned that "all of us households have not had our land confiscated or compensated for this area to date, so it still belongs to us" and demanded "compensation must be provided." However, Mr. Pham Van Hao, Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Hoang Mai Town, stated that upon inspection and verification, only a few households were named in the petition, while the rest were fraudulent. Currently, most households in Quynh Thien Ward have received compensation and handed over the land to the construction units.

The issuance of land use right certificates within the cleared PMU1 corridor boundaries is not only common in the communes of Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town, but also in other areas along National Highway 1A. According to Mr. Tang Van Luyen, Vice Chairman of the Dien Chau District People's Committee and Chairman of the District Compensation and Land Clearance Council: “In Dien Chau district, the land area for which land titles were issued during the period from 1996 to 2000 was mainly for entire plots, including the area already cleared under the PMU1 Project. The land use right certificate includes the vacant land within the area from the road edge. In addition, households along National Highway 1A in Dien Chau district had previously received compensation from the PMU1 Project. Currently, the District Department of Industry and Trade has complete records, so when persuading people, the authorities can prove that the people received compensation during the clearance period under the PMU1 Project. Aware of this, people whose land was affected and whose area was within the PMU1 area have basically come to terms with it and do not request compensation for the land within this area.” Currently, in Dien Chau district, only minor issues remain in the communes of Dien Ngoc, Dien Ky, Dien Truong, and Dien An. Residents in these communes are requesting a re-determination of the PMU1 corridor boundary markers, a request that cannot be accepted.

The land use rights certificate was issued in 1995 with a seal signature, and the cover states "area temporarily allocated according to map 299".

In Nghi Loc, claims for compensation within the cleared area of ​​PMU1 are still ongoing for 30 households in Hamlet 2 and Hamlet 6, Nghi Long Commune; 31 households in Hamlet 13, Nghi Trung Commune; and 18 households in Hamlet 4A, Nghi Yen Commune. In Hamlet 3, Nghi Long Commune (Nghi Loc), Mr. Nguyen Dinh Dung has submitted a request for compensation for land within the traffic safety corridor. According to his letter, the 300 m2 of land he was granted by the Nghi Long Commune government in 1990 was later granted a Land Use Right Certificate No. 532QSDĐ/244 by the District People's Committee in 1998. The land certificate did not include any area designated as public space. In 2011, the Nghi Loc District Land Registration Office conducted a survey of the land plot, and the area of ​​his residential and garden land was found to be only 49.9 m2 after deducting the public space on both sides of the railway. He is now demanding compensation for the area within the cleared corridor that his family had not previously received compensation for.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Diep, Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Nghi Loc District, said: “In Nghi Loc, because some sections have railway tracks on one side, the traffic safety corridor in the period of 1990-1993 was stipulated as 27.5 meters. Households that were granted land before 1993 are requesting compensation for land within this corridor. However, many households deliberately misunderstand that, according to general regulations, the area within the PMU1 corridor has not been compensated for, even though this area is not deducted from the land use right certificate.”

In Vinh City, households in Hamlet 4 of Nghi Kim Commune and Hamlets 5 and 13 of Nghi Lien Commune are requesting compensation for land within the cleared corridor. Local authorities are urgently working to complete the verification of land ownership for these households. According to Mr. Hoang Van Minh, Director of the Vinh City Land Fund Development Center, verifying land ownership for households in the two communes is still facing many difficulties because the land allocation by local authorities in Nghi Kim and Nghi Lien Communes over different periods has overlaps and is difficult to verify.

Specifically, the tea factory located in Hamlet 14, Nghi Kim Commune, sold land to households without deducting the vacant land. The local authorities then allowed these households to build stalls on this vacant land for business purposes. Now, the households in Hamlet 14, Nghi Kim Commune, are demanding compensation for this land. However, the agreement between the parties was in place in 1985 allowing residents to borrow the land to build stalls for business. Nevertheless, the households are still insisting on receiving 100% compensation for the land and assets on it, despite having already received 50% of the compensation.

These outstanding issues have led to the fact that, despite the commitment between the People's Committee of Nghe An province and the Ministry of Transport to hand over land on National Highway 1A from Hoang Mai town to Vinh city by March 31, 2014, for sections requiring resettlement, and April 30, 2014, for sections requiring resettlement, 9 km out of 73.8 km remain unhanded over. Specifically, Hoang Mai town has 1 km out of 14.4 km remaining; Quynh Luu has 2.2 km out of 12.25 km; Dien Chau has 2.3 km out of 28.05 km; Nghi Loc has 2.03 km out of 13.96 km; and Vinh city has 2.5 km out of 5.5 km.

These are the obstacles and issues that need to be resolved definitively in order to accelerate the construction progress of the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1A section passing through Nghe An.

What are the causes of these problems? How should this issue be thoroughly addressed? We will clarify this in subsequent issues.

(To be continued)

Reporters' Team