The 'key' to success in merging hamlets in Tan Ky
(Baonghean) - In recent times, the Party committees and authorities of Tan Ky district have led and directed synchronously and effectively in building and implementing the Grassroots Democracy Charter. In particular, thanks to implementing the grassroots democracy charter, Tan Ky is one of the districts in the province that completed the earliest implementation of the merger of blocks and hamlets...
Listen to people's opinions
Before the merger, Tan Ky town had 10 blocks. In order to implement the policy of merging blocks and hamlets, the initial plan of the town was to merge from 10 blocks to 7 blocks. However, when implementing the plan, many people disagreed because they did not want the residential clusters to be "torn apart" when merging blocks. Instead, the people's opinion was to merge the entire block.
“Accepting and listening to the people’s opinions, the town developed a plan to merge 10 blocks into 6 blocks. After the merger, people from the blocks donated land and property, and projects implemented in the area did not have to pay compensation for site clearance.”
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| Photo: Nguyen Book |
As an area where Kinh and Tho people live together, before the merger, Tan An commune had 14 hamlets. The characteristic of Tan An commune is that the people here come from other localities in the province, so the names of the hamlets since the establishment of the commune until now are associated with the residents of each locality such as Nghi Loc, Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Dien Chau, ... there are hamlets that have to be merged including both Kinh and Tho people. Besides, the mentality of the people is that they do not want a hamlet to have different ethnicities and customs. Therefore, when the commune proposed the merger plan, many people also had opinions.
Faced with such difficulties, the locality has focused on doing a good job of ideological work and propaganda, thanks to which the people have also been "cleared" of their thoughts. The Tan An Commune Party Committee proactively merged the previous Party cells to lead, and at the same time arranged for comrades who are part-time cadres in the commune to concurrently hold the positions of Party cell secretary and hamlet chief of some new hamlets.
“Thanks to good propaganda and mobilization work, 100% of people agreed with the merger policy. After the merger, Tan An reduced from 14 hamlets to 9 hamlets. To achieve that success, the commune implemented the grassroots democracy regulations well, and all policies were made public so that people could clearly understand them.”
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| Model of growing squash on rice fields in Tan An commune (Tan Ky). Photo: Thanh Le |
Methodical and scientific implementation
The whole Tan Ky district has 269 blocks, hamlets and villages. Of which, 32 blocks, hamlets and villages ensure the number of households according to the standards, 237 blocks, hamlets and villages do not have enough households according to the prescribed standards. Implementing the policy of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on implementing the Resolution of the 6th Conference of the 12th Party Central Committee on "Some issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system, streamline, operate effectively and efficiently", the Standing Committee of the Tan Ky District Party Committee issued Plan No. 121-KH/HU, Project No. 08-DA/HU to reorganize the apparatus, reduce staff and restructure the staff of civil servants and public employees to improve the capacity and efficiency of the political system of Tan Ky district in the period of 2018 - 2021 and the following years.
The District People's Committee directed communes and towns to compile specific statistics on area, population, number of households, number of ethnic minority households and data on Catholics of communes, towns and blocks and hamlets in the area. The district also directed the development of a plan to merge blocks and hamlets that do not meet the criteria to find solutions; held a conference to deploy the content of merging blocks and hamlets for the core staff of the entire district; provided professional training and guidance to department staff and all Party cell secretaries and hamlet heads of 269 blocks and hamlets in the entire district on the process and steps to implement the project development...
After the policy of merging hamlets was agreed upon and approved, the Standing Committee of Tan Ky District Party Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 930-CV/HU dated August 14, 2019 on perfecting the hamlet, block, and village apparatus after the merger; organized a working session with the core team of the entire district to guide the implementation of the arrangement of the apparatus in hamlets, blocks, and villages. 22/22 communes and towns held meetings with people to collect opinions from people in each hamlet on personnel work after the merger, mobilize and do ideological work for retired cadres.
By November 30, 2019, Tan Ky district had merged 224 blocks and hamlets down to 106 blocks and hamlets; and combined residential clusters into blocks and hamlets into 26 blocks and hamlets. After the merger, the district had 151 blocks and hamlets, a reduction of 118 blocks and hamlets. The reduction of 118 blocks and hamlets was equivalent to a reduction of 590 non-professional cadres and 472 heads of political and social organizations in the blocks and hamlets. On average, the budget expenditure was reduced by 9.3 billion VND/year. In addition, the district implemented democracy in making a list of payment regimes for retired cadres; implemented public democracy in Party cell congresses and conferences to elect block and hamlet chiefs.
Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee Hoang Quoc Viet said: Merging blocks and hamlets is a difficult task, related to the interests of the people, so the district determined that democracy must be implemented methodically and scientifically right from the implementation. Thereby, creating high consensus among the people. The effectiveness of merging blocks, hamlets and villages is clearly demonstrated. The organizational structure of the block, hamlet and village is streamlined, overcoming the fragmented situation, ensuring compliance with the standards and criteria prescribed in circulars and instructions of superiors on the organization and operation of villages and residential groups. After merging blocks and hamlets, the whole district did not have any complaints or denunciations, which shows that the implementation of grassroots democracy regulations in merging blocks and hamlets was well implemented from the district to the grassroots. This result was achieved due to many reasons, in which the good implementation of democracy regulations is one of the most important reasons.
