National Assembly Chairman: 'Do not let people suffer after donating land'

The National Assembly Chairman emphasized that people have sacrificed their houses, fields, and land to serve hydropower projects, so they should not suffer after donating land.

Within the framework of the working trip to the northern mountainous provinces, today (March 11), National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and the working delegation worked with the leaders of Nam Nhun district, Lai Chau province.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan speaks at a working session with leaders of Nam Nhun district, Lai Chau province.

Nam Nhun is a border district located in the Northwest of Lai Chau province, which was recently separated in 2012. The district has a favorable geographical location, natural conditions, land, climate, and human resources for agricultural and forestry development.

High density of rivers and streams, large basins create favorable conditions for the development of small and medium hydropower; potential for exploiting construction materials, such as quarries of stone, black stone, coal, sand and gravel; raw material areas for rattan and bamboo weaving...

There are 10 hydroelectric projects in the district with a total designed capacity of about 1,400 MW. Because of the hydroelectric power plant, resettlement work associated with new rural construction has been focused on by the district leaders. Up to now, Nam Nhun district has completed the settlement of 829 households in the Lai Chau hydroelectric resettlement area.

Currently, the district is continuing to resolve and implement policies to ensure the livelihoods of 738 households subject to resettlement from Son La hydropower plant.

Nam Nhun district has 100% of communes with car roads to the center, 70% of villages have convenient motorbike roads; 11/11 communes and towns have national grid electricity, 70% of households have access to electricity; irrigation and domestic water systems are invested, maintained and repaired. Up to now, the district has 7 schools that meet national standards.

Nam Nhun is a poor district far from the provincial center with 9/10 communes in a particularly difficult situation; low economic and social starting point; complex terrain, fragmented, inconvenient transportation, long border, only one Border Guard Station; border patrol roads have not been invested; small agricultural land area, lack of production land; backward farming practices.

The district has two ethnic groups with special difficulties, with preferential policies from the State, which are the Cong and the ethnic groups.Some backward customs of some ethnic groups have not been eliminated. The educational level of the people is low and uneven, the poverty rate is high, and some people have not yet made efforts to escape poverty.

The National Assembly Chairman presented a souvenir photo to Nam Nhun district.

With these difficulties, Nam Nhun District Secretary Le Duc Duc proposed to the National Assembly Chairman and the working delegation to pay attention to supporting capital sources to develop the rural transport system, national grid electricity to villages; roads from the district to Hua Bum commune; traffic roads west of Da River (Nam Nga-Nam Cha-Nam Nhun Town); have preferential mechanisms to encourage and call on investors to exploit the potential and advantages of the agricultural and forestry sector in the district.

Speaking at the working session, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan highly appreciated the achievements that Nam Nhun has achieved, especially the fact that 30% of Nam Nhun's communes have met new rural standards, despite being a newly established district with many difficulties and located in remote areas.

Nam Nhun has ensured food security with an average food intake of 390.6 kg per person per year. However, to develop the economy, each household needs to develop large livestock farming, because Lai Chau has advantages in climate, soil, and grasslands.

Regarding the Lai Chau hydropower resettlement policy, the National Assembly Chairman emphasized that the Party, State and National Assembly are very interested in this issue to help people stabilize their lives and develop production.

"Resettlement for Son La and Lai Chau hydropower plants is part of the investment capital for resettlement purposes, ensuring the lives of the people. The people have sacrificed their houses, fields, and land to serve the hydropower plants. Therefore, resettlement of Lai Chau and Son La must be prioritized. At the National Assembly forum, delegates also said that people should not suffer after donating land," the National Assembly Chairman emphasized.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan planted a souvenir tree at Lai Chau Hydropower Plant.

The National Assembly Chairman also advised the leaders of Nam Nhun district in particular and the leaders of Lai Chau province that they have "conserved water", but need to move towards "generating water" by protecting and developing upstream forests. The authorities should study and change policies to encourage people to protect and develop forests.

The National Assembly Chairman emphasized that if there are still many different opinions on this issue, priority can be given to implementation in some provinces in the upstream areas such as the Central Highlands and the Northwest. Because forests are the factor that ensures water security not only for hydropower and for the locality, but also for the downstream area. Therefore, the National Assembly and its agencies, when allocating resources, will pay attention to localities that are performing border security and water security tasks.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan also said that Nam Nhun must pay attention to perfecting the apparatus and training local human resources to have a team of qualified officials to promote the achieved results and continue to develop Nam Nhun. Maintaining a stable environment in terms of political security and ensuring social order and safety for people to live and work is a very important factor in remote areas like Nam Nhun.

To do so, Nam Nhun must do a good job of building a clean and strong political system and doing a good job of building the Party. If the entire political system and government get involved, everything from production to life and border security will be guaranteed.

The National Assembly Chairman believes that if the apparatus is weak and incompetent, no matter how many roads and houses are invested, it will not be able to overcome difficulties and challenges, and all the achievements of Nam Nhun will be difficult to maintain. Therefore, Nam Nhun needs to improve its organizational apparatus and pay attention to local human resources. Especially prioritize training ethnic people, so that they themselves will propagate legal policies to the people:

"There are no poor people yet, but if any people or villages go hungry, first of all, the Secretary and Chairman of the People's Committee of this district must take responsibility. The leaders of Nam Nhun district, Lai Chau province need to be close to the grassroots, grasp the people's situation, know which households are hungry... Only then can we maintain political security and social order and safety," the National Assembly Chairman directed.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan talks with workers at Lai Chau Hydropower Plant.

On the same morning, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and the delegation visited Lai Chau Hydropower Plant. Talking to officials, workers and employees of the plant, the National Assembly Chairwoman emphasized the importance of maintaining electricity security, because industrialization and modernization cannot lack electricity.

Exploiting hydropower potential is a very important measure. The National Assembly Chairman wished the workers at the Plant to operate and exploit the project safely and effectively, quickly recover the investment capital, contribute to ensuring energy security for the country, as well as contribute to the local budget./.

According to VOV