Provincial Chairman signed 41 decisions before retirement

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has just discovered the "arbitrary" land compensation in Tien Giang province and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Mr. Nguyen Van Khang, before retiring, signed 41 decisions on compensation for site clearance for the National Highway 1A expansion project with a total amount of over 22.8 billion VND, causing much controversy.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has just sent a document to the People's Committee of Tien Giang province to officially respond to the review of complaints from 41 households in Cai Lay district (formerly) and Cai Lay town related to the National Highway 1A expansion project.

The project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1A through Tien Giang province is a central project invested by the Ministry of Transport; Tien Giang province is responsible for compensation, support, and site clearance, divided into 2 phases: Phase 1 is to restore National Highway 1A in 1995 and Phase 2 is to expand National Highway 1A in 2005.

In phase 1, 992 households were affected and were compensated, supported and cleared properly by local authorities, so there were no complaints.

In phase 2, the State issued a decision to reclaim land to expand National Highway 1A for the land of the road protection corridor, each side is 7m wide on the land that has been cleared of houses, structures, and crops in phase 1. The total number of affected households is 6,875.

Due to complaints, the People's Committee of Tien Giang province has developed a plan for compensation and support for households whose land has been recovered and has been approved by the Prime Minister, approving additional cash support for 5,656 households at various levels. During the implementation of this additional support plan, the majority of affected households agreed, but there are still 41 households complaining and requesting compensation for the recovered land area, road slope land and road ditches at residential land prices.

In 2007-2010, the Chairman of Cai Lay District People's Committee, the Chairman of Cai Lay Town People's Committee and the Chairman of Tien Giang Province People's Committee issued decisions to resolve and reject the complaints of the households.

In 2010, the Government Inspectorate reviewed and concluded that the households' request for compensation for the ditch and embankment within the road boundary at residential land prices was unfounded.

However, because the households continued to complain for a long time, by 2015, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Giang province issued 41 decisions to resolve complaints for these 41 households with a total compensation and additional support of over 22.8 billion VND.

National Highway 1A through Cai Lay town, Tien Giang province (Photo: Hoang Trung)

Arbitrary compensation decisions?

As a result of reviewing the complaint settlement records of 41 households, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment found that 19 households complained and requested compensation for more than 3,900 m2 at residential land prices, for which the Chairman of the Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee issued a decision in 2015 to compensate 3,766 m2 at residential land prices, while the rest remained as agricultural land.

There were 4 households whose land area of ​​over 530 m2 was recovered, but the People's Committee of Cai Lay district previously compensated them according to the type of agricultural land (in 2005). The Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Giang province issued a decision to resolve the complaints of 4 households (in 2015) and compensate them according to the price of residential land.

One household had more than 30 square meters of non-agricultural production and business land recovered, but the People's Committee of Cai Lay district compensated according to the type of agricultural land (in 2005) and the Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Giang province resolved the complaint in 2015 and compensated according to the price of residential land.

3 households had more than 140 square meters of residential land recovered in 2005 and were compensated by Cai Lay District People's Committee according to the 2005 residential land price, but the Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee resolved the complaint in 2015 and compensated these households according to the 2014 residential land price.

Five households had nearly 600 square meters of agricultural land confiscated, but the Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee resolved the complaint in 2015 and compensated for this land according to the residential land price.

In particular, there are two households whose land was not reclaimed by the State but still received compensation and support for the land.

In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment affirmed that in 2005, when clearing the land for the National Highway 1A expansion project, the State did not reclaim the slope land and road canal land, but households encroached on it for use and were not granted land use right certificates. However, in 2015, the Chairman of the Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee issued a decision to resolve the complaints of households and compensated 41 households with an area of ​​nearly 5,400 m2 of slope land and road canal land.

There were 4 households complaining about compensation for the recovered land area according to the residential land price when implementing the National Highway 1A expansion project phase 2. The Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee issued a decision to reject the complaint in 2007, but in 2015, the Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee continued to issue a decision to resolve the complaints of these 4 households with the content of accepting the complaints, implementing compensation for the recovered land area according to the residential land price, but not revoking the decisions resolved in 2007. The inspection team of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment affirmed that each household had 2 decisions to resolve complaints by the Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee that are legally effective but have conflicting contents.

“The above review results have been agreed upon by the People's Committee of Tien Giang province with the working delegation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment according to the working minutes dated April 28, 2016; the detailed review results of each household are in the attached appendix” - the document of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment clearly stated.

41 decisions on compensation for site clearance for the National Highway 1A expansion project by Mr. Nguyen Van Khang - former Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee caused controversy when there were verification results from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Photo: Hoang Trung)

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment affirmed that the above compensation decisions are not in accordance with regulations, are not suitable or have no legal basis for settlement.

Based on the review results, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment requested the People's Committee of Tien Giang province to direct relevant agencies in the province to inspect and advise the current Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Giang province to resolve the complaints of 41 households according to the provisions of law.

According to Dan Tri reporter's investigation, the Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee who signed 41 decisions to resolve compensation and provide additional support to households with a total amount of 22.8 billion VND mentioned above is Mr. Nguyen Van Khang, who is now retired. The current Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee is Mr. Le Van Huong.

The 41 households mentioned above have been complaining for many years. After many dialogues with the people, in June 2015, Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Khang signed 41 decisions to resolve compensation and provide additional support to these households with a total amount of 22.8 billion VND.

When Tien Giang province carried out the procedure of transferring money to pay people, many questions arose, so they "called for help" from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to inspect and verify.

According to Dan Tri