National Assembly delegates discuss two draft laws

Continuing the Program of the 5th Session, 13th National Assembly, on the afternoon of May 31, National Assembly deputies discussed in groups about two projects: Law on Citizen Reception, Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine.

National Assembly delegate of Son La province Thao Xuan Sung speaks.
(Photo: Lam Khanh/VNA)

Strengthening the relationship between the people and the Party and State

According to the Government's Submission, the drafting of the Law on Citizen Reception aims to thoroughly grasp and concretize the guidelines, policies and strategies of the Party and State; comprehensively innovate the organization and activities of citizen reception, and at the same time demonstrate the democratic nature of our State "a State of the people, by the people and for the people."

The draft Law on Citizen Reception submitted to the National Assembly for comments consists of 10 chapters and 61 articles, clearly regulating the organization and activities of citizen reception by agencies, organizations and units; the responsibilities of heads of agencies, organizations and units in receiving citizens; the rights and obligations of people who come to make complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections at citizen reception offices and places of citizen reception; the rights and obligations of people receiving citizens; management of citizen reception work; and conditions to ensure citizen reception activities.

Discussing in groups, the majority of the National Assembly deputies agreed with the necessity of promulgating the Law on Citizen Reception for the reasons stated in the Government's Submission. However, some deputies still had concerns and believed that in general, the provisions of the draft Law on Citizen Reception did not meet the requirements for comprehensive innovation in the organization and operation of citizen reception.

Commenting on the scope of the draft Law, delegates Bui Van Xuyen (Thai Binh Delegation), Nguyen Thi Bach Van (Ba Ria-Vung Tau Delegation) and several other delegates said that citizen reception activities cannot be separated from the process of handling complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections because the main purpose of citizen reception is to promptly receive and handle complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections from citizens, serving the settlement of agencies, organizations and competent individuals. Therefore, these delegates suggested that the drafting committee should consider some additional contents related to the process of handling complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections associated with the responsibility of receiving citizens of the heads of agencies, organizations as well as other competent individuals.

Regarding the scope of application as in the draft Law, delegates Bui Van Xuyen (Thai Binh Delegation), Dang Thuan Phong (Ben Tre Delegation)... said that such regulations are too broad and spread out while the nature of citizen reception activities of each type of agency, organization, and unit has certain characteristics; the requirements and needs for citizen reception are also different.

Therefore, these delegates suggested that the drafting committee should only limit the regulations on citizen reception activities of state agencies, political organizations, and socio-political organizations, which are agencies and organizations within the political system. It should not regulate the responsibility of receiving citizens of social organizations, socio-professional organizations, people's armed forces units, and enterprises using the state budget and state assets, because these organizations and units do not directly participate in state management. Commenting on this, some other delegates suggested that the draft Law should only limit the regulations on citizen reception of state agencies or only for state administrative agencies in order to directly regulate the relationship between the State and citizens, linked to the process of handling complaints and denunciations.

In addition to the above issues, delegates also commented on a number of points and clauses. Specifically, commenting on the content of the concept of "receiving citizens" stipulated in Article 3, delegate Nguyen Thi Bach Van (Ba Ria-Vung Tau Delegation) said that this content does not fully reflect the content of citizen reception activities. Therefore, the phrase "receiving citizens" in this draft Law should be replaced with the phrase "receiving citizens" to be more general. Delegates Dang Thuan Phong (Ben Tre Delegation) and Nguyen Thi Bach Van (Ba Ria-Vung Tau Delegation) proposed to remove Article 5 on the purpose of citizen reception work.

Regarding the citizen reception office and place, some delegates said that the draft Law mainly only clarifies the citizen reception model of state administrative agencies but has not specifically defined the citizen reception of agencies of the National Assembly, People's Council, People's Court, People's Procuracy, etc. The method of organizing citizen reception of other organizations and units has not been mentioned.

Developing safe agricultural production and trade in agricultural and forestry products

Through discussion, delegates all agreed on the necessity of promulgating the Law as proposed by the Government. According to the Government's proposal, over the past 10 years, the Ordinance on Plant Protection and Quarantine has made an important contribution, creating a legal basis for pest control, timely prevention of epidemics, protecting agricultural production safety; strengthening the effectiveness of state management of plant protection, plant quarantine and pesticide management; contributing to stabilizing and developing sustainable agricultural production, ensuring food security, improving people's lives and promoting the export of agricultural products of our country. However, after 10 years of implementation, this Ordinance has revealed a number of limitations, requiring the need to develop and promulgate the Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine to more effectively manage this important field.

Commenting on the responsibility of state management in plant protection and quarantine (Article 9), some delegates suggested that the drafting committee should clarify the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in state management of plant protection and quarantine; the responsibility of coordination between ministries and ministerial-level agencies with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; in which, delegate Khuc Thi Duyen (Thai Binh delegation) suggested that point c should be moved to the end of clause 4 of this article.

Regarding the authority to declare an epidemic, many delegates agreed with the view as in the review report of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment that the regulation of the authority to declare an epidemic for the Chairman of the People's Committee of the province or centrally-run city is consistent with the requirements of state management of plant protection and quarantine in our country, aiming at the initiative of local authorities to promptly mobilize resources in disease prevention.

Delegates also gave specific comments on a number of points and clauses such as Clause 2, Article 73, delegate Duyen recommended that when the authorities discover any facility producing fake drugs, expired drugs... they must immediately issue a decision to recall them.

According to the agenda of the 5th session of the 13th National Assembly, on June 3, National Assembly deputies will discuss in the hall the Draft Amendment to the 1992 Constitution. This discussion session will be broadcast live by Vietnam Television, Voice of Vietnam and other mass media for voters and people nationwide to follow./.

According to (TTXVN) - LT