Mr. Cao Quang Vien's complaint is baseless.
(Baonghean) -Nghe An Newspaper received a petition from Mr. Cao Quang Vien (Block 16, Hung Nguyen Town) accusing some individuals of abusing their positions and powers to do illegal things to seize his family's land. However, upon investigation, the facts are not like that...
According to the complaint: Mr. Vien's father was a war invalid during the resistance war against the French, and he himself was born with a disability. When he grew up, his parents were old and weak, and his family's life faced many difficulties. In 1989, he asked the People's Committee of Hung Thai commune for a piece of land along Highway 46 to build a tea shop to support himself. On behalf of the People's Committee, Ms. Nguyen Thi Dung agreed to sign the application on September 5, 1989. Also during this period (from 1989 to 1992), the People's Committee of Hung Thai commune and Hung Nguyen district planned to divide the land along Highway 46, and his tea shop was located on the western plot of land adjacent to Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh's plot of land.
After many times of applying for land, in 1994, he received a notice from Hung Nguyen district to pay land tax. He continued to apply for tax exemption and was confirmed by the district government, the district Tax Department agreed to exempt land tax for the land with 8m road frontage. In 2000, he paid the fee for the Certificate of Land Use Rights and built a stable house without any disputes or encroachment. However, it was not until 2009 that the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district issued him a Land Use Rights Certificate, but only for the land with 4.4m road frontage and 18m length, the remaining area (3.5m road frontage) was managed by Hung Nguyen Town. Mr. Vien said that the planned land plots all had 8m road frontage, while he was only given 4.4m, so he filed a complaint. However, the authorities still did not resolve the matter in accordance with the "truth", not only that, they also required that if he wanted to use this land, he must submit an application for land allocation with land use fee collection.
His house has been granted a Land Use Rights Certificate by the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district (The low-lying land that Mr. Vien is complaining about is on the left).
Mr. Vien's petition also cited the 2003 Land Law to affirm that he had been living on a land that was not in dispute before October 15, 2003, so he was granted a Land Use Rights Certificate without having to pay land use fees. And, the request of the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen Town that if he did not submit an application for land allocation with land use fees, a compulsory enforcement team would be established, was illegal. Therefore, he accused a number of officials involved in the settlement of his complaint of "abusing their positions and powers to collude with each other to appropriate his land"...
First of all, the content of Mr. Vien's petition, which he called a denunciation, is incorrect, because he did not state the illegal acts of the individuals involved that harmed his own interests and those of his family. Article 2 of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Complaints and Denunciations (November 29, 2005) clearly explains the meaning of the word "denunciation" as follows: "Denunciation is the act of a citizen, following the procedures prescribed by this Law, informing the competent agency, organization or individual about the illegal acts of any agency, organization or individual that cause damage or threaten to cause damage to the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, agencies or organizations". However, considering that the content of Mr. Vien's petition also has points that need to be clarified, Nghe An Newspaper sent a reporter to verify and investigate this issue.
Meeting Mr. Cao Quang Vien in his house in block 16, Hung Nguyen town, he said: From 1989 to 1992, he had repeatedly asked the People's Committee of Hung Thai commune to allocate residential land but had not yet been assigned a plot of land on road 46 by any competent organization. The documents that Mr. Vien considered "legal" included: Application to open a shop (dated September 5, 1989); Application for exemption from land use tax (September 19, 1994); Petition with confirmation from a number of families in the block (dated November 6, 2011) and Decision to allocate residential land by the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district to Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh (a neighboring household). However, these documents only showed that he lived on this plot of land in 1989 but did not prove the actual area or his ownership.
For example: Mr. Vien said that in the application "Request for exemption from land use tax" it stated that "the People's Committee of the commune agreed to give me priority for a plot of land adjacent to the road (8m)..." and the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district agreed to exempt the registration fee. In fact, there is no such thing as the People's Committee of Hung Thai commune giving priority to this plot of land! And if based on the confirmation in the application "Request to open a shop", it is impossible because in this application, the People's Committee of Hung Thai commune only agreed to let him open a shop as he stated in the application: "...I am applying to open a small shop to create conditions to support myself...". And because no competent organization has ever allocated land, the confirmation of Hung Nguyen district and the Tax Department's exemption of registration fee for Mr. Vien is redundant. Furthermore, his application "Request for exemption from land use tax" is not to confirm the area of the land plot and the People's Committee of the district only agreed to the exemption because: "in the case of Mr. Vien being disabled, his father is a war invalid fighting against the French...".
Working with the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen Town, the officials here affirmed that because they sympathized with the disabled man and wanted to create a job with income to serve his daily life, Hung Thai Commune let him open a shop selling drinks and Hung Nguyen Town never asked him to pay any fees. Mr. Duong Cong Dong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen Town said: "As a classmate of Mr. Vien, I know his situation very well, this is a subject that deserves attention. However, because he already has land and house (also in block 16, Hung Nguyen Town), the government only let him open a shop to earn a living but did not give him land.
Considering the circumstances, combined with the fact that he opened a shop on that land before 1993, in 2009, the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district applied the 2003 Land Law to issue a Land Use Right Certificate for the land area he was using...". Over the past years, the town, Hung Nguyen district and provincial authorities have spent a lot of time resolving Mr. Vien's petition. And, on July 24, 2008, Mr. Vien submitted a petition to withdraw his complaint to the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district and the district inspection team. In this petition, he stated: "Recently, I submitted a petition to complain about the issuance of a Land Use Right Certificate for a shop. But now, through working with the inspection team, I have fully recognized the provisions of the law that in reality the land for the shop that my family is using does not have any documents. Now I write a petition to withdraw my complaint, the People's Committee of the district does not have to make a decision to resolve it for me...".
Mr. Nguyen Luong Nham - Head of Block 16, Hung Nguyen Town (who confirmed Mr. Cao Quang Vien's petition) said: "I confirmed Mr. Vien's petition to talk about the content that he has been here since the 1990s, but I do not know about the origin, area or land use process to confirm...". According to Mr. Nham, the way the authorities at all levels treated Mr. Vien like that was legal and kind.
On April 24, 2012, the Provincial People's Committee issued Official Letter No. 2648/UBND.KT regarding the handling of the results of the inspection and review of the settlement of Mr. Cao Quang Vien's petition. The content of Official Letter 2648 stated: "The issuance of the Land Use Right Certificate by the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen District to Mr. Cao Quang Vien's family with an area of 79.2m2 (the width of National Highway 46 is 4.4m) is in accordance with regulations; Mr. Cao Quang Vien's request for the State agency to issue a Land Use Right Certificate to his family for an additional area of land (87.57m2) adjacent to his family's land plot because he believes that the local government has granted this area to his family since 1994 is not a basis for resolution.
In fact, the above land area is low-lying land, managed by the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen Town, and has not been assigned to any organization or individual for use; Allow the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen District to carry out procedures to assign the land area of 87.57m2 to Mr. Cao Quang Vien's family (if the citizen has a need to be assigned land and commits to fully perform financial obligations, within the time limit required by the competent authority)...". Regarding this issue, Mr. Pham Van An - Provincial Inspector (Head of the interdisciplinary working group conducting the review and inspection of the handling of Mr. Cao Quang Vien's petition) said: "Mr. Vien should be satisfied when the Provincial People's Committee has a conclusion as in Official Dispatch No. 2648...". Because according to Mr. An, Mr. Vien's case was carefully reviewed by the inspection team, and the documents that Mr. Vien is currently holding do not prove that the low-lying land area is under his ownership.
With the information stated above, the content of Mr. Cao Quang Vien's petition is baseless. Mr. Vien needs to realize that he is a policy subject, is given priority to open a shop, is granted a Certificate of Land Use Rights by the Hung Nguyen District Government for the land plot he is currently residing in, and the Provincial People's Committee's permission for the Hung Nguyen District People's Committee to allocate land with land use fees for a low-lying area of 87.57 square meters if he has a need is very reasonable and sensible. Therefore, Mr. Vien needs to comply with the provisions of the Law and stop sending complaints.
Article and photos: Ha Giang
