Stop dredging rivers nationwide
The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Transport to stop issuing licenses for dredging and clearing inland waterways and will assign this work to localities with specific responsibilities.
“The licensing of dredging and clearing of inland waterways by the Ministry of Transport should be stopped and handed over to localities...” Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung conveyed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s instructions during a working session between the Prime Minister’s working group led by him and the Ministry of Transport on March 21.
Stop active projects, no new licenses issued
Accordingly, Mr. Dung requested the Ministry of Transport to implement the Prime Minister's direction, stop all dredging and clearing of inland waterways, and not grant new projects. "Currently, there is a situation of dredging licenses being granted without the knowledge of the locality as well as "protection" and gangsters threatening provincial leaders. This is a loophole that needs to be examined for better management" - Minister Mai Tien Dung said.
Explaining to the working group, Mr. Hoang Hong Giang, Director of the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration, said that after the Prime Minister's direction, dredging and clearing projects for inland waterways across the country have been temporarily suspended for review. Mr. Giang also affirmed that the Ministry of Transport has temporarily stopped granting new socialized dredging and maintenance projects for maritime routes and national inland waterways.
“Currently, there are only 14 dredging and clearing projects for inland waterways granted by the unit. 600 sand mines on rivers granted by the locality, of which 166 mines are granted parallel to inland waterways. This causes great inconvenience in management work...” - Mr. Giang said.
The Director of the Inland Waterways Administration also said that currently the transport sector only manages a maximum of 80 meters of riverbed and 20 meters near the corridor, the rest is managed by localities. This is also a problem for subjects to take advantage of the overlap between the parties to exploit.
Hearing that, Minister Mai Tien Dung interrupted: “The regulation is correct, but the 80 m currently managed by the Ministry is overlapping mining projects. Not to mention the fact that mining units are “throwing out water cannons” haphazardly. The important thing is where the cannon is located...” Mr. Mai Tien Dung noted and said that the overlapping situation in management also causes mining units to “fight each other”.
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| The Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration has stopped dredging and clearing projects on inland waterways across the country for review.In the photo:Dredging construction of Soai Rap river channel. Illustration photo: Anh Vu. |
"The dredging area is not dredged but dredged all the way to the shore"
According to Mr. Mai Tien Dung, currently the management and licensing of dredging of river channels is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport. However, when licensing dredging of river channels, businesses take advantage of the situation to exploit sand, causing coastal erosion... This is the hottest issue that localities are responding to.
Regarding this issue, Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia agreed with the Prime Minister that management must be decentralized, specifically, the licensing authority must be transferred to the locality. Mr. Truong Quang Nghia said that during his business trips from North to South, he saw that each place had a different type of management, but he always complained that the locality suffered so many losses but did not receive any benefits.
“The locality’s reaction was correct, because they suffered a lot of damage without any benefits. The dredging area was not dredged but dredged all the way to the shore. The Ministry has directed to stop everything and review and re-evaluate,” said Minister Nghia.
Recalling the frustration of many localities about the illegal sand mining, Minister Dung said: “Last week, I went back to my hometown in Ý Yên (Nam Định), there was a situation where people brought hoes and shovels to fight with sand bandits, if not careful, blood would be shed. In 2004, people here had bloody clashes with sand bandits. Therefore, if we give the local authorities the authority to grant dredging and channel clearing licenses, I think they will do better...”.
Minister Dung said that when authority is transferred to localities, it will also be associated with responsibility, especially if sand exploitation causes landslides, the local government must take responsibility.
"Taking advantage of inspection to protect overloaded vehicles" According to Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, handling overloaded and oversized vehicles is a major policy and the Ministry of Transport has previously implemented this issue very resolutely. However, up to now, it seems that the authorities are loosening their management, leading to the situation of overloaded vehicles continuing to recur. In particular, there are cases of taking advantage of inspection to "protect" overloaded vehicles. Mr. Nguyen Van Huyen, Director General of the Vietnam Road Administration, admitted that there is a recurrence of overloaded vehicles, especially long-distance overloaded vehicles. The reason is the suspension of Plan 1259 between the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transport on vehicle weight control. Since then, 21 provinces have stopped checking overloaded vehicles. In addition, in some localities, there is also a situation of "protection" and lack of responsibility in preventing overloaded vehicles. According to Mr. Huyen, to effectively control overloaded vehicles, Plan 1295 must be restarted. Minister Mai Tien Dung affirmed that this is an issue that the Prime Minister is very concerned about and requested the Ministry of Transport to take measures to prevent it. In particular, the Ministry of Transport must work with the Ministry of Public Security to continue implementing the control of overloaded vehicles, and if there are any problems, report immediately to the Government. "If we cannot manage overloaded vehicles, the traffic infrastructure will be destroyed in a few years..." - the Minister emphasized. _____________________ Sand mining case in Bac Ninh: Violations must be clearly identified! The Ministry of Transport really hopes that if there is any negative activity in the state management agency, directly the Inland Waterways Administration, it will clarify it. At the same time, it is necessary to resolutely point out the specific violations, either the state agency or the mafia in this activity... Minister of Transport TRUONG QUANG NGHIA |
According to PLO
