The difficult situation of a man who lost his land and house because he went to work far away.
His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and Mr. Dinh grew up alone. Because he was busy making a living, he is now nearly 60 but still hasn't gotten married. Meanwhile, the plot of land and the house in the countryside, his only and biggest assets, are gone.
Waiting for justice
In mid-October 2024, we met Mr. Tran Ba Dinh (55 years old) again, when this man was busy unloading fruit boxes at Vinh City wholesale market. Mr. Dinh is the character in the article.“The man lost his house and land after returning from working far away”published on Nghe An Newspaper on October 5th attracted much public attention.
Quickly putting aside his work, Mr. Dinh said that after many years of wandering to make a living in the southern provinces, in 2019, during a rare visit back to his hometown, he discovered that his house was gone and the land had been confiscated by the An Hoa Commune People's Committee to expand the kindergarten. To make it easier to travel to claim compensation, he moved back to Vinh to live, rented a house, and then went to Vinh wholesale market to sell fruit.
“For the past 6 years, I have had to run back and forth from Vinh to Quynh Luu hundreds of times but my case still cannot be resolved. I have nothing in my hands now, that piece of land is my only asset,” said Mr. Dinh.
Talking about the reason why he rarely visits his hometown even though he still has a house in his hometown, Mr. Dinh said that although it is his hometown, he has no family, only close relatives, so he rarely contacts them. When Mr. Dinh was born, his parents separated, then both left the village and started a new family far away. Mr. Dinh was taken care of by his grandparents in An Hoa commune since he was a child.
“When I was in middle school, my grandfather passed away. My grandmother was old and weak and could not afford to raise me, so I went to live with my grandparents. During my years in the countryside, I could count on my fingers the number of times I saw my parents. My mother remarried and lived far away, so life was very difficult, so I could only come back to visit once every few years. On my father's side, my father also had to work far away, so I lived with my grandparents and stepmother,” Mr. Dinh said, adding that in 11th grade, after many arguments with his stepmother, he decided to drop out of school and work in the salt fields.
When he was old enough, Mr. Dinh volunteered to join the army. After leaving the army and working for a short time, in 1994, he decided to return to his hometown of An Hoa. But at this time, both his paternal and maternal grandparents had passed away, and the young man began a life of loneliness without a family. Every day, Mr. Dinh followed his friends to work for hire. At night, he went to his cousin Vo Ngoc Hung's house to stay.
“Dinh is my cousin, but I consider him as my younger brother. His situation is very difficult, he has no house, no family, so at that time he lived at my house. In 1996, he borrowed 2 million to buy a 100m2 plot of land.2of the Commune People's Committee. I was the one who paid the money to the commune, then followed the commune leaders to receive the land. Now, I still keep the receipt with full signatures of the commune officials," said Mr. Hung (62 years old).
After having the land, Mr. Dinh opened a kiosk to do hair cutting. However, after a while, while building a house, he ran out of capital, so Mr. Dinh decided to go to the South to work for hire to earn money to continue building.
“But life pushed him, he decided to stay there. The house and land were handed over to me to look after,” said Mr. Vo Ngoc Hung, adding that he later rented the house to someone else. In 2017, the leaders of An Hoa commune met him toland exchange movementMr. Dinh's land was transferred to another location to expand the landscape for the kindergarten right behind. Believing that the land exchange was for good purposes and for the community, Mr. Hung agreed to sign the minutes.
“They asked me to demolish the house and then give Dinh a plot of land in a similar location. I was also negligent in not calling Dinh to inform him. I was even more negligent in believing the commune leaders. After the house was demolished, I waited forever but they still did not give my brother another plot of land. They kept promising again and again. Meanwhile, the minutes had been clearly agreed upon. I did not expect that I had been deceived,” Mr. Hung said indignantly.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dinh said that during his years in the South, he worked many jobs but life was also difficult. Because he was busy making a living, even though he is 55 years old, he still does not have a wife. “I am not as lucky as many others. Since childhood, I did not enjoy family happiness with my parents, and when I grew up, I did not have a wife and children. Now, I am old, I lost my house, so the hope of starting a family is gone,” Mr. Dinh said sadly.
Whose responsibility is it?
Discussing this incident, Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Vice Chairman of Quynh Luu District People's Committee said that the District People's Committee has just issued a document urging the An Hoa Commune People's Committee to verify the origin of the land once again and then draw a conclusion. "The district has issued many documents urging. Currently, An Hoa Commune is required to review the origin of the land, draw conclusions and report to the District People's Committee before October 20, 2024. After this deadline, if the Commune People's Committee does not have a report, or cannot do it, the District People's Committee will establish a delegation. At this time, the responsibility of the Commune People's Committee will be considered. The commune is also confused about this incident, and has been pushing it to the district for a long time," said Mr. Dinh.
According to Mr. Dinh, previously, the People's Committee of An Hoa commune reported that Mr. Dinh's land plot had been granted a legal land use right certificate. However, the district's recent review process showed that this land plot "had legal problems that were not up to standard". That is, in the land use right certificate, it was discovered that the area of the land plot was recorded by the An Hoa commune cadastral officer himself.
“In the past, land use rights management was different from now. Now, when clearing land, we have to do a very careful job of the land origin. So we are assigning the commune to verify and come to their own conclusion. If it is legal, we will handle it in the direction of compensation and resettlement land allocation for Mr. Dinh. If it is illegal, we will have to revoke the land use right certificate and take administrative action because of Mr. Dinh's encroachment and he has no rights to this land plot,” Mr. Dinh said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ho Anh Dung - Chairman of the People's Committee of An Hoa commune said that this case is difficult, if the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district does not support, the commune cannot do it. "The case is due to the fault of the previous commune leaders, I have to take responsibility for resolving it. But it is likely that we will have to wait for the court to resolve it, because the case is very complicated", Mr. Dung said and informed that in 1996, he worked as a commune official so he also knew that Mr. Dinh bought this land plot from the commune People's Committee for 2 million VND, the commune official collected the money and paid it into the budget. The commune leader then directly showed the land to Mr. Dinh to build a barber shop.
“The truth is that the commune sold that land plot to Mr. Dinh. But at that time it was still loose, so the records now are a bit “unsteady” and have differences,” Mr. Dung said, adding that the commune’s stance is to admit mistakes in reclaiming Mr. Dinh’s land in 2017 and wants to compensate and resettle this person. However, the commune does not have the authority to grant land.
Regarding the fact that the leader of Quynh Luu district said that the land plot "has incorrect legal status" because the cadastral officer of An Hoa commune arbitrarily added the residential land area of 100m2 to the land use right certificate.2, Mr. Tran Ba Dinh disagreed.
“If so, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district needs to verify and clarify the responsibility of the staff for the additional recording. Because the issuance of land use right certificates is done by competent state agencies and people with sufficient functions and duties. The preparation of records, issuance of land use right certificates, and management of cadastral records are the responsibilities and obligations of competent state agencies. I cannot know who recorded it. I am a citizen, I only know to follow the instructions of the state agency and receive the result, which is the land use right certificate from the competent state agency,” Mr. Dinh said, adding that this information is not new, because since April 2024, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district had made a similar conclusion and assigned the People's Committee of An Hoa commune to organize verification and clearly conclude the origin of land use... I do not understand why the verification process takes so long.
“I paid for the land from the commune, with complete documents. The commune only gave me a plot of land, and I lived on that plot. Since being granted the land, my family has built a house, lived stably on this plot of land, and fulfilled the obligation to pay annual land use tax,” Mr. Dinh added.
After many months of waiting, most recently on August 5, 2024, Mr. Dinh continued to file a complaint to the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district, requesting an early resolution of the case. In an official dispatch responding to Mr. Dinh on August 22, 2024, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district said that the Chairman of the District People's Committee had assigned the Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to inspect and resolve the case; report the results to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Chairman of the District People's Committee and respond to citizens before September 15, 2024. However, nearly 1 month has passed the deadline, and the case has not yet been resolved. Meanwhile, the leader of the District People's Committee said that the responsibility for handling the case belongs to the People's Committee of An Hoa commune?
