Hoang Mai needs to strengthen dialogue with citizens in compensation work

On the morning of September 11, the monitoring delegation of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation led by Mr. Tran Van Mao - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation had a working session with Hoang Mai town on the implementation of the law on receiving citizens, handling complaints and denunciations related to land acquisition and compensation for site clearance to implement projects in the area.

Working scene. Photo by Thanh Le

Since the beginning of 2016, the People's Committee of Hoang Mai town has recovered and approved plans for 1,945 affected families, with a total recovered area of ​​51.2 hectares; the total compensation and support cost is over 115.7 billion VND.

From the beginning of 2016 to June 2018, Hoang Mai town received 53 cases, including 7 complaints, 47 complaints and reflections; the number of citizens received was 104 times. The results of resolving 45/53 cases reached 85%; the number of cases being resolved was 8/53 cases, accounting for 15%.

The petition in Hoang Mai is mainly related to compensation and support for site clearance for the National Highway 1A project within a 13.5m radius (PMU1 project). The locality has established 3 teams to focus on handling the matter. Currently, all 3 teams have completed the verification of the documents and are completing the draft for dialogue with the people.

In handling petitions, Hoang Mai still has limitations and shortcomings: some cases of handling petitions and complaints are still slower than the prescribed time. The work of propagating and disseminating laws on receiving citizens, complaints and denunciations in general and handling complaints and denunciations of citizens related to land acquisition and compensation for site clearance to implement projects in particular has not been regular and widespread to the people in the area.

Deputy Chief Inspector of the province Le Anh Son suggested that Hoang Mai town needs to clearly classify petitions. Photo: Thanh Le

The reason for the limitation is that land management is still inadequate, mainly due to historical reasons or because the time of complaints, denunciations and reflections has been too long, and the records have been lost. The awareness of law compliance of a part of citizens who make complaints is not high, or because of being incited and provoked by some bad elements, they deliberately follow up with petitions and complaints many times.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Chief Inspector of the province Le Anh Son requested Hoang Mai town to urgently classify petitions and propose solutions to resolve petitions from 166 households complaining and petitioning about compensation for land acquisition and clearance for the National Highway 1A project.

According to Mr. Son, some citizens' petitions contain recommendations but the content is complaints. Therefore, it is necessary to classify the petitions correctly and the right authority to resolve them. If the petitions are not classified correctly, it will be very difficult to have a stopping point in resolving the petitions.

The Deputy Chief Inspector of the province requested Hoang Mai town to clarify the causes of the existence and limitations related to the emergence of petitions such as determining and issuing land prices that are not suitable to the market; has the process of preparing the land acquisition plan ensured publicity and transparency?

Mr. Ho Xuan Bay - Deputy Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Committee and Head of the Provincial Citizen Reception Committee noted that for complicated mass cases, before resolving them, it is necessary to seek opinions from higher levels to avoid the situation where the district has resolved the case but the people do not agree and petition the provincial level.

Clarifying the contents of the working group's concern, Chairman of Hoang Mai Town People's Committee Nguyen Huu Tuy affirmed: To implement the compensation work for land acquisition and clearance, the town organizes dialogues with the people, publicizes the process by posting at the ward and commune headquarters; reading on the loudspeaker system, voting among households. Thanks to that, Hoang Mai's success in compensation for land acquisition and clearance has not had any discrepancies or unfairness in compensation prices.

Chairman of Hoang Mai Town People's Committee Nguyen Huu Tuy explained and clarified the issues of concern to the Supervisory Delegation. Photo: Thanh Le

The head of the Hoang Mai town government said that the difficulty in compensation and site clearance work is resettlement; therefore, it is recommended that there should be a policy of post-resettlement care to help households stabilize their lives.

The work of site clearance, especially compensation for National Highway 1A, is difficult, complicated, sensitive, and the number of affected households is large while the current status records are not available. The town hopes that departments, branches, and sectors will create favorable conditions during the implementation of procedures in site clearance work.

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Tran Van Mao acknowledged and highly appreciated the attention and focus on resolving complaints and denunciations in the land acquisition and compensation work of Hoang Mai town.

The Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation requested the Party Committee and government of Hoang Mai town to do a good job of propaganda; properly implement the project implementation process; and be open and transparent.

Mr. Tran Van Mao also said that the town needs to strengthen dialogue with citizens to reduce prolonged complaints and denunciations;...