The desire for housing of nearly 100 households in Yen Na commune living temporarily on construction site land
Once a construction site for a hydroelectric project, however, when the project was completed, this land was not handed over to the government for management, causing many households to encroach on it and build houses. In addition, many households spent money to buy it back from construction contractors.
Living in fear on construction site
For many years, nearly 100 households in Yen Na commune (Tuong Duong) have been living in constant fear of having to move elsewhere and return their land to the government. Because the land where they live used to be a construction site for a hydroelectric project, according to regulations, after the project is completed, the local government will have to reclaim it.
“It’s not peaceful here either, the government keeps asking us to move. But where can we go? We used to buy it, we didn’t encroach on it,” a resident expressed his wish that the government would create conditions and provide land for long-term settlement.
Another household said that more than 10 years ago, because he did not want to live in the resettlement area provided by the State, after seeing the workers leave and the land left empty, his family moved here to build a house to live on their own.
"We want to live here because it is near the old village, and it is also close to the main road, so it is convenient. We know that living like this is wrong, but we have already built a house. Now we just want the government to create favorable conditions, we accept to return the resettlement land that was granted to us in exchange for this land.
Mr. Vi Thanh Son - 60 years old, Yen Na commune (Tuong Duong)
20 years ago, to build the Ban Ve Hydropower Plant, Tuong Duong District cleared more than 76 hectares of land and handed it over to the investor to borrow land for contractors to build housing for workers and an administrative building. By 2011, when the hydropower plant was completed, instead of having to dismantle the houses and return the land to the district, many contractors arbitrarily sold the worker housing and administrative buildings to some local households.
In addition, many neighboring households, for various reasons, have also come to this land to build houses and live. To date, there are 96 households living on this construction site located along National Highway 48C. Of these, 78 households live illegally, the rest were arranged by local authorities to live in this area after the natural disaster and flood in 2018.
Over the past years, the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district has taken action to reclaim more than 76 hectares of the above land. However, many households have bought houses from construction contractors.hydroelectricand are living so the recovery is very difficult.
According to the leader of the Tuong Duong Department of Natural Resources and Environment, according to regulations, after completing the project (from 2010-2012), for the area that the investor does not need to use, the investor's responsibility is to return the clean land before handing it over to the local government to put the land fund into management, not to waste land, not to let people encroach.
However, at that time, the investor and contractors did not return the land to hand over the land, leading to households arbitrarily encroaching on the land to build houses, as well as agricultural production, livestock and poultry farming within the project's land area. On the other hand, contractors arbitrarily sold assets, such as workers' camps, public houses, medical stations, etc. to households for use for housing and livestock farming purposes, against regulations, leading to difficulties in the current land handover work.
The commune and district have held meetings many times, going door-to-door to persuade people to return the land, but the people "begged" the district to create conditions for them to live here permanently. In 2022, Tuong Duong district established an interdisciplinary team to inspect, review and reclaim this land. After that,InvestorThe site has been returned and handed over to the People's Committee of Yen Na commune and the management board to prevent people from re-encroaching, with a total area of 69.29 hectares. In which, the land is mainly production forest land, public works land, swidden land...
Currently, there are still more than 7 hectares that cannot be handed over because there are properties of people's houses. Of which, 96 households are living on an area of 3.36 hectares and the primary school as well as some rows of workers' houses have not been demolished.
Proposal for legalization
According to a leader of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district, after checking and reviewing, the district is planning to propose a land use plan for an area of 3.36 hectares for 96 households currently using the land so that people have land to build houses and soon stabilize their lives. "The People's Committee of the district has directed this content.Department of Natural Resources and Environment "The committee will coordinate with the investor and the People's Committee of Yen Na commune to inspect and review each land user according to the current status, then classify them into many groups," he said.
According to the reporter's investigation, the first group of 36 households, who are residents of nearby resettlement areas, moved to the construction site to live. Currently, 7 of these households have houses at risk of landslides and must be relocated to a new safe place within the land area of the returned construction site. There are 25 households that have requested to stay in place, following the plan to return land in the resettlement area that the State has arranged, replacing it with the current residential land plot. For the area exceeding the limit, it is proposed to issue agricultural land certificates in the same residential land plot. There are 4 households that are separated from households subject to resettlement of the hydropower project, requesting to be arranged residential land on the spot and fulfill financial obligations according to current regulations.
The second group is households affected by the 2018 flood, so they moved to this area to live. This group has 18 households, who were previously resettled in the Khe Co Canh resettlement area. Currently, 16 households have built stable houses, 2 households are temporarily living in the elementary school dormitory and their parents' house. These are the cases that the government has allocated land for resettlement.
The third group consists of 15 households who purchased property from contractors and expanded their houses. Of these, 3 households who already had land in the resettlement area of the Ban Ve Hydropower Project moved in and committed to returning the land in the resettlement area that the State had arranged to replace it with their current land plots. 12 households who were separated from households originally from the resettlement area of the Ban Ve Hydropower Project asked to be arranged land on the spot and fulfill their financial obligations according to current regulations.
The last group consists of 27 households who came to expand and renovate land to build houses. Of these, 4 households were previously allocated resettlement land but transferred it to others, and 17 households were separated from the resettlement households of the hydropower project, asking to be arranged residential land on the spot and fulfill financial obligations according to current regulations. Similarly, 6 households from other places also came to renovate and encroach on land to build houses and do business, also asking to be arranged residential land on the spot and fulfill financial obligations according to current regulations.
"According to the 2013 Land Law, all houses of the people living here must be demolished to hand over the land to the government for management. However, the 2024 Land Law has come into effect and according to the provisions of Article 16 on the State's responsibility for land for ethnic minorities and Article 8, Decree 102/2024/ND-CP on land support for ethnic minorities, it has opened up an easier way to handle the situation. We are waiting for instructions on implementing the law and if qualified, we will advise the Provincial People's Committee to handle the situation in the direction of granting land for people to live permanently."
Mr. Nguyen Phung Hung - Head of Natural Resources and Environment Department of Tuong Duong district
