Do not consider emulation titles for organizations and individuals encroaching on traffic safety corridors.

On December 16, 2016, the Provincial People's Council issued Resolution No. 56/NQ-HDND stipulating a number of measures to resolve violations of traffic safety corridors (HTS) on roads, railways, and sidewalks in the province, period 2017 - 2020. After more than 1 year of implementation with determination, perseverance and creativity in each locality and facility, many changes in awareness and action have been made by the people.

Resolutely clear encroachment
Dien Chau district has a large traffic system (nearly 65 km of national highway, 15 km of provincial road, nearly 29 km of railway...); this is also an area with dynamic economic development and the use of traffic safety corridors (TSCs) to serve daily life, production and business is still quite complicated. Statistics show that the whole district of Dien Chau has 4,955 cases of traffic safety violations.
To resolve traffic safety violations; the District Party Committee, the District People's Committee and specialized units at the district level have issued 15 decisions, plans, telegrams and more than 60 official dispatches, 10 meetings to direct, guide and urge sectors and localities. Along with that, strengthen and diversify forms of propaganda through conferences to disseminate and train at all levels; convey information on the loudspeaker system of communes, villages and hamlets; propagate visually through vivid billboards, slogans, banners, leaflets and documents; organize competitions to learn about traffic safety laws and the contest "Youth with Traffic Safety" among union members, youth, students...
According to Mr. Phan Van Hung - Head of the Department of Industry and Trade of Dien Chau district, to achieve high results in clearing traffic safety violations, the district directed each locality to conduct statistics and review every case of land along both sides of the roads, at the same time, draw lines to mark the traffic safety corridor and sign a commitment to each household not to violate or re-encroach on traffic safety.

Thanks to that, up to now, there have been 4,577 cases cleared with a total of 1,798 houses, tents, umbrellas, and advertising signs violating traffic safety regulations; of which 2,779 households voluntarily dismantled constructions encroaching on traffic safety regulations.

Clearing violations of traffic safety corridor encroachment in Dien Chau town. Photo: Mai Hoa

Regarding Do Luong district, according to Mr. Ngoc Kim Nam - Chairman of the District People's Committee and Head of the District Traffic Safety Violation Clearance Board, based on the requirements and directions of the province, the district has also developed a plan, in which key, urgent and complicated areas are clearly identified to focus on directing resolutely; promoting the role and responsibility of Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and organizations of communes and towns in the clearance work as well as maintaining and protecting traffic safety after clearance.

In this way, localities have proactively proposed feasible measures for implementation. For example, in Thuan Son commune, 3 propaganda teams were established with the Standing Committee of the Party Committee as the team leader and members being the heads of the Fatherland Front, mass organizations, commune-level civil servants, and secretaries and hamlet chiefs who went directly to households to propagate and mobilize; so far, people have basically voluntarily dismantled constructions and cut down trees that violate traffic safety corridors.

For Yen Son commune, in addition to mobilizing the police force, the Head of the Front Committee, and the hamlet chiefs of the hamlets with households violating traffic regulations to mobilize households to voluntarily dismantle and sign a commitment not to encroach on traffic safety regulations, the local Party Committee and government also clearly demonstrated a resolute attitude to organize the enforcement and dismantlement of dozens of kiosks providing services violating traffic safety regulations on National Highway 7.
Need to maintain continuity
Director of the Department of Transport, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky affirmed: Resolution No. 56/NQ-HDND and Plan No. 136/KH-UBND have been implemented by 21/21 districts, cities and towns to clear traffic safety violations, contributing to limiting traffic safety violations and people's awareness of protecting traffic infrastructure has initially changed positively. In particular, some localities such as Dien Chau, Do Luong, Tuong Duong, Thanh Chuong, Ky Son, Vinh city have successfully cleared many long-standing, solid constructions.

The traffic safety corridor area after being cleared in Dien Chau town. Photo: Mai Hoa

However, according to the Director of the Department of Transport, the most difficult problem is due to the psychology and long-standing habits of a part of the population who still consider the sidewalk as a place for business, trading, gathering construction materials, goods, or for some people, the sidewalk is a place to make a living; therefore, the clearance in some places has not been carried out; especially the situation of re-encroachment.

Agreeing with the opinion of the Director of the Department of Transport, Mr. Ha Van Quang - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Chau district also specifically stated that in Dien Chau district, the situation of people deliberately re-encroaching is increasing in some areas such as Dien Chau town, Dien Ky, Dien Thanh, Dien Thinh, Dien Hong...

In addition, according to Mr. Ha Van Quang, some violations were caused by local authorities leasing without a term and up to now, the People's Committees of communes and towns have not carried out procedures to stop leasing according to regulations such as issuing notices of non-leasing, requesting the return of premises, handling violations, etc. On the other hand, the records and procedures related to leasing, collecting money, allocating land, etc. are not fully archived, making it very difficult to advise on handling; in many cases, the area of ​​traffic safety violations is quite large, the value of the property is very large, affecting the entire business, trade, life, etc.

Referring to another reality, Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Luong district, Ngoc Kim Nam, said that some management units have not coordinated well with local authorities in managing the cleared area and marking the "cleared area", so the situation of re-encroachment still occurs.
In 2017 alone, the province has dismantled and cleared 2 high-rise buildings; 28,098m2 of kiosks; 4,262m2 of roofing; 39,272m2 of all kinds of canopies; 6,825 billboards; 14,498m2 of steps; 330 business, trading and construction material gathering points and 8,863m3 of construction materials; 45,951 trees obstructing the view and many other violations.

To overcome the above difficulties, ensure the clearance of traffic safety violations in the province is truly sustainable, avoid the situation of "throwing stones at a duckweed pond", according to Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky - Director of the Department of Transport, all levels, sectors and localities need to continue to take drastic action, increase human resources and means to maintain the results achieved in the campaigns to clear violations, resolutely deploy measures to prevent re-encroachment; at the same time, have solutions to remove obstacles and difficulties.

Sectors and localities continue to propagate, disseminate and educate the law on management, use and protection of traffic safety corridors; mobilize forces to clear violations of traffic safety corridors, combined with strengthening management, protection of traffic safety corridors and handling responsibilities for organizations and individuals who violate corridors or fail to complete the task of clearing and preventing re-encroachment of traffic safety corridors. Sectors and levels need to take the results of clearing and preventing encroachment of traffic safety corridors as one of the mandatory criteria for annual emulation classification for functional units and local authorities; do not consider emulation and reward titles for organizations, individuals and households that violate traffic safety corridors...