Part 1: Commune officials encroach on hundreds of square meters of "prime land" of the school
A commune official (in Tan Ky district) was illegally cut off 20 square meters of school land by the chairman of the commune People's Committee to build a grocery kiosk, but later this person encroached on more of the school's land, increasing the total area to more than 150 square meters. The incident was reported by the people, but after many years there has been no resolution despite a clear conclusion.
Unauthorized land acquisition
For many years now, whenever the People's Councils at all levels have met with voters in Phu Son Commune (Tan Ky District), some people have raised questions about a former commune official encroaching on the "prime land" of Phu Son Primary School to build a solid house. People have filed complaints, and the local government has concluded that there were violations, but to this day, the case has not been completely resolved, and the house is still located right in the school grounds, in the area considered the most prime location of the commune.
According to the reporter's investigation, in 1993, Mr. Le Phuong Hai - an official of Phu Son commune, was decided by the Chairman of the People's Committee of this commune to cut land in the area of Phu Son Primary School with an area of 20m2.2(length 5m, width 4m)2), to build a grocery kiosk. The land cutting by the Chairman of the People's Committee of Phu Son commune is an act beyond his authority.
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Not only did the land cut without authority, and even though it was only cut 20m2But Mr. Hai's family then openly encroached, increasing the total area to more than 151 square meters.2This plot of land is located right at the intersection, with 2 sides facing the inter-commune road, in front is the headquarters of Phu Son Commune People's Committee, behind is the school.
By 2008, implementing the policy of measuring cadastral maps in Phu Son commune to serve land management and issuance and renewal of land use right certificates, this land plot was measured with an area of 151m2.2. Although the land plot was discovered to have been encroached upon, the Phu Son commune authorities at that time still did not take any measures to handle it. They even later prepared a file to help the family of this commune official receive compensation.
Specifically, when implementing the project to build a road to the commune center and the Khe La canal project, Mr. Hai's family received compensation twice, up to more than 70 million VND, with a clearance area of 61m2.2. “After being compensated for 61m2This, in theory, has only 91m2 left on the plot of land.2But for some reason, Mr. Hai's family still built a solid house, the land plot was even raised to 156m.2“This is very shady,” said a resident of Phu Son commune, adding that this meant that Mr. Hai had received compensation for the encroached land, but had not cleared the land, and had even encroached further.
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Struggling to find a solution
Regarding the above incident, in 2018, a village chief in Phu Son commune filed a complaint against Mr. Le Phuong Hai for encroaching on national standard school land and illegally building a house to the People's Committee of Tan Ky district. In the complaint, this person said that Mr. Hai's father initially applied to borrow a small piece of land to build a barber kiosk. This kiosk was later transferred to Mr. Hai and his wife to use for selling groceries.
“At first, he borrowed a small plot of land at the corner of the school to cut hair, but then he didn’t pay it back, and then he encroached on it many times over. When he was compensated, the land was not cleared, but Mr. Hai used the compensation money to expand, build a bigger house, and cover the canal to do business, blocking the view of people passing by. Local people are very upset, they have complained many times but the government still hasn’t taken any action,” this person said.
After receiving the complaint, the People's Committee of Phu Son commune investigated and concluded that the citizen's complaint was correct. However, no action was taken afterward.
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On April 16, 2018, the people continued to file a complaint to the People's Committee of Tan Ky district. On July 23, 2018, in the document on handling the citizen's complaint, the People's Committee of Tan Ky district said that after reviewing the content of the complaint and accompanying documents, based on the provisions of the law, the People's Committee of the district found that the People's Committee of Phu Son commune had concluded that the content of the complaint was correct, but the content of the handling was not specific. Therefore, the Chairman of the People's Committee of the district assigned the Chairman of the People's Committee of Phu Son commune to verify and conclude additional contents including: time of encroachment; area of encroachment and handling measures.
By August 23, 2018, the People's Committee of Phu Son commune had reported the results of the verification and proposed measures for handling. According to the report of the People's Committee of Phu Son commune, on July 26, 1993, Mr. Le Phuong Hai submitted a request for land to build a stall for sale, which was approved by the Principal of Phu Son Primary School and confirmed by the People's Committee of Phu Son commune on September 6, 1993, agreeing to cut 20 square meters of land at the corner of the school. A few days later, the People's Committee of Phu Son commune issued a decision agreeing to allow Mr. Hai to build a stall in this area.
However, according to the inspection results, the People's Committee of Phu Son commune's decision to give land to Mr. Hai was beyond its authority.
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Regarding the encroached area, the inspection results show that in 2008, this plot of land had reached 151m2.2. The current status has been built by Mr. Le Phuong Hai with a solid house, outbuildings and a business area with a total area of 156m2.2. In addition, there are 61m2compensation for site clearance when implementing two projects: Khe La canal and road to the commune center. However, the inspection team's report stated that "it is impossible to determine the time when Mr. Hai encroached".
After the inspection results were available, although it was confirmed that there was encroachment and illegal land cutting, once again the People's Committee of Phu Son commune still did not take any measures to handle the situation, but instead recommended the People's Committee of Tan Ky district to guide the commune in implementing it.
After a period of waiting without results, the people continued to denounce to the District People's Committee. At the citizen reception session of the leaders of the Tan Ky District People's Committee on December 25, 2018, the people continued to denounce Mr. Le Phuong Hai - an official of Phu Son commune for appropriating public land, illegally building houses and receiving compensation but still not clearing the land. Mr. Trinh Huu Thanh - Vice Chairman of the Tan Ky District People's Committee then issued a document assigning the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to urge the Phu Son Commune People's Committee to implement Conclusion No. 15/KL-UBND dated March 25, 2018 of the Phu Son Commune People's Committee. The deadline is before January 20, 2019. If the Phu Son Commune People's Committee does not implement, it will be fined according to regulations.
However, up to now, more than 6 years have passed since the conclusion of the violation, but the Phu Son commune government has not yet come up with a solution.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Quynh - Principal of Phu Son Primary School from 2002 to 2008, said that the school has been located in this area for a long time, previously Mr. Le Phuong Hai's father was a security guard. "At that time, Mr. Hai's father was a security guard, so he came to borrow a small piece of land from the school to open a hair salon, which was convenient for looking after. A few years later, he handed it over to his son. In 2002, when I became principal, this piece of land was only about 50m2After many times of asking the commune to get it back but to no avail, I asked the students to build a bamboo fence around it. But when I left, the fence was destroyed and the school land was encroached upon again,” said Mr. Quynh.
During my time as principal, the school repeatedly asked the commune to reclaim the land, both to make the school campus square and to clear the land, to avoid blocking the view of people participating in traffic, because that area is a three-way intersection.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Quynh - Principal of Phu Son Primary School, 2002-2008
Speaking with Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Chairman of Phu Son Commune People's Committee, said that currently the land Mr. Hai is using has not been granted a Land Use Rights Certificate.
This is a problem left over from history. At that time, due to lax management and partly due to the leaders' awareness, the handling was messy. Now the violations are clearly checked, but it is also very difficult to handle. If there were no assets on the land, it would be easy, but now they have built solid houses, the government is also difficult to handle.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Chairman of People's Committee of Phu Son commune
The reporter also tried to contact Mr. Le Phuong Hai many times but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Mr. Hai’s wife said, “The land the family is living on was allocated by the government and has all the necessary documents.”
