Part 1: Commune officials encroach on hundreds of square meters of "golden land" of the school
A commune official (in Tan Ky district) was illegally cut 20 square meters of school land by the chairman of the commune People's Committee to build a grocery kiosk, but then 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 action taken despite a clear conclusion.
Land cutting without authority
For many years, whenever the People's Councils at all levels met with voters in Phu Son Commune (Tan Ky District), some people raised questions about a former commune official encroaching on the "prime land" of Phu Son Primary School to build a solid house. The people filed a complaint, the local government also concluded that there was a violation, but until now, the case has not been completely resolved, the house is still located right in the school grounds, in the area considered the most prime center 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 Phu Son Commune People's Committee is an act beyond his authority.
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Not only cutting land without authority, and even though only 20m was cut2But Mr. Hai's family then openly encroached, increasing the total area to more than 151m2.2This plot of land is located right at the intersection of three roads, with two sides facing the inter-commune road. In front is the Phu Son Commune People's Committee headquarters and 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 was discovered to have been encroached upon, the Phu Son commune authorities at that time still did not take any action. They even later created 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 plot of land, in theory, has only 91m left.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 area, 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 the land of a national standard school 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 it, 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 afterwards.
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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.
On August 23, 2018, the People's Committee of Phu Son commune 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 20m2 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 gave land to Mr. Hai without authority.
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Regarding the encroached area, the inspection results show that in 2008, this land plot had reached 151m2. The current status has been built by Mr. Le Phuong Hai with a solid house, outbuildings and business area with a total area of 156m2.2. In addition, there is 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 that the People's Committee of Tan Ky district guide the commune to implement it.
After waiting for a while without any results, the people continued to denounce to the District People's Committee. At the citizen reception session of the leaders of 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 Tan Ky District People's Committee then issued a document assigning the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to urge Phu Son Commune People's Committee to implement Conclusion No. 15/KL-UBND dated March 25, 2018 of Phu Son Commune People's Committee. The deadline is before January 20, 2019. If Phu Son Commune People's Committee does not implement, it will be punished according to regulations.
However, up to now, it has been more than 6 years 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, and Mr. Le Phuong Hai's father used to be a security guard. "At that time, Mr. Hai's father worked as a security guard, so he came to borrow a small piece of land from the school to open a barber shop, which was convenient for him to look 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 had the students 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 keep the school campus square and to clear the land, to avoid obstructing 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 from 2002 to 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 that the violations have been clearly checked, it is still very difficult to handle. If there were no assets on the land, it would be easy, but now that they have built solid houses, the government is also having a hard time handling it."
Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Chairman of Phu Son Commune People's Committee
The reporter also tried to contact Mr. Le Phuong Hai many times but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Mr. Hai’s wife said that “the land the family is living on has been allocated by the government, with complete documents.”
