Part 4: Must have strong determination and strong measures
Solving the problem, especially bringing people to the resettlement area of Ban Ve Hydropower Plant and stabilizing their lives is an urgent task not only for the two districts of Tuong Duong and Thanh Chuong and the Management Board of Hydropower Plant 2, but also requires the active participation of all sectors and levels, especially the people must fulfill their obligations well...
Working with the leaders of Tuong Duong and Thanh Chuong districts, it was known that both districts had made great efforts throughout the process of organizing the movement of people and receiving them. However, when it came to the situation of some households still stubbornly refusing to relocate, and dozens of other households selling their houses and returning to the reservoir to make a living without a solution, the leaders of the two districts could not come up with a satisfactory solution. Specifically, with 33 households in Cha Coong village stubbornly staying and many people returning to the reservoir to live, Tuong Duong district appeared confused and helpless.
Mr. Vi Tan Hoi - Vice Chairman of Tuong Duong District People's Committee, said: "Faced with the stubborn refusal to relocate of Cha Coong households and the situation of Thanh Chuong resettled people moving to live in the reservoir area, Tuong Duong District leaders are extremely concerned. The Standing Committee of the District Party Committee has also met to discuss solutions, and every month they send working groups to mobilize and persuade. The compensation and site clearance team has repeatedly given money to support transportation and house building to the people, but only a few have received it.
In early 2012, when preparing for the rice season, many people from Thanh Chuong resettlement area flocked back. The district arranged for inter-sectoral forces to be on duty at the downstream and upstream ports of the lake to check and control and prevent resettled people from returning. However, people secretly went around from Ky Son down to Yen Tinh and up through the forest to "parachute" into the lake. In May 2012, the district sent a 3-person working group led by me to all illegal residential areas in the lake with the purpose of both propagandizing, mobilizing and monitoring the situation. But when the people discovered the cadres coming, they hid in the forest, only meeting the elderly and children, so there was no result!"
The Management Board of Hydropower Project 2 speeds up land reclamation to help resettled people have rice fields for production.
In Thanh Chuong, Mr. Phan Dinh Ha - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, said: The people returning to the reservoir was unintentional. To prevent the situation of returning to the reservoir area, as well as to bring people back to the resettlement area, the Thanh Chuong District People's Committee worked with Tuong Duong District to discuss how to coordinate mobilization, and at the same time assigned the two communes to establish a working group to mobilize and implement a number of measures to help people improve their lives on the spot.
With the above approach as well as through research, it can be seen that although there has been concern, both districts have not yet actively and resolutely taken action to resolve the existence of illegal residents in the Ban Ve hydropower reservoir. It is noteworthy that the district authorities have not yet proposed synchronous implementation measures. It is easy to see that all people in the Thanh Chuong resettlement area who return to the reservoir to build huts are illegal residents. The act of returning to clear the forest for farming, fishing, exploiting forest products, etc. are all violations of the law. People all understand that and many are afraid when meeting officials and authorities, afraid of being punished or arrested. Resolving the above cases must clearly go hand in hand with both propaganda and education measures and administrative handling. In reality, in Tuong Duong, it has only leaned towards persuasion, and has not yet implemented administrative and criminal handling measures. For example, the case of refusing to move, brazenly and recklessly building illegal houses and writing petitions to many places like Mr. Luong Khac Phung, Cha Coong village, is a clear violation of the law, but the district still does not handle it! That further proves that the state management role of the government has not been promoted, allowing bad people to take advantage and overwhelm, losing the strictness of the law.
In Thanh Chuong district, although there has been attention to take care of many aspects for the people, there is one shortcoming: the mass mobilization work has been lax. Unfortunately, while some people in Kim Hong village did not want to relocate, when they arrived at Thanh Chuong resettlement area, they encountered some difficulties such as the damaged domestic water system, land encroachment that had not been resolved... so people took that as an excuse to return to the lake to live... In that situation, the Thanh Chuong district Party Committee and government should have grasped and directed the two communes to do a good job of ideological work, coordinated to resolve the problems that the people had proposed, promptly encouraged and helped the people to overcome difficulties, stabilize their lives and production, but that has not been done. When the people had sold their houses to move to the lake for a long time, the government found out, but it was too late. Currently, the number of households selling their houses and leaving the two communes has reached 47 households (40 households in Kim Hong village), but the commune and district have not updated it, but they still optimistically reported that the number of families leaving both communes is 36 households, of which 25 households in Kim Hong village...
Some opinions say that people have returned because of lack of land for production. In fact, that is not entirely true. Working with the Party Secretary of Cha Coong 2 village, Thanh Son commune, it is known that there are currently 67 households returning to the resettlement area from the end of 2009 until now, because the planned land for production is being encroached upon and no family has received it, but no one has returned to the lake. It turns out that the Party Committee and village cadres have promoted their role and responsibility in doing a good job of propaganda, analysis, explanation, and mobilization, so people clearly see that returning to the lake to make a living "with their hands and mouths full" is entering a dead end, with no home, no government, no school, no clinic, no electricity, no place to get treatment when sick, no school for children of age,... the harm is greater than the benefit, so everyone determines that the difficulties are only temporary, and feels secure staying to build a life in the new land.
That shows that the excuse of not having been allocated land, or the land being barren and difficult to make a living is just an excuse for the weaknesses in resolving the issue of moving illegal residents out of the Ban Ve hydropower reservoir to Thanh Chuong resettlement area and is not convincing. However, it must also be admitted that the process of implementing the resettlement project still has many shortcomings and weaknesses. That is, the special importance of food production has not been fully recognized, leading to the work of reclaiming and renovating rice fields being done too slowly. While some families, due to their circumstances, do not have the conditions to reclaim land for food production, and the State only supports food for the first 3 years, 4 months each year, there are cases of food shortages. Then the problem of encroachment has not been completely resolved by the government, and the change in business practices from self-sufficiency to the market where one must have money to survive has created a feeling of frustration and discomfort...
All of the above shortcomings are the main reasons for the people's stubbornness in not relocating or the increasing number of people returning to Ban Ve hydroelectric reservoir to make a living.
The problem now is how to quickly move illegal residents out of the reservoir, especially those households that are reluctant to leave in Cha Coong village and those that have sold their houses in the resettlement area, and prevent the problem of people returning to their hometowns? Answering this question is not only the responsibility of the two districts and the Management Board of Hydropower Plant 2, but also of related departments and agencies. Here, please note that up to this point, out of the 245 households returning to the reservoir, 47 have sold their houses, many of which are now penniless. Moving people out of the reservoir will be very difficult and arduous, but if there is high determination and strong measures, it will be possible and requires urgent and responsible participation of Party committees, authorities at all levels and related departments from the province to the grassroots.
Practical experience shows that: To prevent people from returning to the reservoir area, as well as to move people out of the reservoir, measures must be taken from root to tip. That means, along with implementing strong, synchronous measures (persuasion, administrative, criminal, economic) to move people out of the reservoir, it is necessary to pay attention to taking care of the material and spiritual life of people in the resettlement area. Specifically, it is necessary to help people have jobs and income in the following directions: agricultural and forestry production; training, vocational guidance, guiding people to change jobs, participate in production activities, business services, export labor, work in industrial parks... organize community cultural and sports activities; put the health station into operation, do a good job of taking care of people's health, creating a happy and healthy appearance. In the immediate future, we must ensure food for the people in many ways, such as: During the time when there is no land for food production, the Government must soon implement a rice support policy so that people do not lack food. Make full use of flat land to reclaim and expand the area of rice fields. In the long term, we must do everything possible to ensure that households who have not received land are allocated land, and that land that is available must be put to effective use, in the direction that each land must be planted with the right crop, production must go hand in hand with intensive investment, overcoming extensive farming and land exploitation. Only then can we help people have jobs and stable and regular income, ensure social security and keep people from returning...
In addition, it is necessary to be aware of and effectively implement the relocation of people from the Ban Ve hydropower reservoir to the Thanh Chuong resettlement area, not only contributing to the effective implementation of the policy of promoting the potential advantages of building a civilized and beautiful homeland, but also importantly, redistributing the population, helping ethnic minorities escape poverty and move towards comprehensive development. To be successful in this task, it requires Party committees at all levels, authorities, departments, branches, organizations, each person, each household, each cadre, Party member and people of the resettlement area to properly perform their social responsibilities and civic duties.
(To be continued)
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