Returning home from working far away, the man from Nghe An suddenly lost his house and all his land.
Six years ago, during a visit to his hometown, Mr. Dinh was shocked to discover that his house had been demolished and his land had become the grounds of a kindergarten. Upon inquiry, he learned that the An Hoa commune authorities (Quynh Luu district) had arbitrarily moved his land to a different location. To this day, the new plot of land that the authorities promised to give him has yet to materialize.
The commune arbitrarily reclaimed the land.
For the past six years, Mr. Tran Ba Dinh (55 years old, An Hoa commune, Quynh Luu district) has sent dozens of complaint letters and knocked on the doors of various government agencies, but to this day, he has still not received compensation after his land was illegally confiscated by the authorities.
"I'm so tired of this. This whole thing is the government's fault, and I've already accepted the losses, but I don't understand why they still won't resolve it," Mr. Dinh said, shaking his head.
In 1996, after being discharged from the army, Mr. Dinh returned to his hometown and bought a plot of land along the provincial road in the center of the commune, both to build a house to live in and to run his barber business. The plot of land Mr. Dinh bought to build his house has an area of 100 square meters.2The property is located behind An Hoa Commune Kindergarten. Mr. Dinh was granted a land use right certificate by the People's Committee of Quynh Luu District in 1996. This is currently considered "prime land" due to its central location, convenient for business.
Some time later, Mr. Dinh went to the South to make a living, leaving his house in the care of his cousin, Mr. Vo Ngoc Hung. Mr. Dinh said that because he was busy with work, he rarely visited home. In 2019, during a visit back to his hometown, he was surprised to find his house gone, and the plot of land had been transformed into the grounds of a kindergarten. Upon inquiry, he learned that the land had been confiscated by the commune to expand the kindergarten grounds since 2017. "The commune authorities confiscated my land but only dealt with Mr. Vo Ngoc Hung, without informing me. Mr. Hung didn't say anything to me either," Mr. Dinh recounted.
After working with the An Hoa Commune People's Committee, Mr. Dinh agreed to the government's promise to exchange his land for another plot. Regarding this matter, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quyet, the Chairman of the An Hoa Commune People's Committee at the time in 2017, stated that because Mr. Dinh's house was rented out as a mechanical workshop, and scrap metal often fell in front of the school gate, posing a safety hazard to students, the commune government at the time decided to demolish the house and use the land to expand the school grounds. Simultaneously, they exchanged it for another plot of land. "We simply thought it was for a good cause. So we only worked with the caretaker, Mr. Vo Ngoc Hung, and asked him to demolish the house himself," Mr. Quyet recounted.
However, many years have passed, and the local authorities have yet to fulfill their promise to provide Mr. Dinh with another plot of land as compensation.
“Initially, I was very upset, but I didn't cause any trouble. I spent 300 million dong building that house, and now that it's been demolished, I'm not asking for compensation anymore; I've decided to donate it. I only request that I be given another plot of land or compensated with money for the land that the commune has confiscated. If it's monetary compensation, I only need 1.2 billion dong, an amount that's difficult to use to buy land in the center of the commune these days. As for compensation with another plot of land, I'm not asking for anything extravagant; I'm even willing to accept the pond land in the old health station, which not many people want to buy, but even that wasn't allowed,” Mr. Dinh said.
Did Quynh Luu district ignore the directive?
Despite suffering losses and accepting the local government's promise to exchange his land for another plot, Mr. Dinh waited year after year without receiving the land. He subsequently filed numerous complaints with the People's Committee of Quynh Luu District to claim his rights. At a citizen reception session on June 20, 2022, Mr. Hoang Van Bo, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu District, criticized the People's Committee of An Hoa Commune for implementing the land exchange for construction without adhering to legal regulations. He also instructed the People's Committee of An Hoa Commune to seek opinions from relevant departments to resolve the issue and ensure the rights of citizens are protected.
In September 2022, also at a regular citizen reception session, Mr. Nguyen Van Quy - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district - after hearing Mr. Dinh's complaint, issued a concluding document, which stated that "the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is assigned to take the lead in coordinating with relevant departments to direct and guide the People's Committee of An Hoa commune to develop a compensation plan for land clearance and implement the next steps."
However, when the People's Committee of An Hoa commune submitted a report requesting the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district to approve the compensation for land clearance and allocation of new residential land to Mr. Dinh, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district disagreed. In a written response to the People's Committee of An Hoa commune in July 2023, the leaders of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district stated that, "in Mr. Dinh's case, when reclaiming the land, the People's Committee of An Hoa commune did not follow the procedures to submit a decision on land reclamation to the competent authority, so there is no basis for compensation with land. Therefore, the request of the People's Committee of An Hoa commune has no basis for implementation."
Mr. Ho Anh Dung, Chairman of the An Hoa Commune People's Committee, acknowledged that the land exchange process between the Commune People's Committee and Mr. Dinh in 2017 was not in accordance with the procedures and guidelines of the law. The Commune People's Committee's decision to assign responsibility to Mr. Vo Ngoc Hung to dismantle the structure and then reclaim Mr. Dinh's land without the approval of the Quynh Luu District People's Committee was contrary to the Land Law. The authority to reclaim and allocate land rests with the Chairman of the District People's Committee. "Therefore, after the land clearance was completed, from 2017 until now, the Commune People's Committee has lacked the legal basis to plan and hand over a new residential land plot to Mr. Dinh to ensure his rights," Mr. Dung said, adding that the matter exceeded the commune's jurisdiction.
Having received no resolution from the Quỳnh Lưu district authorities, Mr. Trần Bá Định subsequently appealed to the Provincial People's Committee. He was received by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Nguyễn Đức Trung.Regular citizen reception session, August 2023After listening to the citizens' presentations and the opinions of relevant departments and units, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assessed that the commune's purpose in reclaiming Mr. Dinh's land to expand the kindergarten's premises was good and met the people's aspirations. However, the commune's actions were outside its authority and did not comply with legal regulations, affecting the citizens' land use rights recognized by the state. The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested An Hoa commune to seriously learn from this experience; and the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district to review and clarify the responsibilities of the individuals and organizations involved.
The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee has instructed the People's Committee of Quynh Luu District to study a plan for handling the compensation and resettlement of the land illegally confiscated from Mr. Tran Ba Dinh. The plan should identify a suitable location for resettlement or provide monetary compensation if an agreement can be reached between the citizen and the authorities. Quynh Luu District is required to report the proposed solution to the Provincial People's Council and inform the citizen by September 15, 2023.The matter must be resolved definitively before December 31, 2023.
However, even though 10 months have passed since the deadline set by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Quynh Luu district has still not resolved this matter completely.
Meanwhile, at a public consultation session with the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee more than a year ago, Mr. Hoang Van Bo - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district - said that if the people and the commune could not agree on the compensation amount, the district would direct the commune to develop an investment project to further expand the kindergarten's premises, carry out land reclamation, and compensate the people according to regulations…
Regarding the delay in processing, Mr. Hoang Van Bo stated that it was due to some obstacles. "If the district is slow in processing, the district will bear the responsibility," the head of the Quynh Luu District People's Committee said concisely.
The incident stemmed from misconduct by the local authorities, but years have passed and the people have yet to receive their rightful compensation. Meanwhile, none of the officials responsible for the misconduct have been disciplined to date.
Regarding this matter, a representative from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment stated that, after reviewing the records of Mr. Dinh's petition, it was found that the case had not been resolved by the Quynh Luu District People's Committee according to its prescribed authority. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment proposes that, if there is a basis for land reclamation to expand the school gate as stipulated in Article 62 of the 2013 Land Law, an investment project should be established, and the land plot should be reclaimed in accordance with the 2013 Land Law (issuing a land reclamation decision, establishing a plan for compensation, support, and resettlement for Mr. Tran Ba Dinh's family); in which the value of the assets on the land that have been demolished belonging to Mr. Tran Ba Dinh's family should be determined for compensation as prescribed.
If there is no basis for land reclamation, the An Hoa Commune People's Committee is directed to return the reclaimed land area. At the same time, the value of the assets on the land that were demolished belonging to Mr. Dinh's family should be determined for compensation according to regulations.
