Raising legal awareness, limiting land violations among the people

Many violations related to land

Luu Kien is a mountainous commune in the west of Tuong Duong district, with a natural area of ​​13,950.19 hectares, a total population of 963 households, 4,176 people, and a poverty rate of 28.25%. The whole commune has 3 ethnic groups: Thai, Mong, and Kinh living together, of which the Thai ethnic group accounts for 91.7%.

Due to limited awareness among the people, land-related violations still occur in the commune such as disputes over border land areas and encroachment on forest land.

In 2023, the local authorities coordinated to handle 5 cases of administrative violations in the land sector, with a fine of 5,500,000 VND; inspected, detected, and recorded 5 cases with signs of violations in the land sector. In 2024, the locality discovered that some households in Luu Phong village encroached on the community's forestry land, land managed by the Commune People's Committee to grow cassava, and some households in the neighboring village of Nam Khien, Nam Can commune (Ky Son) encroached on the community's forestry land in Luu Phong village to grow grass.

After discovering the incident, the People's Committee of Luu Kien commune directed relevant departments to inspect, verify, prevent, and prepare a report to the superiors for handling according to the provisions of law. In the case of Mr. Luong Van Coong, residing in Luu Phong village, destroying the forest to grow cassava on the production forest land assigned to the household, the file has been completed and transferred to the Forest Protection Department for administrative fine of 20 million VND.

In addition to violations related to encroachment of forest land and disputes over production land, in many areas bordering other localities, there has been a phenomenon of encroachment that has lasted for many years and has been resolved many times but has not been resolved completely.

For example, through actual inspection from 2022 to present, it was determined that 24 households in Pa Khom village, Tri Le commune, Que Phong district are encroaching on land of Tham Tham village, Nhon Mai commune, Tuong Duong district for farming, fish ponds, and livestock farming in Blocks 3, 5, 6, 9, and 11 of Sub-area 507.

At the most recent meeting held in early July 2024, leaders of Que Phong and Tuong Duong districts signed a memorandum of understanding on how to resolve the encroachment and settlement issues, not allowing disputes to become hot spots.

Que Phong district proposed a plan to mobilize people who have encroached on farming, entered Nhon Mai commune and lived there long-term. The two districts also agreed to connect the Border Guard, Forest Rangers, Police, departments, branches... to thoroughly research and thoroughly handle the encroachment. At the same time, they will continue to coordinate to propagate to people not to commit any more violations of encroachment and encroachment.

In some other localities, violations in the land sector such as arbitrarily changing the purpose of agricultural land use to non-agricultural land, arbitrarily changing the current status of land use; encroachment on land, illegal construction of works, illegal construction of houses on agricultural land and traffic safety land are still occurring in many areas.

Besides, in reality, there are many cases where land disputes cause discord between husband and wife, separation of brothers and sisters, neighbors not looking at each other, even leading to murders that result in death and imprisonment...

In the first quarter of 2024, the number of petitions related to land disputes arising in the province increased by 10.8%, of which 2,079 petitions were eligible for processing, an increase of 27.4%.

Strengthening propaganda work, raising awareness

To limit land violations, along with solutions to strengthen State management in this field, recently, local authorities have coordinated with functional agencies to increase the dissemination of land policies and laws to households, individuals and communities, in order to raise people's awareness of respecting and complying with the law, especially in rural areas, remote and isolated areas.

Quy Hop mountainous district has a population of over 115,000 people (ethnic minorities account for over 52%), a large area, ranking 7th in the province. Due to the history of land management and use being limited in the past, land disputes in the area are increasing.

Therefore, according to Mr. Vy Hoang Ha - Head of the Justice Department of Quy Hop district: In addition to effectively applying social networks in propagating and disseminating laws in general, and land law policies in particular, the District Council for Dissemination and Education of Law also goes to localities to organize conferences to propagate contents related to land, especially the new breakthroughs of the 2024 Land Law according to commune clusters.

Previously, the District Council for Dissemination and Education of Law advised the District People's Committee to direct the Department of Justice to coordinate with the District People's Court and sectors in the internal affairs sector to develop and promulgate coordination regulations in resolving land disputes between the District People's Court and the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee; Coordination regulations in handling and resolving petitions, disputes, and cases arising in the district between the People's Committee, the People's Court, and the District People's Procuracy...

Since 2022, Quy Hop district has established an "Inter-sectoral working group to handle and resolve petitions, disputes and incidents arising in the district". In the process of implementing the regulations, the dissemination and education of land law to officials and people has been effectively integrated. In particular, the activities of the inter-sectoral working group, with the combination of many highly specialized officials, both mediation and dialogue, have resolved many disputes without having to go to court.

Typically, on June 12, 2024, the inter-sectoral working group of Quy Hop district went to Chau Cuong commune to successfully mediate a land dispute between households residing in Nguong village. Before that,,Chau Cuong Commune People's Committee received a petition from Mr. Vi Van C., a citizen of Nguong village, regarding his family being allocated forestry land according to Decree 163/CP in 2006. However, during the process of exploiting acacia, his family and two households, Le Thanh B. and Bui Van D., could not agree on the boundary, leading to a dispute.

At the conciliation meeting, the households agreed to return 1.2 hectares to Mr. Vi Van C.'s family and Mr. Bui Van D. was allowed to use 0.6 hectares. Neither side had to pay any additional compensation...

In Dien Chau district, in 2023, the District People's Committee launched the "Saturday for the People" campaign to propagate and disseminate laws, provide advice and guidance on administrative procedures in the fields of land, inheritance, contract authentication, and real estate-related transactions in the area.

Accordingly, the "Saturday for the People" activity was organized at the halls of the People's Committees of communes and towns in the district. Including: Propaganda activities carried out by district-level legal reporters of the Departments of Justice, Natural Resources and Environment; Branch of the Land Registration Office of Dien Chau district; Consulting activities, guidance on completing records, land procedures, notarization of contracts, transactions, documents on division of inheritance, refusal to receive inheritance... carried out by officers of the Departments of Justice, Natural Resources and Environment, the District Land Registration Office and cadastral officials, Justice - Civil status of the People's Committees of communes and towns according to the assigned functions, tasks and regulations of specialized laws.

According to Ms. Hoang Thi Xuyen - Head of the Justice Department of Dien Chau district: Up to now, the "Saturday for the People" campaign has been deployed in 37 communes and towns. This is a practical activity, contributing to improving people's ability to access the law and improving the effectiveness of State management of land. At the same time, it contributes to preventing and stopping violations of the law arising in the implementation of administrative procedures related to land, especially those who take advantage of people's lack of understanding of administrative procedures related to land to profit and defraud and appropriate property.

Currently, in order to create unity in awareness and responsibility in implementing the Land Law 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 605/KH-UBND on propaganda, dissemination and training on the implementation of the Land Law and decrees guiding the implementation of the law.

The Provincial People's Committee assigned the Provincial Radio and Television Station, Nghe An Newspaper and other local media agencies to regularly disseminate the Land Law and documents guiding its implementation. In addition, the Provincial People's Committee also requested departments, branches, sectors, and People's Committees of districts and cities to continue to disseminate and implement the Land Law 2024 to all levels, sectors and people so that the law can soon come into life.