Openly digging up forest land, illegally building houses

(Baonghean.vn) - For many years now, some households in Hamlet 3, Tuong Son Commune (Anh Son) have been exploiting forestry land, illegally building houses on forestry land, and encroaching on traffic safety corridors but have not been handled.

Digging forestry land, encroaching on traffic safety corridor

According to the locals, after being transferred the forestry land from a villager, Mr. Tran Minh Doai brought an excavator to dig up the land and sell it. After leveling it, he built a wooden house frame on that land, and gave the remaining land to his brother-in-law, Mr. Bui Xuan Hoa, to build a small house to produce and sell gai cakes.

It is known that the owner of the above land plot is Mr. Tran Minh Doai, Hamlet 3, Tuong Son Commune. The small house next door belongs to Mr. Bui Xuan Hoa (Mr. Doai's brother-in-law), also residing in Hamlet 3. The above area is within 1.9 hectares (area on the map) of forestry land transferred by Mr. Bui Cong Linh (Hamlet 3, Tuong Son Commune) to Mr. Tran Minh Doai in December 2014. The transfer contract has been confirmed by the People's Committee of Tuong Son Commune. And currently, Mr. Doai has been granted a land use right certificate for this area with the purpose of using it as forestry land.

The area where Mr. Tran Minh Doai illegally dug and is currently building a wooden house frame on the land.

The land that Mr. Doai and Mr. Hoa are using illegally is on the top of Dua slope, close to National Highway 7, partly within the traffic safety corridor. Mr. Doai's illegal exploitation and use of land has existed for many years, but until now, the local government has not taken any action to punish him. In particular, every time it rains, the land continues to slide, and Mr. Doai sends the machine in to continue digging.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Tran Dang Thang - Land Officer of Tuong Son Commune confirmed that Mr. Doai's illegal excavation of forest land was correct. According to Mr. Thang, taking advantage of the weekend, Mr. Doai brought the machine back to dig up the land. The commune requested the family to immediately stop the above behavior and assigned the family the responsibility of not illegally exploiting forest land without permission from the competent authority.

“Originally, this is still forestry land and Mr. Doai has not completed the procedures to change the land use purpose. Therefore, Mr. Doai's act of scooping up the land is wrong. After discovering it, the commune made a record but Mr. Doai's family did not agree to sign. If the commune did not request to stop, Mr. Doai could have scooped up the entire area to make a parking lot,” said Mr. Tran Dang Thang.

Not only did Mr. Doai and Mr. Hoa illegally exploit forestry land, they also encroached on the road traffic safety corridor. It is known that when Mr. Doai used the excavator to dig the soil, the Anh Son Road Management Department (Joint Stock Company 495) sent officers to the scene and made a record.

Mr. Bui Xuan Hoa's house was built illegally on forestry land, encroaching on the traffic safety corridor.

According to the minutes dated August 11, 2016, Mr. Doai used a mechanical vehicle to dig a road to transport soil within the road safety corridor. The digging location was 0.5m from the outer edge of the longitudinal ditch; 15m long; the violation area was 142.5 m2. Also in the minutes, Anh Son Road Management Department requested Mr. Doai to return the national highway corridor and restore the original construction that violated before August 14, 2016. After that time, the Department will transfer the violation file to the traffic inspector and relevant agencies for handling.

However, after more than 10 days, the minutes have not been sent by the Road Management Department to the superiors as a basis for sanctioning Mr. Doai's act of encroaching on the traffic safety corridor.

slow to resolve

According to Mr. Tran Trung Tuyen - Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Son commune, when Mr. Doai's family dug the land, the authorities came down to make a record but only verbally instructed the family not to continue digging.

Mr. Tuyen admitted that Mr. Bui Xuan Hoa (Mr. Doai's brother-in-law) built a stall selling gai cakes on the forestry land that Mr. Linh transferred to Mr. Doai.

Why did Mr. Hoa build a house on forestry land but the commune did not take any measures to handle it? Answering this question, Mr. Tran Dang Thang - Commune cadastral officer said: Initially, Mr. Hoa built a house on the forest land, the commune requested clearance, but then the family built it secretly and now Mr. Hoa's family has finished building and the house has existed for more than a year. Mr. Hoa himself has a house elsewhere, and in this location, he built a 2-room house of about a few dozen square meters to sell gai cakes.

Taking primary responsibility for the lax land management, Mr. Tran Trung Tuyen said: For a long time, the detection and punishment measures have not been timely, when the locality discovered the incident, it was already too late. In the near future, the commune will be responsible for inviting these people to assign responsibility and Mr. Doai cannot continue. Along with that, the commune will base on the provisions of the law to resolve the matter, avoiding causing resentment among the people.

Minutes of violation of road traffic corridor of Anh Son Highway Management District against Mr. Tran Minh Doai.

Mr. Dau Hong Toan - Anh Son Road Management Department's Road Patrol said that the Department already knew about Mr. Doai's digging of soil in the traffic safety corridor and had already made a report. However, the Department has not yet forwarded it to superiors to handle Mr. Doai's violation of the traffic safety corridor with the reason "it is not yet the due date".

Regarding Mr. Bui Xuan Hoa building a house on the traffic safety corridor, Mr. Toan said that he did not know and that the Department might have made a record before, but at that time he did not directly do it so he did not know. When the reporter called to ask for the file related to Mr. Tran Minh Doai, Mr. Phan To Thanh - Head of the Anh Son Road Management Department said that the file was in the cabinet so he promised to provide it later.

Thus, the fact that Mr. Tran Minh Doai blatantly exploited forestry land without permission from the competent authority; Mr. Bui Xuan Hoa built a house on forestry land and on the traffic safety corridor has existed for many years, but has not been punished or resolved by the authorities at all levels of Anh Son and the competent authorities.

Discussing this issue, the leaders of the People's Committee and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Anh Son district said that they had not heard the report from Tuong Son commune. Mr. Hoang Xuan Cuong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Anh Son district added: The district only knew about this issue when it was discussed in the press. In the past, the district has issued many documents directing communes to improve land management and prevent illegal land exploitation. The district will direct, inspect, verify and thoroughly handle the matter.

Nguyen Hung