Group of young people resisted law enforcement officers on Lam River

This is the reflection of Deputy Chief Inspector of the Department of Transport, Mr. Phan Huy Chuong on the morning of April 21, 2018.

According to Mr. Chuong, implementing the direction of the Provincial People's Committee in Official Dispatch No. 9451/UBND-NC dated December 5, 2017 on strengthening state management, preventing crimes and violations of the law in the field of sand and gravel exploitation and trading on rivers and estuaries, recently, the Department of Transport has assigned the traffic inspection force to coordinate with local authorities and functional forces to inspect the operation of water vehicles on Lam River.

This is a central inland waterway assigned to Nghe An province for management.

One of the watercraft that the working group stopped to inspect on Lam River on the afternoon of April 20, 2018. Photo: PV

At 5:00 p.m. on April 20, 2018, the working group discovered 5 ships dredging sand in the middle of Lam River, through Hung Khanh Commune (Hung Nguyen) and Duc Quang Commune (Duc Tho, Ha Tinh). Initial records show that these vessels were equipped with additional pumping systems to dredge sand.

The working group temporarily stopped 3 vehicles (with registration numbers HT 1104, HT-1048, HT-1040) for inspection, the remaining 2 vehicles started their engines and fled. After initial inspection, the group informed the vehicle owners of the violation of "converting the vehicle not in accordance with the design approved by the inspection agency"; and invited the vehicle owners to come ashore to check their documents.

Continuing the inspection, one of the three vehicles had no records; one vehicle used photocopied records, and in addition, it lacked a required document such as no civil liability insurance for the vehicle... The delegation drew up a record, requiring the vehicle owners to remove the equipment and machinery installed on the vehicle that was not in accordance with regulations, and committed not to repeat the violations.

The violating watercraft were all mining sand. Photo: PV

At 5:55 p.m. the same day, two strangers appeared on a motorboat to the location where the working group was working. They asked the vehicle owners not to comply with the group's requests.

Despite being informed and explained by the working group about the faults of the owners of the vehicles being inspected, these two subjects still directed the owners of the vehicles not to comply with the group's request. More dangerously, the subjects used their boats to push the sand suction vehicles and the working group's vehicles to move to Ha Tinh province.

At 6:15 p.m., the violating vehicles reached the Lam River bank in Duc Quang commune. The vehicle owners and the two subjects all left the shore, not complying with the inspection team's requests.

Images of two subjects obstructing and opposing the working group were recorded. Photo: PV

At this time, the working group contacted the Inland Waterway Police Department, Provincial Police to request coordination. However, the area where the vehicles were parked was in Ha Tinh province, not under the responsibility of Nghe An Police.

The working group continued to contact the Inland Waterway Police Department of Ha Tinh Province and the People's Committee of Duc Quang Commune to request coordination in handling violations. Although these two units sent officers to the location of the vehicles that were found to be parking illegally, they have not yet shown responsibility in handling the violations.

According to Mr. Phan Huy Chuong, the violations of the vehicle owners are very clear and need to be handled according to regulations. However, the obstruction of the two above-mentioned subjects and the lack of cooperation of the responsible agencies have caused difficulties for the working group, leading to difficulties in implementing the direction of the Provincial People's Committee in Official Dispatch 4951.

“The obstructive behavior of the two subjects can be said to be like the behavior of the mafia. We have learned about the subjects’ backgrounds, and reported this issue to the leaders of the Department of Transport to ask for instructions…” – Mr. Phan Huy Chuong discussed.