The 'leaders' in difficult lands
(Baonghean) - From being one of the three most difficult localities of Tan Ky district, after 5 years of efforts, Ky Tan commune has had a spectacular breakthrough when reaching the new rural finish line at the end of 2018. An important contribution to this achievement is the dedication of the leaders of the Party Committee and the commune government.
Creating consensus between "Party's will - People's heart"
Over 30 years of working in many important positions in the Party Committee and government of Ky Tan commune, the house of comrade Tran Van Dong - Secretary of the Party Committee of the commune has become a gathering place for people after visiting the fields.
Over a cup of green tea, they told us stories that were considered “miracles” of the people when they built a new life. Memories of 2012 are still intact when Ky Tan was one of the three most difficult and backward communes in Tan Ky district.
At that time, the commune only met 3 out of 19 criteria for new rural construction; the average income was only around 13 million VND/person/year. Of which, 4 ethnic minority hamlets including hamlets 3 and 4 in Quy Hau area and hamlets 5 and 6 in Tan Da area always had a high rate of poor households.
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Rural traffic road in hamlet 3, Ky Tan commune (Tan Ky) is nearly 17m wide. Photo: Thanh Quynh |
“At that time, having a stable livelihood was a big dream for many people, let alone the goal of reaching the new rural area with strict and stringent criteria. Yet Mr. Dong here was still very stubborn, determined to persuade us to do it. He even stood up to borrow 100 tons of cement for the pioneer hamlet to build rural roads while waiting for support from the State,” Mr. Nguyen Van Bang - Head of Hamlet 4, Ky Tan Commune shared.
He himself did not expect that after only 5 years, the whole commune had basically completed the construction of electricity systems, roads, schools, stations, production developed, life became more prosperous with an income reaching over 30 million VND/person/year.
Walking on the spacious road with the 11m wide road connecting Ho Chi Minh road to road 15B in hamlet 4, Ky Tan commune, the Party Secretary of the commune pointed to the construction work at the primary school, proudly saying: Ky Tan reached the new rural finish line without "owing" any criteria, not even a single bad debt, so the 500 million VND bonus from the province was used by the commune to continue completing the surrounding wall, parking lot and soccer field for the children of the primary school.
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Mr. Tran Van Dong - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee (in white shirt) inspected the construction site (photo 1, 2); Secretary of the Party cell of Hamlet 4 Tran Thi Hong Thinh and Party members in the cell checked the notebook recording the contributions of the people in the hamlet. . Photo: Thanh Quynh |
“To do that, the Party Committee adheres to a single principle: “people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect”. It is the financial transparency that allows people to understand and control the money they contribute that creates trust and encourages them to proactively implement local resolutions and programs.”
In his story, Comrade Dong did not forget to mention the contributions of the parishioners. To have a rural road nearly 11m wide, 95 parishioners of the hamlet voluntarily donated nearly 4 hectares of land, contributing more than 1 million VND each to expand the road. Even the road passing through the parish church in hamlet 3 is nearly 17m wide, becoming a unique rural road in Tan Ky district.
Contributing to that success must be the role of the Party Secretary of Hamlet 4 - Mrs. Tran Thi Hong Thinh. She was also the one who, together with Mr. Dong, created a connection with the Parish Priest Nguyen Van Hau to create solidarity, unanimity, and determination to mobilize Catholic and non-Catholic people to contribute labor and money to build the new countryside.
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Parishioners in Hamlet 4, Ky Tan Commune (Tan Ky) donated more than 4 hectares of land and contributed thousands of working days to build rural roads. Photo: Thanh Quynh |
Ky Tan commune has mobilized over 216.4 billion VND to build new rural areas, of which people contributed over 97.215 billion VND (accounting for 44.9%) with 89.7 billion VND in cash; working days, donated land, and other materials equivalent to over 7.4 billion VND.
Revive agriculture
Standing in front of the lush green rice fields, Secretary Tran Van Dong shared that, facing many difficulties when agricultural production is not very effective, the Party Committee determined that the first thing to do is to immediately reform the team of key cadres. Cadres must set an example and take the lead so that people will agree.
Therefore, the then Secretary of the Commune Youth Union, Mr. Le Dinh Tam, was accepted to work as a commune civil servant in charge of agriculture and new rural construction with the "instruction" to revive the local agricultural production situation.
That decision brought a breath of fresh air to Ky Tan. In particular, during the period of 2015 - 2016, Mr. Le Dinh Tam became the main factor in mobilizing people to convert land from small plots to large plots to ensure convenient production, introduce mechanization into production, and increase economic efficiency on the production land area. In addition, the commune also successfully implemented the improved rice intensive farming model (SRI), the model of raising breeding cows, beef cattle combined with concentrated forest planting in groups of households.
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People in Ky Tan commune (Tan Ky district) focus on weeding and stirring mud for spring rice. Photo: Cam Tu |
With the motto of taking production development and income improvement as the foundation in building new rural areas, in addition to the existing policies of the Central and the province on supporting agriculture, farmers and rural areas, the commune also has its own policies, such as: Converting crops on rice fields, supporting high-quality seedlings and breeds, investing in power projects in concentrated production areas. Thanks to these specific policies, local people have agreed to support and share with the local government.
After the achievements that the agricultural sector of the commune has achieved, Le Dinh Tam was trusted and elected as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Ky Tan commune.
Coming to Ky Tan, we felt the warm, close, sincere affection that the people here have for the exemplary party members who have contributed to changing the mountainous land of Ky Tan. That is a solid foundation to accompany them on the journey ahead.