The feelings of people in resettlement areas in Thanh Chuong
(Baonghean.vn) - Nearly 20 years since the resettlement in Thanh Chuong district to give up land for the construction of Ban Ve Hydropower Plant, the people's lives are still very difficult. According to the leaders of these resettlement communes, the reason is partly due to lack of livelihoods and lack of forest land for production.
Hope to be granted forest land for production
In late May, walking along the villages in the two resettlement communes of Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam (Thanh Chuong district), it was not difficult to see abandoned houses with locked doors. “They all went to work for hire, uncle. The whole family left,” explained Mr. Lo Van Mao (49 years old, Thanh Son commune).
According to Mr. Mao, nearly 20 years ago, after receiving compensation, many households from Tuong Duong district came down here to build impressive wooden houses. However, after a short time, the compensation money ran out, and they had to leave their hometowns to work for hire and make a living, leaving behind empty houses.
Mr. Lo Huy Hung - Chairman of Thanh Son Commune People's Committee said that the commune has not had full statistics, but it is estimated that more than 1,000 workers in the area have to go to work far away. Previously, when resettling, each person was given an average of about 3,000m2land, including residential land and production land.
“The natural area of Thanh Son commune is very large, but it is mainly forest land managed by the Forest Protection Management Board. Meanwhile, this forest land area has been mainly allocated to non-locals and staff of the Forest Protection Management Board for production. The number of households in the area allocated forest land for production is very small,” said Mr. Hung.
According to Mr. Hung, the area of this forest land is about 5,000 hectares. In many meetings with voters, people often propose that the competent authority reclaim this area to re-allocate it to the people. “If it is handed over to local people, it will be better. People will have a livelihood and manage it effectively. For example, when a forest fire occurs, the policy is to implement the “4 on-site” motto. But when mobilizing people to participate in fighting forest fires, it is very difficult. Many people say that the forest land is handed over to people outside the commune for production, but now when there is a forest fire, they are asked to put out the fire,” said the Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Son commune.
Similar to Thanh Son commune, in Ngoc Lam commune, the number of households receiving forest land for production is very small. “Only a few households have forest land for production, but most of them have to buy it back from officials of the Forest Protection Management Board or from outsiders. To have each hectare of forest, it costs about 200 million VND,” said Mr. Vi Van Tuyen - Secretary of the Party Committee of Ngoc Lam commune.
Meanwhile, since 2012, the Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board has also submitted a request to return the land. Immediately after that, on May 24, 2012, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued a decision on land recovery in Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes. Specifically, the Provincial People's Committee decided to recover nearly 1,800 hectares of forestry land (production forest land) in these two communes managed and used by the Thanh Chuong Protective Forest Management Board to hand over to the locality. Of which, in Thanh Son commune, there are 969 hectares of land, in Ngoc Lam commune, there are 810 hectares of land.
However, after 12 years, Thanh Chuong district authorities have only reclaimed nearly 500 hectares out of a total of nearly 1,800 hectares. Of which, Thanh Son commune reclaimed 314 hectares, and Ngoc Lam commune reclaimed 183 hectares to distribute to people for use.
Waiting for compensation for land on flooded land
In addition, one of the issues that people in these two resettlement communes are looking forward to is compensation for land above the flood level when they are relocated to build Ban Ve Hydropower Plant. “When we moved down here, they only compensated for the land that was flooded under the lake. Meanwhile, most of the people's production land is located above the flood level - the land that is not flooded, but cannot be cultivated anymore. We moved down here, we cannot "carry" the farmland down with us. And people who have moved down here to live cannot travel nearly 200km to go up there to cultivate. Not to mention, most of the land area there, the roads have been flooded, making it impossible to enter for cultivation,” said Mr. Vi Van Chien - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ngoc Lam Commune, and he believed that the people's request for compensation for the land above the flood level was reasonable.
According to current regulations, households with land areas above the flooded reservoir level of hydropower projects are eligible to prepare compensation and land support records according to the provisions of Clause 3, Clause 4, Article 5, Decision No. 64/2014/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on special policies for migration and resettlement of irrigation and hydropower projects.
Specifically, Clause 3 stipulates that resettled households whose production land area is located outside the reservoir protection corridor as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 3, Decree No. 112/2008/ND-CP dated October 20, 2008 of the Government, moving to a resettlement area 5km or more away from the old production site, and having their land recovered, will be compensated for the land. The provincial People's Committee shall base on the actual situation of the locality to decide on land recovery and land compensation.
Clause 4 stipulates that resettled households and affected households with production land areas located outside the reservoir protection corridor as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 3, Decree No. 112/2008/ND-CP dated October 20, 2008 of the Government, with a distance from the place of residence to the production land area of less than 5km but there is no road to the production land area, the Provincial People's Committee shall base on the actual situation of the locality to decide to recover land and compensate for land.
However, according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 23, Decision No. 64/2014/QD-TTg, projects and items that have completed compensation, support and resettlement payments and projects and items that have approved compensation, support and resettlement plans before the effective date of this Decision shall not be subject to this Decision.
Accordingly, the Ban Ve Hydropower Project has been approved by the Vietnam Electricity Group for the detailed planning of compensation, support and resettlement of the Ban Ve Hydropower Project in Decision No. 1291/QD-EVN-QLXD-KTDT dated May 19, 2005 and the Ministry of Industry (now the Ministry of Industry and Trade) has agreed on the temporary regulations on compensation, resettlement and resettlement in Document No. 1174/CV-NLĐK dated March 16, 2005, in which, land compensation is only allowed for households within the project's affected area (the area of the flooded reservoir, below the elevation of 200m). Therefore, households with land area above the flooded reservoir level of the Ban Ve Hydropower Project are not eligible to prepare a dossier for compensation and land support.
But in reality, when implementing the project's policy, households with residential land and agricultural land located on the flooded area of the hydroelectric reservoir must relocate with the village community, unable to stay or return to production on this land.
Furthermore, up to now, the work of compiling compensation and land support records for the Ban Ve Hydropower Project has not been completed, and the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district has not approved the detailed plan for compensation and land support as a basis for arranging payment funds for the people. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out land acquisition and compensation for land clearance on the flood level to have a basis for compensating the difference between the departure and destination locations similar to households subject to resettlement within the flooded area of the reservoir.
On the other hand, most of the land area above the floodplain of households is in the protection forest planning according to Decision No. 48/2014/QD-UBND dated August 15, 2014 of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee on adjusting the planning of 3 types of forests, but has been granted forest land use right certificates to households. Therefore, currently, some households still return to the old place (the Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir area) to do business and produce, affecting people's lives and affecting the locality in land management, as well as ensuring security and order in the area.
Therefore, to ensure the rights of resettled people of the Ban Ve Hydropower Project, as well as to effectively implement land management, security and order in the area, from 2023, the People's Committee of Nghe An province has sent a document requesting the Ministry of Industry and Trade to report to the Prime Minister for permission to develop a plan to implement compensation and support for land on the flooded area of the Ban Ve Hydropower Project according to the provisions of Clause 3, Clause 4, Article 5, Decision No. 64/2014/QD-TTg.
In addition to compensation for land on flooded land, up to now, 2,674 households moving to resettlement areas in Ngoc Lam and Thanh Son communes have not yet received compensation for the difference in land value between the departure and destination areas./.
