Land clearance for National Highway 1A: Problems that need to be resolved

(Baonghean) -National Highway 1A section through Nghe An has a total length of 73.8 km from Hoang Mai Town to Vinh City, up to now 59.8 km of the site has been handed over. Some points in Hoang Mai Town, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc have not yet been able to start construction. Meanwhile, according to the commitment of the Provincial People's Committee to the Government, the Ministry of Transport and investors, by April 30, 2014 the entire National Highway 1A section through Nghe An will have completed handing over the site to the construction units. The reason for the slow progress in site clearance is due to some problems with compensation payments...

Many illegal demandsof the State

According to Mr. Dinh Dang Khanh - Deputy Director of the Traffic Works Management Board, Vice Chairman of the Provincial Compensation and Site Clearance Council: Currently, the site clearance work on National Highway 1A is facing some difficulties. Because along National Highway 1A through our province, there are many public works (telecommunications, fiber optic cable, electricity and water...), causing difficulties in the process of disbursing funds to support site clearance compensation. On the other hand, our province has a large number of affected households with 4,642 households, a large number of households having to relocate with 216 households, arranged for resettlement in 15 areas. Nghi Loc district alone has 96 households/9 resettlement areas. During the project implementation process, there were adjustments in scale, resettlement work was slow, many people questioned the price, resettlement location, and refused to receive support money, greatly affecting the project's progress. But the biggest problem is still the people demanding compensation for land and property on land within the PMU1 area (the area where the traffic safety corridor has been cleared under the National Highway 1A expansion and upgrading project invested by the PMU1 Management Board (Ministry of Transport) from 1993 to 1998). From there, there are actions to prevent measurement, inventory and pricing, not comply with compensation, or have received money but not handed over the site, there are demands for benefits that exceed the State's regulations.

Functional forces protect the construction of National Highway 1A through hamlet 14, Dien An commune, Dien Chau.

In Quynh Luu, the handover has reached 85%, exceeding 15% compared to the whole province. Of the 12,111 km passing through 6 communes and 1 town, 10,125 km have been handed over. However, in reality, of the 10,125 km that have been handed over to the construction unit, there are still many points where people do not agree, even preventing construction. Typically, the section through Quynh Giang has 1.75 km handed over, but currently it cannot be constructed because 50 households still request compensation within the scope of PMU1. The section through Quynh Van is 2.1 km long, with 47 households still within the scope of PMU1, but they still refuse to sign the land handover documents. Or the section through Quynh Thach has a total length of 2.4 km, with 146 affected households, an inventory has been made to apply prices for all 146 households, but so far only 200m has been constructed. From Nguyen Van Troi Canal to Quynh Luu Hospital, there are still 116 households that have not handed over the land, due to the chain reaction of demanding compensation payment not in accordance with regulations. In Quynh Hau, there are 12 households that have not agreed to sign the documents, some households request compensation within the PMU1 boundary, some households think that the unit price of houses and architectural works is low. According to the report of Quynh Luu District People's Committee, in 1995, when implementing the PMU1 project to clear National Highway 1A from the foot of the road to each side 7m, equivalent to from the center of the road to each side 13.5m, most households have not been compensated or supported for land (including land origin before 1980), only a few cases that had to be relocated, were given land prices and moved to the resettlement area. Now, to clear the land for the project to expand and upgrade National Highway 1A, households in this area are required to pay compensation and support for the land area within 13.5m.

In particular, the 74 households in hamlets 5, 6 and 11 in Dong Lo and He Lan areas were granted red books in the years 1993 - 1996 after the PMU1 boundary markers were established because the local authorities violated point 5, clause c, Article 4, Article 13 of the 1998 Land Law. However, after many years of collecting land taxes from these households, the local authorities of Quynh Giang commune paid the commune budget and used it to build local infrastructure. With the reason that they had paid taxes and the land where the households were living was residential land with red books, the households here did not allow the contractors to carry out construction, even though they had previously agreed to hand over the site.

In Dien Chau, the total length of National Highway 1A passing through the district is 28.05km in 10 communes and 1 town. Up to this point, Dien Chau district has handed over 21.38km, reaching 76%; the biggest problem is concentrated in Dien An commune. The entire commune has a length of National Highway 1A passing through 5.8km with 402 affected households, currently there are still 17 households that have not signed the land handover documents. Most of these households believe that pre-1980 residential land within the scope of PMU1 is still compensated.

In addition, many households deliberately built structures within the cleared area, but still refuse to dismantle and hand over the construction site, such as 16 households with tents in Hamlet 4 Nghi Yen (Nghi Loc) or 30 households in Quynh Thien (Hoang Mai Town)...

However, according to Clause 3, Article 5 of the Regulation issued together with Decision 04/2010/QD-UBND dated January 19, 2010 of the Provincial People's Committee, the above cases are not compensated or supported. The fact that households in some affected areas including Dien An (Dien Chau), Quynh Giang (Quynh Luu), Nghi Yen (Nghi Loc) do not agree to hand over the site is contrary to the State's regulations. In the past time, at locations such as Quynh Van, Quynh Giang (Quynh Luu), Dien An (Dien Chau), Nghi Yen (Nghi Loc), the Compensation and Site Clearance Councils at all levels have coordinated with the Commune People's Committees and functional agencies to conduct many dialogues with affected households to propagate, mobilize, and explain the State's policy, the meaning and benefits when National Highway 1A is expanded and upgraded, but the households still firmly disagree.

In Dien An, although through dialogue, the District Compensation Council for Site Clearance and relevant sectors directly answered questions about the provisions related to the Land Law and policies and guidelines related to pricing and compensation support for site clearance, many households still insisted on defending their opinions. Typically, households of Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, Tran Van Tung or Mr. Cao Thanh Phuc in Hamlet 14, have been inventoried and priced according to technical measurements of the construction design of the affected land and assets on the land within the traffic safety corridor of the National Highway 1A project, but still deliberately demanded compensation for the land within the PMU1 area. In dialogue with the authorities, Mr. Cao Thanh Phuc's son, Cao Thanh Khuong, also showed a defiant attitude and opposed the authorities if they carried out construction protection plans.

At the dialogue between Nghi Loc district authorities and 18 households in the market area in hamlet 4, Nghi Yen - with shacks built within the cleared area before 1995. Although according to item b, clause 2, Article 18 of Decision 04 "houses and other constructions built before July 1, 2004 on land not eligible for land compensation according to regulations but at the time of construction violated the planning, land use plan announced and marked by competent authorities but not notified by competent authorities to suspend, then they will be supported with a maximum of 50% of the compensation value", the above households were paid the compensation according to regulations, but they still did not agree. They said that "In the 1990s, the local authorities "invited" them to this market area and established a bustling market area like today, so they must be supported with 100% compensation for the architectural works".

Also in hamlet 4, Nghi Yen, households located in the resettlement area because of the new route opening with a length of 5.7km, the section through Nha Le canal has been inventoried, priced, and supported for resettlement with a price frame supporting 100% payment such as Mr. Nguyen Van Binh's household was inventoried and priced at 1.8 billion VND and 4 resettlement places for 4 children who have not yet separated from the household; Mr. Cao Trong Cuong's household has been assigned to the new resettlement area in Khe Can field but still "complains" about the low compensation price, and has not signed the documents. In addition, in Nghi Loc area, there are 37 households in Nghi Long commune who have not yet handed over the site to the construction unit because they have not yet approved the compensation plan of the District Compensation Council.

At some other points, many households said that the inventory, pricing, and payment of compensation for land clearance on National Highway 1A were not satisfactory, such as the case where on the same plot of land, some households were compensated, some were not; some were compensated little, some were compensated a lot. Regarding this issue, the Compensation and Land Clearance Council of the districts said: The inventory and pricing all followed the technical measurements directly and independently measured by a legal entity, in which the commune land administration board was a member. After the completed inventory and pricing dossier was posted on the notice board of the commune People's Committee and a notice was sent to the people to check. After 20 days, if there were no complaints, the local government would submit it to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Construction for appraisal. After appraisal, these units would send it to the district People's Committee, the district People's Committee would issue a compensation decision, and the Compensation and Land Clearance Council would execute the decision. Therefore, the opinion of households in the affected area that there is irregularity in technical measurement and inventory pricing is unfounded.

Cause of the problem

During the actual investigation, it was found that the main cause of the difficulties in implementing the site clearance work for National Highway 1A was due to people's incomplete understanding of the relevant policies and guidelines. However, there were also some cases of deliberately "making it difficult" for the authorities in the hope that the compensation and support for their families would increase. On the other hand, according to people's reflection, in some places, units still did not notify people in advance when implementing construction on areas that had been handed over by the local authorities, so that people could prepare, causing resentment among the people. Regarding the situation of some households not complying with and complying with the regulations on compensation for site clearance, there was also a part of the fault due to the political system from the district to the grassroots level not being closely linked and coordinated to do a good job of propaganda, mobilization, grasping the thoughts, aspirations, and ideological developments of the people. There are still some places that are still mechanical in the process of implementing the State's regulations, such as only posting the list publicly at the commune People's Committee headquarters without posting it at the cultural houses of the hamlets according to the wishes and requests of the people. At the meeting on February 10, 2014 of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district on the plan to speed up the progress of handing over the site, comrade Nguyen Van Thang - Secretary of the District Party Committee said: "Because some officials do not have a firm grasp of the principles and regulations, the propaganda and explanation work with the people is not clear, there are still situations where people have questions but the officials cannot explain, causing frustration among the people...". Besides, he also frankly admitted: “The land granted in the traffic safety corridor with red cover is the local government's fault, we cannot blame the previous generation to hide the shortcomings. The problem here is to explain to the people that the annual land tax revenue has been mobilized to build civil works in the area and according to regulations, land within the PMU1 area is not compensated, to encourage people to hand over the site early. Only in case of emergency will we deploy a construction protection plan.”

The fact that some Party cells and mass organizations in some localities have not really taken action with a high sense of responsibility, or the situation where the Party Secretary and the Hamlet Chief "collude" with some households in requesting compensation within the cleared boundary of PMU1 is also one of the reasons why the site clearance work is facing difficulties. Even in Hamlet 13, Quynh Thach Commune (Quynh Luu), the Party cell committee and the hamlet executive committee, due to not having a firm grasp of the situation, allowed some Party members and veteran members to arbitrarily take the key to open the cultural house to organize meetings that were not in accordance with regulations, and in the name of the Veterans Association to file a collective complaint at higher levels. In some places, some members of the Site Clearance Council did not have a firm grasp of the regulations, explained in a cursory and irresponsible manner, causing misunderstandings and frustration for some households. For example, people in some places still do not understand why on the same plot of land, Mr. A and Mr. B were compensated, but their household (adjacent) was not compensated. In particular, there were officials in the Land Acquisition and Site Clearance Subcommittee who also demanded compensation within the scope of PMU1.

In addition, there is also a phenomenon of people in some communes and hamlets reacting in a chain reaction in demanding compensation against regulations. Because there are individuals who incite and entice people to violate the policies of the State to create a mob mentality, most of them put pressure on the government and functional agencies. In reality, there are places where people only follow a few "ringleaders", if that person does not agree to sign the land handover documents, they will not sign either. Therefore, some localities have conducted direct dialogues with those "individual" households to explain and specifically resolve the difficulties and demands. For example, in Quynh Luu district, there is a situation where people in this commune put pressure and control to prevent people in neighboring communes from supporting the State's policies. Therefore, in reality, some communes have handed over the land, but cannot carry out construction. Typically, in Quynh Thach, Quynh Van, Quynh Lam communes...

Construction protectionis a last resort

In order to promptly hand over the National Highway 1A site to the investor to complete the project and put it into use by the end of 2014, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Huynh Thanh Dien - Head of the Steering Committee of the Provincial Compensation and Site Clearance Council gave instructions in Document No. 625/UBND-GT dated January 27, 2014: "Assign the People's Committees of districts and towns: Hoang Mai, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc to continue to propagate and mobilize households to promptly hand over the site for the previously cleared land, requiring completion before February 15, 2014; in case households refuse to hand over the site, organize inspections, carefully review the records and procedures to ensure compliance with regulations to organize a peak period to protect the construction from February 15-25, 2014".

However, the time limit for construction protection has passed, but in the dialogue with the people of Hamlet 4 (Nghi Yen, Nghi Loc) on February 18 and Dien An Commune (Dien Chau) on February 20, some people still did not agree to sign the documents and still insisted on compensation against the regulations. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Vo - Chairman of Dien Chau District People's Committee said: "Construction protection is the last option. However, when the committed time comes and the households still refuse to sign the documents to hand over the site, we still have to carry out construction protection. Some households think that construction protection must have decision documents like in the enforcement, which is a misunderstanding, because this is land recovered within the cleared area."

The construction protection plan is the last resort, after having conducted propaganda and mobilization in many forms to each household. But when the deadline of April 30, 2014 is the time to hand over the site, but the people still do not agree, the construction protection plan is inevitable. Yesterday, the first day of the construction protection plan was implemented simultaneously at the section through hamlet 14, Dien An commune, Dien Chau and the section through block 15, Quynh Xuan ward (Hoang Mai town). It is expected that from now until April 30, the construction protection plan will continue to be implemented at the problematic points.

Reporter group