Merging villages and hamlets in Thanh Chuong district: Many concerns remain

A corner of Thanh Chuong district.

There are still many concerns about the "3 in 1" neighborhood.

As one of the hamlets in the merger plan, these days the cadres and people of Lien Duc hamlet, Thanh Lien commune are still focusing on building the yard of the hamlet's cultural house. According to the plan, Lien Duc hamlet will merge with two other hamlets: Lien Bang and Lien Trung. Lien Duc people agree and support the merger plan but still have some concerns.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Nghi - Party Cell Secretary and Head of Lien Duc Hamlet confided: “What I am most concerned about is how to handle and use the hamlet cultural houses. Because when Thanh Lien strives to reach the new rural destination, all hamlet cultural houses are newly built, spacious and clean. Now that the 3 hamlets have been merged into 1, how can we use the cultural houses appropriately? Because if we use all 3 houses, it is not reasonable, and using 1 of the 3 houses is even more unreasonable because the number of households has increased 3 or 4 times, and building another new cultural house is a waste of time and effort.”

Thanh Lien commune residents give their opinions on the merger plan. Photo: Huu Thinh

Thanh Lien is a mountainous commune of Thanh Chuong district, implementing the policy of merging hamlets and villages in accordance with Circular No. 14 of the Ministry of Home Affairs (Circular No. 14/2018/TT-BNV dated December 3, 2018 on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 04/2012/TT-BNV dated August 31, 2012 of the Minister of Home Affairs guiding the organization and operation of hamlets and residential groups).

According to the regulation of hamlet and block size of 250 households, Thanh Lien commune has merged from 16 hamlets to 7 hamlets. In reality, the merger of hamlets and villages is necessary, but in the implementation process, there are still many issues that need to be carefully considered. Especially the characteristics and terrain of the hamlets after the merger.

Mr. Phan Ba ​​Ngoc - Chairman of Thanh Lien Commune People's Committee (Thanh Chuong) said: In the process of merging villages and hamlets in Thanh Lien, we still see many concerns. The population of the commune is almost 3 hamlets merged into one, so there are hamlets after the merger with a small population but the terrain is wide and stretches up to 4 km, some hamlets have an increase of 300-400 people, making it very difficult to live and manage. Meanwhile, the number of village and hamlet officials has not increased.

The implementation of merging villages and hamlets in communes in the district has also raised a big problem in the work of resolving the regime and policies for the team of part-time cadres. Before the merger, Thanh Lien commune had 80 village and hamlet cadres, now from 16 to 7 hamlets, the number of cadres has also decreased to 35 people. The important thing here is how to resolve the regime and policies for those who have retired from activities and those who participate in village and hamlet work in a reasonable way. When this problem is solved, the thinking of cadres and people will be clear. Only then will work efficiency be high, Mr. Phan Ba ​​Ngoc - Chairman of Thanh Lien Commune People's Committee added.

Village and hamlet cadres reduced from 2,530 to 1,356 people

Thanh Lien commune merged from 16 villages and hamlets to 7 villages and hamlets. Photo: Huu Thinh

In addition to Thanh Lien commune, all localities in Thanh Chuong district are currently continuing to review the scale of households in hamlets according to Circular No. 14/2018 of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Resolution No. 18 of the 6th Central Executive Committee of the Party (12th tenure) on: "Some issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined, effective and efficient". The Standing Committee of Thanh Chuong District Party Committee has issued Plan 63 to organize implementation.

At the commune level, the whole district has 5 communes meeting both population and area criteria; 22 communes meeting population criteria; 13 communes not meeting population criteria and no commune meeting area criteria.

For hamlet level: Before the merger, Thanh Chuong district had 506 hamlets, villages, and hamlets with 2,530 non-professional staff. Of which, 321 hamlets, blocks, and hamlets with household size below 50% had to be merged. 182 hamlets, blocks, and hamlets with 50% or more of household size, where conditions were met, were merged, and 3 hamlets met the criteria for household size.

People in Thanh Duc commune (Thanh Chuong) grow oranges off-season. Photo: Huu Thinh

According to the plan after the merger, the entire Thanh Chuong district will have only 233 hamlets, a reduction of 273 hamlets, along with a reduction of 1,365 people working in the hamlets, equivalent to a reduction of tens of billions of VND/year in costs. In order for the merger of hamlets and villages to be in line with the purpose, requirements and progress set out, the People's Committee of Thanh Chuong district is currently actively directing and guiding the documents and procedures so that localities can clearly understand and organize the implementation to achieve high results.

Mr. Nguyen Cao Thanh - Head of the Department of Home Affairs of Thanh Chuong district said that up to now, the implementation of the project of merging villages and hamlets in the district has been basically completed. The District People's Committee is directing localities to collect people's opinions on the merger and submit it to the People's Councils of communes to issue a Resolution, and report to the District People's Committee before April 20.