Early relocation of 158 households affected by environmental impacts of Song Lam Cement Factory

On the morning of September 4, the monitoring delegation of the provincial National Assembly Delegation had a meeting with Do Luong district on the implementation of the law on receiving citizens, handling complaints and denunciations related to land acquisition and compensation for site clearance to implement projects in the area. Photo: Thanh Le

In recent times, Do Luong district has attracted many works and projects, including key projects such as: Song Lam cement factory project and auxiliary works serving Song Lam cement factory in Bai Son commune; traffic road project connecting N5 road from Southeast economic zone to Hoa Son commune; project to restore and upgrade the Northern irrigation system, etc.

From 2016 to June 2018, the District People's Committee has recovered and approved plans for 3,199 affected households, individuals and organizations, with a total recovered area of ​​110.39 hectares, and total compensation and support costs of over 131.2 billion VND.

Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Tran Van Mao spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Le

In the process of land acquisition, compensation, and support for site clearance to implement projects in the district, a number of petitions, feedback, and recommendations arose.

Accordingly, from the beginning of 2016 until now, Do Luong district has received 33 petitions related to site clearance work, including 15 petitions, 9 reflections, 2 complaints, and no denunciations.

Citizens' recommendations, complaints and reflections are directed by the District People's Committee to relevant departments, agencies and units to resolve to ensure the rights of land users.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Ho Xuan Bay - Deputy Chief of the Provincial People's Committee Office and Head of the Provincial Citizen Reception Committee said: One of the issues that Do Luong residents are concerned about and petitioned about is the environmental impact from the operation of the Song Lam Cement Factory. The residents requested to arrange resettlement and move people to other places. The people's wishes are legitimate.

The Deputy Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Committee noted that Do Luong district needs to classify petitions accurately to assign responsibilities and forward them to relevant agencies, departments and branches to promptly resolve the content of citizens' reflections.

Deputy Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Xuan Bay suggested that Do Luong district needs to classify petitions accurately. Photo: Thanh Le

Clarifying this content, Vice Chairman of Do Luong District People's Committee Hoang Van Hiep said: The problem related to compensation and site clearance in the area is the petition of households about the environmental impact of Song Lam Cement Factory, according to which there is a phenomenon of water overflowing into residential areas and fields, noise, dust, and pollution due to the transportation of raw materials for the cement factory's production.

Mr. Hiep said: According to the environmental impact assessment criteria approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, only 32 households are affected by the project because they are located within a safe radius of 900 meters from the kiln area and 600 meters from the construction fence. However, in reality, according to statistics from the People's Committee of Do Luong district, there are up to 158 households affected by environmental impacts caused by the activities of the Song Lam Cement Factory.

Informing that these households have requested to be relocated out of the polluted area many times, but this is an issue beyond the district's authority, the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Luong district said: The district has established an inspection team and proposed to the Provincial People's Committee and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to soon have a plan to relocate these households.

Vice Chairman of Do Luong District People's Committee Hoang Van Hiep spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Le

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Nguyen Thanh Hien acknowledged and highly appreciated the work of handling petitions, complaints and denunciations of Do Luong district regarding land acquisition and site clearance to implement projects.

The Deputy Head of the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies suggested that Do Luong district pay attention to innovating and diversifying forms of propaganda and legal education for the people; perfecting the apparatus and improving the quality of the staff working in receiving people and resolving complaints and denunciations.

Do Luong district needs to fully implement procedures, transparency and democracy in land acquisition and site clearance.

The process of handling petitions must be strictly implemented from classification, assignment of processing units, monitoring the processing process; at the same time, focusing on improving the quality of petition handling; at the same time, strengthening the inspection, control and supervision of petition handling.