Group discussion 1: Localities with mineral exploitation activities have not benefited

Attending the discussion session were comrades: Ho Phuc Hop - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Committee; Colonel Tran Van Hung - Member of the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee, Commander of the Provincial Military Command; Hoang Viet Duong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Thanh Hien - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation. Photo: Thanh Duy

Speaking at the discussion session, delegates highly appreciated the socio-economic development results in the first 6 months of 2018 of the province; at the same time, raised a number of recommendations in various fields.

Regarding the field of natural resources and environment, delegate Ngoc Kim Nam - Secretary of Do Luong District Party Committee said that there are many sand and stone mines in the district. Although the district has continuously imposed penalties, illegal mining still occurs and requested the province to continue to strengthen management on this issue.

On the other hand, Mr. Ngoc Kim Nam cited that in Tru Son commune, Do Luong district, there are 4 stone quarries granted to mining enterprises. However, recently, there was a situation where local people blocked vehicles transporting stone because of environmental pollution. Meanwhile, the enterprise said that it had fully paid its obligations according to environmental regulations.

After many commune meetings without a solution, the district level had to go down to mobilize businesses, districts, and communes to allocate funds to repair and upgrade roads...

Citing the above example, the head of Do Luong district also said that units with mineral exploitation activities have not benefited because the allocation of environmental protection fees is still low.

Secretary of Do Luong District Party Committee Ngoc Kim Nam speaks. Photo: Thanh Duy

Attending the discussion session, regarding the issue of detecting and handling illegal mineral exploitation, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Duy Viet said: The responsibility for management belongs first and foremost to the commune level. Only when the commune and district levels cannot do it, will the provincial level "do it instead".

However, according to the head of the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the relevant departments and branches are only responsible for inspecting and handling illegal mineral exploitation temporarily, not long-term, and then handing over the management to the locality.

Analyzing the nature of the problem, Mr. Vo Duy Viet suggested that leaders of districts and communes continue to enhance their responsibility and be determined in detecting and handling illegal mineral exploitation, especially district leaders must directly get involved; at the same time, he also affirmed the viewpoint that the provincial level always accompanies the grassroots to effectively handle this problem.

Regarding the issue of environmental fee allocation ratio, the representative of the Department of Finance attending the meeting also said that according to the Budget Law and all decrees and circulars guiding the regulations, environmental protection fees are an expenditure item of the regular expenditure balance to ensure the regular expenditure tasks of the district level according to the regulation ratio prescribed by the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee.

Also at the discussion session, the representative of the Department of Finance also shared the view that in order to ensure the spending tasks for localities to overcome the environmental problems in the area, some districts compiled proposals and sent them to the Department of Finance so that this unit could ask for the opinion of the Provincial People's Committee to have a plan to provide additional support beyond the norm.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Hoang Viet Duong speaks at the group discussion session. Photo: Thanh Duy

Also at the group discussion session, many opinions of delegates mentioned issues such as continuing to promote administrative reform, building new rural areas...

Agreeing with the delegates' opinions that communes with potential have reached the new rural finish line, while the remaining communes have more difficult conditions, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Hoang Viet Duong suggested that the delegates should study and discuss to consider and propose solutions to this problem, such as building and promulgating a new mechanism on new rural construction with the remaining difficult communes.