Lack of determination in resolving land violations in Quynh Luu

(Baonghean) - The situation of encroachment and illegal construction on agricultural land in Quynh Luu district has lasted for more than ten years but has not been completely resolved, causing resentment among the people.

Rampant violations

According to the report of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quynh Luu district, from 2009 to present, in the district, there are 12 communes and towns with administrative violations in the field of land, including 96 cases of land use for the wrong purpose, land encroachment and illegal construction with a total area of ​​12,308 square meters.

Violations are concentrated in the communes of Quynh Hong, Quynh Hung, Quynh Ba, and Quynh Doi. The locations where encroachment, illegal construction of houses and farms occur are mainly in remote areas far from the center. Taking advantage of this feature, households arbitrarily gather materials, hire workers and mobilize relatives to work day and night to quickly complete the construction of houses, outbuildings, and livestock farms in violation of state regulations.

As in Quynh Hong commune, since 2001, the commune has planned an aquaculture area in 9 hamlets, with a total area of ​​21.16 hectares for 55 households to receive production. Of which, 16.5 hectares of fish-rice production has 35 households receiving land, the rest is pond area. However, in the process of implementing aquaculture, many households deliberately built solid houses and then moved their whole families to live there.

The house was illegally built on agricultural land in Hamlet 9, Quynh Hong Commune (Quynh Luu). Photo: Quynh Lan

Or in Quynh Hung commune, from 2000 to 2004, 14 households reclaimed land for production, encroached on land to build permanent houses and auxiliary structures to live in Con Dinh, Hamlet 12 with a total area of ​​about 4,200 m2. The incident has lasted for more than ten years, and although the local authorities know about it, they have not found a reasonable solution.

It is noteworthy that most cases are only discovered when there are disputes, complaints or reports from the people, while the role of state management and supervision of communes is very limited, allowing encroachment and illegal construction on agricultural land to occur for a long time.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Tran Viet Phac - Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quynh Luu district admitted: The responsibility for the above situation lies primarily with the local Party Committee and government that have not really taken close action to handle it or have handled it in a formal manner. The responsibility of the industry is that it has not given strong direction.

Not resolved yet

After establishing an inspection team and issuing conclusions, the People’s Committee of Quynh Luu district requested localities to resolutely handle cases of illegal construction of houses on agricultural land. However, the direction and implementation are still quite far apart.

Mr. Ho Nghia Duong - Chairman of Quynh Hong Commune People's Committee said: The difficulty is that the households violating the law are all from the same village, commune, and neighborhood, so it is difficult to handle it harshly. Moreover, the handling encountered some difficulties because the locality detected the violation slowly, when it was detected, the people had already completed the construction of solid structures, and the legal documents were not complete.

Con Dinh area, Quynh Hung commune, was encroached upon by households to illegally build houses. Photo: Quynh Lan

However, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Hong Commune still affirmed that in the coming time, the People's Committee of the Commune will strengthen coordination with mass organizations to propagate and mobilize households in violation to voluntarily dismantle illegal constructions. Cases of intentional non-dismantling according to the provisions of law will be forced.

Mr. Pham Trung Thien - Chairman of Quynh Hung Commune People's Committee said: For 14 cases of land encroachment and illegal housing construction in Con Dinh area, there is a direction to handle them according to the 2013 Land Law. The commune has prepared a document requesting the province's approval to establish a residential area plan. Currently, the locality is carrying out procedures to plan detailed infrastructure construction, creating conditions for the above households to buy land at a fixed price for long-term residence in order to rationalize land use.

Mr. Tran Viet Phac - Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quynh Luu district said: In the coming time, the district will actively resolve according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law and Decree No. 43/2014 of the Government on guiding the implementation of the 2013 Land Law, which has many open directions for land violations before July 1, 2014. Now, if it is in accordance with the planning, it will be legalized according to the planning so that households can continue to use the land for a long time.

In some cases that are not in accordance with the planning, the district directs the communes to forcibly dismantle the construction to return the land; for some projects that have built farm models without planning, the communes are assigned to review and create conditions for them to complete the procedures for leasing land to build farms.

The above reality shows that authorities at all levels in Quynh Luu need to have drastic and synchronous solutions to handle violating households, in order to restore discipline in the use of land resources in localities.

Quynh Lan