Prime Minister requests clarification on threats against Chairman of Bac Ninh province

The Ministry of Public Security was assigned to urgently investigate the subjects behind the "protection" and threats against officials, leaders of departments, branches and the Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Ninh province.

On March 16, the Government Office issued a document conveying Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's direction on the proposal of the Bac Ninh People's Committee to continue to stop the dredging project, clear the inland waterway, and combine with the collection of products on the Cau River.

Accordingly, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Public Security to urgently verify the subjects behind the "protection" and threats against officials, department leaders and the Chairman of Bac Ninh province; and report the results to the Prime Minister in March.

The Minister of Transport is responsible for reporting to the Prime Minister before March 20 on the implementation of the national inland waterway dredging project combined with product recovery on the Cau River.

Sand mining on the river. Illustration photo: Nguyen Hung.

Previously, Vice Chairman of Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Huu Thanh sent a document to the Prime Minister and Minister of Transport requesting to continue to stop the project of dredging and clearing inland waterways combined with collecting products on Cau River.

Bac Ninh province also requested the Prime Minister to direct the Ministry of Public Security to investigate the case of "individuals from the central to local levels protecting and threatening" professional officials, leaders of departments, branches and the Chairman of Bac Ninh province, making the matter increasingly serious.

Recently, some leaders of agencies in Bac Ninh have been "terrorized" by text messages and phone calls with the content that the project on Cau River must continue to be implemented. On March 15, Mr. Nguyen Tu Quynh, Chairman of Bac Ninh Province confirmed that he had also recently been "threatened".

The above developments are related to the Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee's proposal to temporarily suspend a dredging project to clear inland waterways and collect products on the Cau River, because it is believed that illegal sand mining occurred during the project.

Bac Ninh is concerned that this has led to riverbank erosion, affecting people's lives, forcing tens of billions of dong to be spent to remedy the consequences.

According to VNE