The progress of reclaiming agricultural and forestry land to hand over to people is still slow.

On the afternoon of July 12, in the program of the 7th Session of the 18th Provincial People's Council, delegates from the constituencies of the districts: Quy Hop, Quy Chau, Que Phong, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son conducted group discussions. Mr. Vuong Quang Minh - Secretary of the Quy Chau District Party Committee chaired the discussion of group 4.

Overview of group 4 discussion. Photo: Pham Bang

Mountain people lack production forest land

Opening the group discussion, delegate Luc Thi Lien (Con Cuong unit) highly appreciated the leadership and management of the Provincial People's Committee in the first 6 months of the year. At the same time, she suggested that in the coming time, the Provincial People's Committee pay attention to investing in building irrigation canal systems for mountainous areas; speed up the land recovery of farms and forestry farms to hand over to the people, because the current progress is still slow; have a special policy to support cement for mountainous localities in new rural construction.

Delegate Luc Thi Lien (Con Cuong unit) expressed her opinion at the group discussion. Photo: Pham Bang

Referring to the issue of land for production for the people in the mountainous areas, delegate Que Thi Tram Ngoc (Quy Chau unit) emphasized that currently a large part of the people in the mountainous areas depend on the forest for their livelihood but lack forest land for production, while land for rice cultivation is extremely limited. The land recovery from farms and forestry farms to hand over to the people has been carried out for many years now, but there are still many people who do not have forest land for production.

In addition, delegate Ngoc also suggested that there should be specific instructions on the implementation of the 3 National Target Programs so that localities can implement them effectively. In public investment, there is still a situation of slow capital allocation, causing difficulties for investors. Therefore, it is necessary to speed up this work, not allowing localities to rush implementation due to pressure in disbursing public investment capital, affecting the quality of the project.

Concerned about the difficulties of the people in the mountainous areas, delegate Nguyen Van Hai (Tuong Duong unit) said that creating livelihoods for the people in the mountainous areas is very difficult, and there is still a situation of "high input but low output". The price of environmental protection services and forest protection is low, so the income of people from the forest is not high. The management and use of forestry land is strict but is creating a conflict between forestry land and agriculture.

Delegate Nguyen Van Hai (Tuong Duong unit) expressed his opinion at the group discussion session. Photo: Pham Bang

Delegate Hai also raised the issue of local surplus and shortage of cadres between communes and districts; the long examination time has led to difficulties in perfecting the apparatus, and it is necessary to remove the regulation on transferring commune cadres to districts. The situation of local shortage and surplus of teachers has not been resolved for a long time, affecting the quality of education and training; timely measures need to be taken to resolve the situation through monitoring suspended projects, projects behind schedule, and improper land use. Projects that are not feasible must be resolutely terminated to avoid wasting land.

Delegate Vi Van Quy (Quy Hop district) proposed that the Provincial People's Committee pay attention to determining the administrative boundaries of Yen Hop commune (Quy Hop) with Chau Binh commune (Quy Chau) and Chau Ly commune (Quy Hop) with Giai Xuan commune (Tan Ky); resolutely direct the handling of oversized and overloaded vehicles in the province in general and localities with mineral exploitation in particular; continue to pay attention to upgrading Provincial Road 532 in Quy Hop district.

Delegate Vi Van Quy (Quy Hop unit) expressed his opinion at the group discussion session. Photo: Pham Bang

Delegates also expressed their opinions on the complicated situation of oversized and overloaded vehicles in mountainous districts, affecting traffic infrastructure; the quality of clean water in mountainous areas has not received adequate attention; the situation of early marriage and having a third child is still complicated; foreign language teaching for students in mountainous areas compared to lowland areas is still lacking and disadvantaged.

During the group discussion, representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee, the Department of Health, the Department of Finance... discussed and clarified the opinions of the delegates.

Mr. Hoang Quoc Viet - Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that regarding the land recovery of agricultural and forestry farms, the Provincial People's Committee has recently decided to recover more than 10,000 hectares of 11 agricultural and forestry companies to hand over to local management.

Mr. Hoang Quoc Viet - Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment answered the delegates' opinions. Photo: Pham Bang

"Currently, the Department is advising the Provincial People's Committee to arrange funds to conduct measurements of agricultural and forestry land. Therefore, we hope that localities will coordinate with departments and branches to continue to effectively manage agricultural and forestry land. The province's viewpoint is that if agricultural and forestry farms do not use land effectively, they must hand over the land to the people for production," said Mr. Viet.

Regarding the delegates' opinions on mineral exploitation for civil works, the Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that recently, many localities have proposed authorizing the district level to grant mineral exploitation licenses in a comprehensive manner. However, according to regulations, the authority to grant mineral exploitation licenses belongs to the Central and the province, not to the district level. The Department has reported to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to synthesize and include in the draft amendments to the Law on Minerals.

There are still many problems in allocating forest land to people.

Speaking at the group discussion, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu said that despite many difficulties, with the determination and efforts of the entire political system and the consensus of the people and businesses, the socio-economic picture of the province in the first 6 months of the year has many bright colors.

However, there are still limitations such as high tax debt, low disbursement rate of public investment capital, reduced crop productivity... In addition to objective causes, the subjective cause is that the direction and management in some places are not resolute and flexible.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu spoke at the group discussion. Photo: Pham Bang

Delving into the opinions of the delegates, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that currently the socio-economic infrastructure of the mountainous areas is still limited, difficult and needs investment. The current problem is that localities need to effectively implement the 3 National Target Programs for the period 2021-2025 in the spirit of selecting an effective investment project portfolio, not spreading it out.

In order for localities to effectively implement these programs, the Provincial People's Committee has submitted to the Provincial People's Council 6 Resolutions on resource expenditure levels, division of norms... And in the near future, the Provincial People's Committee will direct departments and branches to provide specific instructions for localities to provide a list of specific projects to implement the fastest steps.

Regarding the issue of land for production for people in mountainous areas, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu said that this issue has been discussed and resolved in many meetings of the Provincial People's Council but has not yet achieved high efficiency.

However, according to the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, this issue needs to be viewed comprehensively. Since the issuance of Resolution 30 of the Politburo and Decree 118 of the Government, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a decision to reclaim nearly 24,000 hectares of land from agricultural and forestry farms and hand them over to local authorities. Up to now, localities have handed over nearly 14,000 hectares to the people; currently, 10,000 hectares are still being managed by local authorities.

The work of reclaiming agricultural and forestry land and handing it over to the people received the attention of delegates. Photo courtesy

"The allocation of land to people is facing two problems. First, there is a lack of resources to measure and then divide it among households lacking land. Second, the handling of assets on land is still facing problems, and the underlying cause is also a lack of resources. In the near future, the province will try to arrange funds to carry out this work," said Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu, adding that the province is also actively allocating forests to localities for people to manage, helping people have sustainable livelihoods.

Agreeing with the opinion of the Provincial People's Council delegate on low forest protection fees, Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu said that each year the province supplements this source with about 110 billion VND and is currently asking the central government to compensate for this cost. Regarding the exploitation of minerals to build civil works in mountainous districts, it is necessary to follow the regulations and wait for changes in the Law to implement.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu also represented the Provincial People's Committee to receive some opinions from the delegates and affirmed that he will focus on directing departments and branches to resolve the issues in accordance with regulations, achieving high efficiency in practice./.