Land leasing for housing construction within the cultural house area: Must be handled promptly and thoroughly!

(Baonghean) - In early September 2015, Nghe An Newspaper received a petition from the people of Block 12, Cua Nam Ward (Vinh City) presenting the following incident: Since 2008, the Block Executive Committee has rented land to a household to build a house on the grounds of the cultural house, causing many inconveniences for the community activities of the people; although the ward authorities knew about this illegal act, they did not resolve it completely...

Citizens of block 12, Cua Nam ward (Vinh city) stated: From 2006 to 2007, block 12 received investment from the People's Committee of Cua Nam ward to build a cultural house. The block 12 Cultural House was arranged with a restroom at the back. However, while the restroom of the cultural house was not built, in that area, the Party Committee and the block's executive committee signed a 20-year land lease contract with Ms. Minh's family, for her to use to build a house. Currently, Ms. Minh's house has a solid flat roof.

Because the cultural house does not have a restroom, participating in community activities is inconvenient; in addition, when other families in the area build houses without a building permit, they are immediately dealt with by the Urban Rules Team; meanwhile, Ms. Minh's house building on public land is ignored and not dealt with thoroughly, so people in the area are upset and suspect there is a cover-up...

Through verification, in 2007, the Executive Committee of Block 12, Cua Nam Ward, signed a contract to lease land for the cultural house to build a temporary shelter for housing. The land lessee was Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh (aka Minh), born in 1980, a citizen of Group 3 of Block 12. In the contract, the Executive Committee of Block 12 stated the grounds for leasing the land including: Resolution of the Party cell meeting on August 3, 2007 on the completion of the cultural house but there was no fund to hire security; the remaining area of ​​the cultural house was a plot of land 3.6m long and 8.5m wide; the block announced to the people in the area "Whoever wants to build a temporary shelter can lease it and protect the cultural house".

The "booth rental contract" between the 12th Block Executive Committee and Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh has the following terms: Ms. Tinh is allowed to build a temporary booth on a piece of land 3.6m long, 8.5m wide and the cost is about 10 million VND; The land rental is 50,000 VND/month, every 6 months the block leader writes a receipt to pay into the fund (starting from October 1, 2007), every 5 years the rental price is recalculated, the rental period is 20 years (from the date of rental); during the use, if the Ward People's Committee reclaims it for other use, the lessee must dismantle it and move elsewhere (because the block level does not have the right to grant land); the lessee is responsible for protecting the cultural house's property. If lost, compensation must be made and security and environmental sanitation must be ensured... After the block leased the land, Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh built a temporary house, with walls made of a dashboard and roofed with cement tiles to live in. In 2012, Ms. Tinh renovated the house, poured a part of the concrete roof, covered it with cold corrugated iron... and has been using it until now.

Cultural House of Grade 12, Cua Nam Ward (Vinh City).

Currently, the Party Cell and the Executive Committee of Block 12, Cua Nam Ward from 2007 have retired and are no longer working. The current representatives of the Party Cell and the Executive Committee of the Block are Mr. Nguyen Van Khang, Secretary of the Party Cell; Bui Kim Cuong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Cell and Head of the Block... According to these gentlemen, when the incident occurred, they had not yet worked in the block; when they received the assignment (in 2012), they learned about the incident from meetings and documents and realized that "this is an existence left by the previous generation of cadres, very difficult to resolve". Mr. Khang said that it was not until the end of 2009 that the Block Executive Committee's signing of a contract to lease land to Ms. Tinh was revealed. At that time, a citizen wrote a petition requesting the Ward People's Committee to inspect the financial revenue and expenditure of Block 12. The Ward People's Committee established an inspection team and determined that the citizen's petition had a basis, the financial revenue and expenditure of Block 12 was unclear. The inspection team announced the inspection report, however, the people in the block did not agree, so they continued to send petitions to the City Party Committee. Some time later, the City Party Committee's Inspection Committee organized an inspection and verification, concluding that Comrade Nguyen Sy Hoa, Block Leader, had committed violations in the economic field, with unclear revenue and expenditure; and assigned the Party Committee of Cua Nam Ward and Block 12 Party Committee to direct the review and disciplinary action. In early 2013, Block Leader Nguyen Sy Hoa was given a disciplinary reprimand; in October 2013, Mr. Hoa submitted a resignation letter from the position of Block Leader and was accepted by the Party Committee and the Ward People's Committee. "When discovering that the Executive Committee of Block 12 had signed a land lease contract, the Party Committee and the People's Committee of the ward determined that this was an illegal act, so they repeatedly issued documents directing the block to fulfill its responsibility to reclaim the land. However, due to Ms. Tinh's difficult situation, she has no husband but has two children, one of whom has cerebral palsy, the block and mass organizations have only mobilized and persuaded the family to dismantle the house themselves. However, the block's efforts were unsuccessful because Ms. Tinh's family relied on the 20-year contract to request compensation of over 100 million VND before moving. We agreed that there would be support but compensation could not be made as Ms. Tinh requested. To get support, the block also mobilized donations from the people, but the ward and the block did not have compensation funds and in this case, compensation could not be made. In 2015, the People's Committee of the ward planned to provide 250 million VND to Block 12 to renovate the house. cultural but with the condition that the land where Mrs. Ngo Thi Tinh's family is living must be recovered. Last July, the Ward People's Committee sent a document inviting the Party Committee, the Executive Committee and representatives of mass organizations of block 12 to discuss the repair of the cultural house. At the meeting, the relocation of Mrs. Ngo Thi Tinh's household was discussed and then the ward leaders directed the block to continue the mobilization. We have done it but there are no results, so we reported to the ward leaders, asking for a solution. The Chairman of the Ward People's Committee also discussed that in September 2015, he will invite relevant parties and Mrs. Ngo Thi Tinh's family to the ward to resolve the issue..." - Mr. Khang said.

As a person who participated in the inspection team of Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh's house upgrade (in 2012), Mr. Nguyen Thanh Vinh, Chairman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Cua Nam Ward, said: Ms. Tinh's construction violations are real. When the people reported the case, the ward's staff came down to inspect the incident, and Ms. Tinh had already completed pouring the concrete roof of about 1/3 of the house area to place the water tank and sanitary facilities. Before this incident, the ward clarified and determined that this was the responsibility of the Urban Rules Team, then dismissed the entire team of 4 people. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Vinh said: "The Party Committee and the Executive Committee of Block 12 established a land lease contract in the cultural house area, which is against the law. For a long time, the Ward People's Committee did not detect it in time to take measures to prevent it, so it also bears related responsibility. The Ward also determined that it must be handled thoroughly and cannot let this situation drag on forever...".

In fact, in block 12, Cua Nam ward, the house of Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh's family was solidly built on the grounds of the cultural house, affecting the common life of the people in the block. Therefore, the wish of the people of block 12 to relocate Ms. Tinh's family to make land for the restroom for the cultural house is completely legitimate. Currently, Cua Nam ward is considering handling this matter, but to do so, it is necessary to base on and strictly comply with the provisions of the law. Here, Cua Nam ward needs to explain in detail so that Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh's family understands that the Block 12 Executive Committee's signing of a land lease contract is an illegal act, and cannot be used as a basis for claiming compensation. Furthermore, it is also necessary to analyze the "Slot Lease Contract" between the Block 12 Executive Committee and Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh. In addition to stating the land lease term, the contract also stated: "Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh was allowed to build a temporary shelter on a piece of land 3.6m long and 8.5m wide, and the cost was about 10 million VND"; "During the use, if the Ward People's Committee reclaims it for other purposes, the lessee must dismantle it and move to another place (because the block level does not have the right to grant land)". Through that, Ms. Ngo Thi Tinh and her family saw that the consideration of support was a sympathetic response from the ward, the block and the people to carry out the relocation...

Ha Giang