Commune forces people to 'voluntarily' support 1/3 of land compensation?

(Baonghean) - When the project to build a mobile police barracks was carried out, the Nghi Thinh commune government (Nghi Loc) arbitrarily created a file and occupied the land of 8 households in Nghi Khanh commune to add to the households in their commune. In return, the compensation for this excess land, the households in Nghi Thinh commune had to 'voluntarily' support the commune with 1/3?

Land of 8 households in Nghi Khanh commune has been leveled to make barracks.

Land of this commune, compensation for people of another commune

On the last day of 2016, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Son (62 years old, Nghi Khanh commune, Nghi Loc), was still reviewing thick piles of documents to prepare for a complaint about the fact that he had not yet received compensation for his rice field even though the land had been leveled.

Mr. Son is one of eight households in Nghi Khanh commune whose land in Nha La field was legalized by Nghi Thinh commune authorities to compensate for their own households, and then received hundreds of millions of dong in compensation. After many times knocking on the door of the authorities, in April 2016, Nghi Loc district People's Committee concluded that Nghi Thinh commune should recover the amount of money that had been wrongly compensated to give to these households.

However, after 8 months, the people of Nghi Khanh commune have not received any compensation. “I had to collect documents and report to the district People's Committee dozens of times. My land has been leveled, but now I don't know if I will receive compensation,” said Mr. Son. Mr. Son is also the Party Secretary of the hamlet and Vice Chairman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Nghi Khanh commune.

At the end of 2011, the Ministry of Public Security implemented a project to build a barracks for Mobile Police Battalion No. 4 (Regiment 22), with an area of ​​nearly 9 hectares in Nha La field, on the border between Nghi Thach and Nghi Thinh communes.

In addition, in this field, there are also dozens of households from Nghi Khanh commune cultivating land of Nghi Thinh commune. "These are rice fields that these households have grown for a long time, with documents proving the area of ​​over 3,300m2. Of which, 2 households were allocated land according to Decree 64/NDCP, the rest is 5% land", said Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh - Chairman of Nghi Khanh commune People's Committee and informed that by the end of 2012, compensation payments were made.

At this time, the land of 8 households in Nghi Khanh commune was legalized by Nghi Thinh commune authorities and assigned to 18 households in hamlet 2 (Nghi Thinh commune). During the process of measuring, clearing the land as well as compensation, the authorities and households in Nghi Khanh commune were completely unaware.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Son said that after Nghi Thinh commune made a compensation file for his land to someone else, he got the information through an acquaintance but did not have enough basis to complain because at that time the project had not yet leveled the land of Nghi Khanh households. During this time, 8 households were still farming normally.

In May 2015, when the construction unit started leveling the land, the households complained to the Nghi Loc District People's Committee. In July 2015, the District People's Committee invited relevant parties to work for comparison, thereby determining that the people's accusation that the Nghi Thinh Commune government had created a file for the land of households in Nghi Khanh Commune to receive compensation was true.

Nghi Loc District People's Committee has established a working group to review the compensation dossier preparation. On April 21, 2016, there was Conclusion No. 101, which affirmed that the Nghi Thinh Commune government's dossier preparation overlapping the land of Nghi Khanh Commune households in the Nha La field area was wrong and proposed to cancel this compensation decision, and at the same time assign the commune government to recover the amount paid to 18 Nghi Thinh Commune households to compensate the people of Nghi Khanh Commune.

Refusing to support the commune, not receiving compensation

In contact with reporters, Mr. Vo Van Khanh, one of 18 households in Hamlet 2 (Nghi Thinh Commune), expressed regret for having received compensation for land that was not his. Mr. Khanh said that at that time he was the head of Hamlet 2, but he and other households were not involved in the process of measuring and determining the fields affected by the project.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Son (62 years old, Nghi Khanh commune, Nghi Loc) is upset because his family's cultivated land was not compensated when it was confiscated.

“After everything was done, we were invited to come up and just sign and receive the money. Seeing that the land area compensated was larger than in the documents, everyone was happy and had no questions,” said Mr. Khanh, adding that not only was the area unclear, but in the compensation map, the fields were identified very messy. The fields of this household were produced but were under someone else’s name.

The contracted land area of ​​18 households in Hamlet 2 was only about 7,200m2, but when compensated, this number increased to more than 12,400m2. Some households received more than 600m2, while others only received a few dozenm2. Mr. Khanh's land plot on paper was only 550m2, but when compensated, this number was 816m2. With nearly 5,200m2 of compensated land "falling from the sky", a total of 18 households in Hamlet 2 received more than 850 million VND.

However, according to Mr. Khanh, when he came to receive the money, he and other households were given a pre-printed paper by the commune officials with the content "voluntarily contribute to the commune to build infrastructure 1/3 of this additional money". Realizing the ambiguity, Mr. Khanh refused to sign the paper.

“The compensation for the additional 266m2 of land I received was more than 33 million VND. So I had to pay the commune more than 11 million VND. I did not agree to sign and took out a paper to write a “voluntary support of 5 million VND to the commune” but they refused and did not allow my family to receive the compensation,” said Mr. Khanh, adding that, apart from the 2 households whose additional area was only 10m2 and 19m2, which was insignificant and did not have to be supported by the commune, the remaining 16 households had to share. Nearly 2 months later, Mr. Khanh went to the district People’s Committee to complain and was told “because his land was in dispute.”

After waiting for a long time without receiving payment, the couple had to sign a paper agreeing to support Nghi Thinh commune with more than 11 million VND to receive more than 120 million VND in compensation. Regarding the return of the money received, Mr. Khanh said that he and other households did not agree. “The money has been received for more than 4 years now, and it has been spent for a long time. The level that is at fault must take responsibility. The commune has called us to negotiate dozens of times but no one has agreed to return the money,” Mr. Khanh said.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Le Van Luu - Chairman of Nghi Thinh Commune People's Committee said that the commune government "is not selfish and is very transparent". When conducting the measurement, the Nghi Loc District Compensation and Site Clearance Council and the commune cadastral officers relied on the cadastral map measured in 2008 and this map had some errors. The 299 Nghi Thinh commune map is no longer available. In 2009, the commune arranged for cadastral officers to go to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to borrow it, but it was not available.

After that, the commune officials continued to go to the Provincial People's Committee's Archives Center to borrow a photocopy to check but it was no longer available. Therefore, when preparing the dossier for granting land use right certificates after measuring the cadastral map in 2008, the location of Nghi Khanh commune's land encroached on the map could not be determined.

“We did not know that the land belonged to Nghi Khanh commune households before receiving the complaint,” said Mr. Luu, adding that after the district’s conclusion, the commune had invited 18 households to meetings many times to persuade them to return the money but to no avail. Mr. Luu also denied that the commune had created compensation records to receive the difference in money.

“It is not true that Nghi Thinh commune did not know that the land belonged to us. For this project, 62 households in Nghi Thinh commune were compensated because their land was affected, but only 16 households in hamlet 2 had their land registered under our names and had to share 1/3 of the additional money received with the commune. So at that time, Nghi Thinh commune already knew that the land did not belong to these households, so they made such an agreement with the people,” Mr. Nguyen Dinh Son said indignantly.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Chairman of Nghi Loc District People's Committee said that the district is trying to compensate households in Nghi Khanh commune as soon as possible. "Some options have been proposed, in which Nghi Thinh commune proposed compensation in the form of land. If the money of 18 Nghi Thinh households is recovered, they may not have any money left and the government cannot collect it.

But in some meetings, they said they would compensate 8 households with their land, and when there was another project, Nghi Khanh residents would be compensated later," Mr. Dung said, adding that the incident happened partly due to the "lame" direction process. The Ministry of Public Security hired an outside unit to measure and determine ownership. Meanwhile, the entire area is a lake, so it is normal for the delimitation to be based on incorrect grounds.

Tien Hung