Around the issue of "161 hectares of agricultural land in Tan Thanh commune abandoned"

(Baonghean) - On August 20, 2013, Nghe An Newspaper published an article: "Why are 161 hectares of agricultural land in Tan Thanh commune abandoned?"

Pursuant to Official Dispatch No. 6324/UBND-VX dated September 10, 2013 of the Provincial People's Committee on handling the issue raised by Nghe An Newspaper, on September 24, 2013, Yen Thanh District People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 1164/UBND.TN to Nghe An Newspaper with the following content:

1. Regarding planning policy: On June 9, 2010, Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee issued Document No. 20/TTr.UBND on the request to participate in the dairy farming project.

- On June 22, 2010, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 2700/QD.UBND-DT on approving the planning of the food crop production area for dairy farming of TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company, of which Yen Thanh district has 480 hectares.

- On July 28, 2010, the Department of Agriculture issued Official Dispatch No. 1534/CV.SNN.KHTC on planning raw material areas for industrial-scale dairy farms in Tan Thanh commune.

- On November 1, 2010, the Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 6814/UBND.DT on investment in a concentrated dairy farming project in Yen Thanh district for TH Dairy Food Joint Stock Company to invest in building a concentrated dairy farm project on an industrial scale.

On January 20, 2011, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 146/QD.UBND.DT on approving the adjustment of the planning of the food crop production area for dairy farming of TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company, in which Yen Thanh district was adjusted to 832 hectares.

- On March 18, 2011, TH Dairy Food Joint Stock Company issued Official Dispatch No. 39/2011/CV-THM on land lease for industrial-scale dairy farming and milk processing projects.

- On February 9, 2012, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 346/QD-UBND.DT on the establishment of a steering committee to support the implementation of investment projects consulted by Bac A Commercial Joint Stock Bank in Nghe An province.

2. Implementation procedures: To implement the above policies, the District People's Committee issued Decision No. 233/QD.UBND dated January 7, 2011 on the establishment of a compensation, support and resettlement council and a working group for the council, with the participation of representatives of TH Dairy Food Joint Stock Company) to implement the project: Construction of a concentrated industrial-scale dairy farm and Decision No. 1576/QD.UBND dated March 6, 2012 on the establishment of a steering committee to implement the above project.

The Land Acquisition Council conducted the land inventory declaration and compensation price assessment, submitted it to the District People's Committee to recover the land and approve the land acquisition plan. Based on the results of the inventory of the council, the Yen Thanh District People's Committee issued Decision No. 1371/QD.UBND dated February 20, 2012 on land recovery to implement the above project with a total area of ​​1,567,318.7 m2 and Decision No. 1382/QD.UBND dated February 22, 2012 on approval of the compensation, support and resettlement plan for the above project. During the process of inventory declaration and compensation price assessment, households still carried out normal production without affecting the production process.

After approving the compensation, support and resettlement plan, the results were sent to TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company to transfer money to pay for the subjects affected by the project, along with 2 Official Dispatches No. 112/UBND.TN dated February 27, 2012 and No. 414/UBND.TN dated May 30, 2012 regarding the transfer of money for the TH Milk Project's land acquisition and resettlement. TH Milk Joint Stock Company issued Official Dispatch No. 197/2012/TTHM.CV in response to Official Dispatch No. 414/UBND.TN of Yen Thanh District People's Committee stating that the project would not be implemented in the above-mentioned area because the company would only implement the project on the land of the Youth Union 6 and the land of the forestry farm.

After the District People's Committee received the official dispatch from TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company, the District People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 561/UBND.TN dated July 5, 2012 on organizing production in the TH Milk Project planning area to the People's Committee of Tan Thanh commune.

Currently, in the project planning area, the Provincial People's Committee has approved the planning for planting, caring for, protecting and exploiting forests of the Vietnam - Laos Economic Cooperation Company in Decision No. 1298/QD-UBND dated April 11, 2013. Currently, additional measurements are being extracted to conduct declaration, counting and pricing for compensation for land acquisition and clearance.

First of all, Nghe An Newspaper sincerely thanks Yen Thanh District People's Committee for its timely response to the issue raised by the newspaper. However, the content of the dispatch does not focus on the issues reported by the newspaper.

Nghe An Newspaper affirmed: Firstly, it is true that people in Hon Suong area of ​​Tan Thanh commune have abandoned 161 hectares of agricultural land since March 2011. This has affected the lives of 131 households in Hon Suong area.

Second, the official dispatch of Yen Thanh District People's Committee stated: "During the process of declaration, counting, and compensation pricing, households still carried out production normally without affecting the production process". If that is true, then why have people left the land fallow until now? And why on August 1, 2012, Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee issued Document No. 20/UBND requesting the Provincial People's Committee and Yen Thanh District People's Committee to support the socio-economic development of the Hon Suong farm area that has been planned for TH dairy farming. Accordingly, Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee requested the State to support money equal to the production output of annual crops and pineapples during the production suspension period of 4 crops. Requested the State to support money to reclaim agricultural land, because after 4 crops, the land was left fallow. The requests of Tan Thanh Commune have not been processed yet. The reason is that in early 2011, the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district directed Tan Thanh commune to stop production and build new projects on the area planned for the production of feed for dairy cows of TH Dairy Food Joint Stock Company.

Therefore, the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district needs to review the project implementation process objectively, consider the responsibilities of related individuals and soon have a solution to resolve the issue of 161 hectares of abandoned agricultural land in Tan Thanh commune to help people stabilize their lives soon.

Yen Thanh District People's Committee - Nghe An Newspaper