Need to tighten management of illegal leveling and digging activities

This not only violates the provisions of the Land Law but also leaves many consequences for the environment, traffic safety, disrupts planning and directly affects people's lives.

According to the report, households arbitrarily dig up forestry land and garden land on both sides of the road, leaving behind steep walls of soil, posing a risk of landslides, especially during the rainy and stormy season. This situation not only ruins the urban beauty but also directly threatens the safety of surrounding households and vehicles below.

Reflecting to reporters, Mr. Luong Duy Tien, living in Luong Thinh residential group, Van Phu ward, indignantly said: During the rainy and stormy season of 2024 and 2025, the family always had to live in a state of anxiety because behind the house there was a high slope due to a household digging the hillside to level the ground, in front of the door, there was worry about flood water flooding into the house because the upstream was a dumping site, every time it rained a large amount of mud and soil flowed down.

Mr. Luong's house is located in the middle of a large stone village surrounded by villages and hamlets.png

"Recently, during the rains caused by storm No. 3, my family was severely flooded. The amount of mud from the landfill was too much, flowing into the garden and into my house. There will be more heavy rains soon, I don't know what will happen," Mr. Tien worriedly shared.

Pointing us to some places where people arbitrarily dug and leveled the ground along the road connecting Nguyen Tat Thanh Street with Au Co Street, Van Phu Ward, Ms. Pham Thi Vui, a resident of Thanh Huong residential area, said: The leveling points on both sides of this road were all hired by some businesses with vehicles and machinery to level the ground. Households with hilly land or garden land that needed to be dug and leveled only needed to pay the rent, and the business would take care of the whole package. After having the land, many households divided the plots to transfer to people who needed land for housing or to build factories to build production and business facilities.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Vui, the digging of hills and dumping of soil along this road has been going on for many months, in some places only for about a month.

According to the reporter's observation, the fact that households arbitrarily hired machines to dig the ground and level the ground along both sides of the road connecting Nguyen Tat Thanh Street and Au Co Street caused the hills to be dug up, the newly built road corridor to be damaged, and some drainage culverts to be buried or collapsed, causing loss of aesthetics and affecting traffic safety and drainage.

In Tran Yen commune, we recorded a point where people arbitrarily leveled a hilly area of perennial trees with an area of over 6,900m2 ^located on the edge of the Minh Quan 7 village cemetery into many layers, with an estimated excavation volume of up to tens of thousands of cubic meters to divide the plots and sell them to families in the village for burial and tomb building.

Going up National Highway 279 to Bao Yen and Xuan Hoa communes, reporters also recorded the situation of people digging and leveling hillsides to make room for housing. In some locations, many households also filled the riverbed with soil to make room for production and business facilities. This not only seriously violates the Land Law and environmental protection regulations, but also poses a risk of landslides, potential traffic safety risks, obstructs the flow of water and is dangerous for the households themselves.

In fact, in localities, the situation of spontaneous leveling and digging of land is quite common, especially on National Highways 70, 279, 4D, 4E and 32C and Provincial Highways 160, 166, 156. However, due to many reasons, the inspection and handling by some local authorities and functional agencies have not been drastic, causing this behavior to tend to increase.

Faced with the outbreak of excavation of slopes and leveling of hills to create land, causing insecurity, disorder and environmental impacts, affecting people's lives and infrastructure works such as transportation, electricity, telecommunications, etc., the authorities of some communes and wards in the province have been taking steps to tighten management; however, organizing inspections and handling still face many difficulties.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Bui Ngoc Giang - Vice Chairman of Van Phu Ward People's Committee admitted that there were cases of people leveling land in the ward that did not comply with regulations. Especially after Typhoon Yagi in September 2024, some households arbitrarily leveled and cleared landslides without reporting to the authorities or carrying out the necessary procedures. In addition, there were also cases of taking advantage of this to level hills and agricultural land for the purpose of building houses. When discovered, we sent forces down to request a temporary halt to construction, and at the same time propagated and mobilized people about the provisions of the law.

“Van Phu Ward has also established an interdisciplinary working group consisting of the police, the Fatherland Front and specialized civil servants to strengthen inspection, promptly detect and disseminate information to the people. For areas whose status has changed, we will resolutely refuse to resolve administrative procedures related to land such as changing the purpose of use," Mr. Giang emphasized.

In Tran Yen commune, the determination is demonstrated by specific decisions on penalties. Mr. Nguyen Tuan Linh - Vice Chairman of Tran Yen Commune People's Committee said that the commune has just issued a decision to penalize two households in Minh Quan 7 village, namely Mr. Mai Van Hong and Mr. Mai Thanh Son, for arbitrarily leveling the ground, distorting the terrain on an area of over 6,900 m2 ^of production forest land located next to the cemetery in Minh Quan 7 village. Both cases were fined a total of 71.5 million VND each, for not registering the land for the first time, distorting the terrain without the ability to restore the original state.

"In reality, we see that many households in the commune do not clearly understand the procedures when leveling the ground. Therefore, after handling the violations, the commune has stepped up propaganda on many information channels to let people know," Mr. Linh added.

Similarly, in Tan Hop commune, as soon as it was discovered that some households were digging and leveling the ground, causing landslides on inter-commune traffic routes and endangering some high-voltage power poles in the area, the local government coordinated with the Van Yen Regional Electricity Management Team and the Commune Police to inspect and make records to handle the violators, and at the same time directed the villages to strengthen supervision to promptly prevent similar incidents from happening.

According to Mr. Ha Trung Kien, Chairman of Tan Hop Commune People's Committee, the Commune People's Committee has deployed a review of each route and each area to closely monitor the work of overcoming the consequences of floods, instructing people to level, dig, and dump waste according to regulations; at the same time, resolutely handle households that intentionally dig, fill, and level land illegally. However, because the ward government has just been established, the assignment of responsibilities for implementing inspections and handling violations in some areas is not yet guaranteed.

In terms of provincial management, Ms. Trinh Thi Thu Huyen - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Lao Cai province said: The licensing of leveling land is under the authority of the commune-level government and the Construction sector. Currently, there is no specific information from localities about the number of violations. To strengthen management, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of the province has issued documents directing and guiding the commune level. In the coming time, the Department will strengthen coordination with the functional branches of the province to inspect and strictly handle households, organizations and individuals who violate the law.

“The Department of Agriculture and Environment recommends that the People's Committees at the commune level need to enhance their management role, promptly detect and prevent violations in the area. For areas at risk of landslides, the sector will continue to advise the Provincial People's Committee to review and have plans to relocate and arrange safe resettlement for people, avoiding people from arbitrarily digging and leveling in violation of regulations, not ensuring safety," Ms. Huyen added.

Lao Cai is a mountainous province with steep terrain, land leveling and improvement for housing construction, land use conversion and natural disaster recovery are essential needs of the people. However, when leveling and improving land, land users must comply with legal regulations and ensure the environment when doing so. According to Articles 11 and 31 of the 2024 Land Law, acts of arbitrary leveling that change the slope and structure of the land can be considered as land destruction and are strictly prohibited.

To put an end to the illegal leveling, digging, and dumping of soil that causes loss of aesthetics, affects traffic and electricity infrastructure, and makes residential areas unsafe requires the coordinated participation of all levels of government and functional agencies; more importantly, there must be a change in awareness and compliance with land laws of each citizen. Leveling land for housing or production is a legitimate need, but must ensure legal regulations and cannot be traded off with the safety of the community and the sustainable development of the whole society.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/can-siet-chat-quan-ly-hoat-dong-san-gat-dao-dat-trai-phep-post649902.html