Combating land waste - Part 2: Major consequences of budget loss

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Hanoi city, the total public agricultural land fund in the area is about 10,754.34 hectares; of which, there are up to 3,286 cases of violations with an area of ​​170.66 hectares of land, accounting for 1.58% of the city's public agricultural land area.

All kinds of violations

Violations on public agricultural land are divided into 4 groups. The group arbitrarily changes the land use purpose from agricultural land to non-agricultural land to build ecological farms, houses, factories, and service businesses. The group arbitrarily transfers agricultural land against regulations. The group changes the purpose of public agricultural land to material yards, parking lots, etc. Other groups of violations include: digging ponds, building walls on land, not using it for the right agricultural purpose, dumping construction waste on public agricultural land.

The most worrying and causing the biggest loss of budget revenue and waste of resources is considered to be the group of violations of improper land use: illegal construction of houses, factories, temporary shelters, and livestock barns on public agricultural land.

Among the above violations, there are violations that existed before 2014, accounting for 78.85% with about 2,591 violations. Notably, there are 1,648 cases of building houses on public agricultural land over many periods, from 2014 to 2018 with an area of ​​16.21 hectares. From the above figures, it shows that violations of public agricultural land in the city are very serious, large-scale, have existed for many years, causing frustration and serious consequences for society that it is not known when they will be resolved.

Khuong Dinh Ward, Thanh Xuan District is a hot spot for agricultural land violations in the capital. Alley 207, 271 Bui Xuong Trach Street (Khuong Dinh) is a typical example of violations. From agricultural land for growing vegetables, it has now been transformed into high-rise, low-rise, and temporary houses - the living place of hundreds of households. Many houses here have strange shapes, with corrugated iron on the outside and solid brick walls on the inside, to cover up illegal construction on agricultural land. Especially in Khuong Dinh Ward - an area where 9/10 residential areas are mainly from public land and agricultural land.

According to statistics, in Khuong Dinh ward there are about 10,000 plots of land; of which, about 5,000/10,000 plots of land are of public land and agricultural land origin. In fact, there have been over 4,000 plots of land that have been converted by people into constructions from the period 1990 - 2014. Due to illegal construction, the constructions are patchwork and fragmented, ranging from 1 to 5 floors, and although the houses are surrounded by corrugated iron on the outside, the inside has actually been somewhat solidified.

The violations spanned many periods and involved ambiguous hand-to-hand transactions, complicated legal and land records. Due to difficulties in applying policies to resolve the issue for households, the Khuong Dinh ward government is currently implementing measures to maintain the status quo, meaning preventing households living here from building more structures on the violating land.

Lack of supervision

According to the reporter's investigation, in the past, public agricultural land in Hanoi was often managed by agricultural service cooperatives or commune-level People's Committees and leased out for planting trees and raising fish annually or for several decades. The long lease period and lack of supervision led to violations of public agricultural land.

In Phuc Tho district, a flower planting project named Hoa Bay (Tan Boi village, Hiep Thuan commune, Phuc Tho) was leased by the locality for 50 years, from 2009 to 2059, with an area of ​​9,400 m2. During the production and business process, in addition to agricultural production and flower planting, the investor built temporary houses with palm roofs, surrounded by corrugated iron and bamboo, each project has an area of ​​18 m2. The concrete road system is about 3 m wide and 80 m long.

The above project has received many comments from the people and voters. The climax was the 14th session of the Hanoi People's Council on May 12, 2023, questioning the leaders of the People's Committee of Phuc Tho district about the transformation of this project. At the end of October 2024, when we were present at the project area, the project was still open to welcome guests and collect fees.

The above facts show that the use and leasing of public agricultural land in Hanoi is for many different purposes; the leasing period is also different. According to research, many localities in Hanoi have loosened management; public agricultural land is being asked for and given away, benefiting a number of subjects, in the style of group interests.

Recently, the Hoai Duc District Police (Hanoi) issued a decision to prosecute the case and prosecute the accused NCL (former Chairman of the People's Committee of An Thuong Commune (Hoai Duc) for violating regulations on land management.

Investigation results show that from 2018 to 2020, in his position as Chairman of the People's Committee of An Thuong commune, Mr. NCL signed many contracts to allocate 5% of public land in An Thuong commune to many households but without going through auction.

The signing of contracts for leasing public agricultural land without auction by the leaders of An Thuong Commune People's Committee is not in accordance with regulations.

Based on the collected documents, on July 3, 2024, the District Police issued a Decision to prosecute the case and prosecute NCL for violating regulations on land management.

That is a typical violation that the police have handled. In reality, in many localities in Hanoi, there are many cases of land use violations; land is allocated without authority but is tolerated by the competent authority and has not been handled.

According to the report of the People's Committee of Son Tay town, there are currently 11 cases of converting public agricultural land into housing with a total area of ​​740 m2; 7 cases of building service business establishments with an area of ​​1,181.95 m2... but the land cannot be forced to be handed over for auction.

Son Tay Town believes that the awareness of a part of the people is not sufficient, so when they are rented public land, they build works on the land, plant perennial trees, and when the contract is liquidated, they request compensation for assets and crops on the land before completing the handover procedures.

In Hop Tien (My Duc), there are currently 29 public agricultural land plots that cannot yet be processed. The People's Committee of Hop Tien Commune said that households have signed contracts with the Agricultural Cooperative for agricultural production for many years, and have put effort into renovating and planting fruit trees on the land. Although the contract has expired, the People's Committee of the Commune still finds it difficult to ask households to clear crops and livestock to hand over clean land to organize the auction of land use rights.

According to Mr. Tran Van Vinh, a land official of Hop Tien commune, the citizens' assets are perennial fruit trees, vegetable plants and fish ponds. According to the principle, when auctioning, the land must be clean. If the commune destroys all the assets on the land, it will be a waste. If it is left as is, it will violate the auction regulations.

"When the auction required the handover of clean land and cutting down all the original trees, the households had many opinions about this and did not comply. If the commune were to enforce and clear the land, it would be really inappropriate and complicated for the people, because people had already invested money, some households had already harvested, some households had just started to collect and had to return the land. Therefore, the People's Committee proposed that the superiors consider and have specific instructions so that the commune could have procedures for using land fund 2 (public agricultural land) in accordance with the law."

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