Tien Giang: Strengthening inspection and handling of violations in mineral management, exploitation and transportation

In the Official Dispatch, the Provincial People's Committee stated that after more than 1 year of implementing the Project on Prevention and Control of Illegal Exploitation of Mineral Resources (Soil, Sand, Gravel, etc.) in Tien Giang Province, the border area between Tien Giang and other provinces has achieved some remarkable results: Provincial Departments, branches, and localities from district to commune levels have strictly implemented the contents of the Project; proactively strengthened inspection and strict handling of illegal exploitation of resources, sand transportation, unregistered vehicles, uninspected vehicles, and illegal conversions; through the reported data, the whole province has organized 1,260 inspections, detected 334 violations with 461 violators, with a fine of 11,335,781,000 VND, and the amount of confiscated sand is 19,111.61 ^m3 . The above results have contributed to improving the State management capacity of authorities at all levels, contributing to ensuring safety and order in the field of mineral resources in the province.

Illegal sand mining vehicles were caught red-handed by the police on May 24, 2024. Photo: Tuan Lam

In addition to the achieved results, the reality shows that there are still certain limitations such as: illegal mineral exploitation is still ongoing; inspection and handling of violations in illegal sand mining activities have not been carried out regularly; the number of cases inspected, detected and handled is not commensurate with the actual situation; the coordination in handling between the functional forces of the province and the district, between provinces, districts and neighboring communes is still limited, so subjects often take advantage of these neighboring areas to operate, causing difficulties in detection and handling.

Currently, the situation of illegal mineral (sand) exploitation is still complicated with many sophisticated tricks that make it difficult to detect and handle violations such as: organizing and deploying a dense force of guards from the shore to the river; violators do not cooperate, do not comply with orders and requests of authorities, in some cases they jump into the river to escape, making it difficult to handle; using hired workers without a fixed residence, illiterate, with economic difficulties, to deal with authorities; vehicle owners do not stand up to take responsibility for directing hired workers to illegally exploit sand to avoid having their vehicles confiscated...

To strengthen management and handling of violations in mineral exploration, exploitation and transportation activities in the province, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requests:

1. Provincial departments, branches and sectors; District People's Committees; Commune People's Committees continue to strictly implement the assigned contents in Decision 2107 dated September 18, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee on approving the Project on preventing and combating illegal exploitation of mineral resources in Tien Giang province; Plan 123 dated April 11, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee on strengthening inspection and handling of violations of the law in the exploitation, transportation and trading of river and estuary sand minerals in Tien Giang province; Decision No. 3652 dated December 31, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee on assigning tasks of management, inspection and handling of violations in mineral exploration, exploitation and transportation in Tien Giang province and Official Dispatch No. 3082 dated April 28, 2025 of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee on strengthening the management of sand exploitation for key projects in the Mekong Delta region; periodically report results to the Department of Agriculture and Environment before the 15th of each month for synthesis and reporting to the Provincial People's Committee.

2. District People's Committee:

- Direct and request the People's Committees of communes with sand mines licensed for exploitation by the Provincial People's Committee to urgently organize and establish community monitoring teams to manage mines in the commune.

- Raise awareness and responsibility of leaders in preventing illegal mining in the area; identify this as an important, regular and continuous task of the locality and related departments and agencies. If in any area illegal mining occurs in a complicated and prolonged manner without measures to prevent or handle it thoroughly or if there are negative and corrupt officials and civil servants, it is necessary to organize a review and strictly handle the responsibility of the leader.

- Effectively implement measures to protect unexploited minerals in the locality; develop coordination regulations with neighboring districts; provide hotline information for people to promptly report violations in mineral activities; promptly report and publicize individuals, organizations and businesses violating the law in mineral activities...

3. The Provincial Police (Inter-sectoral Working Group under Decision 2109 dated September 18, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee) directs professional units (Economic Police Department, Traffic Police Department, etc.) to strengthen patrols, inspections, and strictly handle acts of illegal exploitation, transportation, trading, and storage of minerals (sand) in the reported areas; at the same time, directs the commune-level police force to strengthen the work of grasping the situation, proactively advising the Commune People's Committee to perform the assigned tasks in Clause 20, Article 1 of Decision 3652 dated December 31, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee on the assignment of tasks of management, inspection, and handling of violations in mineral exploration, exploitation, and transportation in Tien Giang province; periodically report the results to the Department of Agriculture and Environment before the 15th of each month for synthesis and reporting to the Provincial People's Committee.

4. The Border Guard Command (Inter-sectoral Working Group under Decision 2110 dated September 18, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee) strictly implements the assigned tasks in Clause 4, Article 1 of Decision 3652 dated December 31, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee on the assignment of tasks of management, inspection and handling of violations in mineral exploration, exploitation and transportation in Tien Giang province; inspects and handles illegal mineral exploitation, trading, transportation and storage activities in border areas according to the provisions of law; periodically reports results to the Department of Agriculture and Environment before the 15th of each month for synthesis and reporting to the Provincial People's Committee.

5. Department of Agriculture and Environment:

- Strengthen inspection and examination of mineral resources in the province; including sand mine areas approved by the Provincial People's Committee for mineral exploitation; inspect and measure riverbed topography; absolutely do not exploit beyond the permitted elevation and exploit outside the permitted scope.

- Coordinate with the People's Committee at the district level (where the sand mining project is located) and relevant units to regularly inspect and monitor the stability of the coastline, ensuring that the mines are exploited within the licensed scope and in accordance with the approved environmental impact assessment report.

- Monitor and urge mine owners to strictly comply with tax obligations, fees, surveillance cameras, positioning devices, mining regulations and related contents as prescribed.

- Synthesize and periodically report to the Provincial People's Committee on the implementation results of the above directives before the 20th of each month; promptly advise and propose to the Provincial People's Committee to consider related contents when exceeding authority.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requests units to strictly implement the above instructions. Heads of units and Chairmen of District People's Committees are responsible to the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee for assigned tasks in performing the task of managing mineral exploitation activities in the area.

PV

Source: https://baoapbac.vn/kinh-te/202505/tien-giang-tang-cuong-cong-tac-kiem-tra-xu-ly-vi-pham-trong-cong-tac-quan-ly-khai-thac-van-chuyen-khoang-san-1042291/