Kien Giang: The hot real estate market, lax management, and some people not complying with the law are the reasons why illegally built villas in Phu Quoc have existed for so long.
According to the People's Committee of Phu Quoc City, in 2019, several villas measuring 200-350 square meters were built on an area of 19 hectares in Duong Bao Hamlet, Duong To Commune, Phu Quoc City, and then flourished in the next two years. At the end of 2021, the authorities demolished the road built on the above land, discovered 24 encroaching villas, and planned to demolish them but had to stop because the documents were not secure.
In May 2022, the authorities recorded 74 illegal villas. Kien Giang province had to set up a special task force to deal with the situation of encroachment on public land and forest land, which has caused long-term resentment in the coastal city. After inspection, the authorities discovered a total of 79 illegally built houses, and to date, 16 villas have been forcibly demolished.
Illegal villa area in Duong Bao hamlet, Duong To commune. Photo: Ngoc Tai
Mr. Huynh Quang Hung, Chairman of Phu Quoc City, said that in recent years, the locality has grown rapidly, with many investors coming to invest in a series of projects. Simultaneous project implementation makes management difficult; when violations are discovered, handling and enforcement takes a lot of time and human resources.
"In terms of state management at the commune and city levels, there are times when violations are not good and are not detected in time, leading to many violations," he said, adding that the awareness of compliance and legal knowledge of violators is still limited. Many people know that it is wrong and risky but still do it, not to mention that in the land and construction sector in the area, there are many groups of scammers with sophisticated tricks.
According to Vice Chairman of Phu Quoc City Nguyen Le Quoc Toan (head of the enforcement committee for 79 villas), the illegally built villa area is located in an area of 1,000 hectares, which was reclaimed and cleared by the government in 2011 and handed over to the investor. This makes it difficult for the authorities to detect and handle.
"The above 1,000 hectares were cleared, so the land officials were slow to grasp which locations had been assigned and which had not been assigned to investors, and their assessment of the situation was not accurate," Mr. Toan explained, adding that this area did not have a hamlet headquarters or self-governing people's groups, so supervision was "disordered", especially during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
Regarding the issue of whether or not officials assisted and covered up violations that existed for many years, the Vice Chairman of Phu Quoc City refused to answer because the case has been transferred to the investigation agency, awaiting conclusions.
14 illegally built villas in Phu Quoc were demolished on September 18, 2023. Photo: Ngoc Tai
Mr. Le Quoc Anh, Vice Chairman of Kien Giang Province, said that the locality will thoroughly handle violations in the villa area according to regulations, without exception. Victims need to report and denounce individuals and organizations that have defrauded them into buying public land, so that the authorities can investigate and strictly handle them.
In addition to the aforementioned villa area, Phu Quoc also has two other hot spots for construction violations: a row of bungalows encroaching on a marine reserve and a 12-story hotel in Cua Lap hamlet. These are projects that the city is determined to handle, but have not been able to complete for over a year.
Ngoc Tai - Duong Dong
Source link
Comment (0)