Building a fixed porch on public land
At noon on May 22, reporters were present at plot number 826, map sheet number 11, located in Tien Thuy town (Chau Thanh district, Ben Tre province) - a plot of land with an area of 132.6m2 is currently being encroached upon and a solid porch is being built.
According to the investigation, the above land plot originated as public land managed by the People's Committee of Tien Thuy town. In addition to this case, Tien Thuy town also recorded 5 other plots of land that were also managed by the People's Committee of the town but were being illegally encroached upon by people.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Pham Manh Khang - Land - Construction civil servant of Tien Thuy Town People's Committee - admitted that public land was encroached in the area. According to Mr. Khang, in 2023, the People's Committee of Tien Thuy commune (now the People's Committee of Tien Thuy town) issued a document reporting and proposing a plan to handle public land plots to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Chau Thanh district. However, up to now, the locality has not received an official response from the district level.
The whole province has 61.9 hectares of encroached or abandoned land
Recently, on May 21, the Supervisory Delegation of the Ben Tre Provincial People's Council issued a report on the results of thematic supervision of public land management and use in the province.
During the period from March to May 5, 2025, the delegation worked with district People's Committees and discovered that the whole province had 4,540 public land plots that need legislative establishment, with a total area of more than 7,814ha. In which, 4,163 plots were legally established, reaching 98.62%. However, there are still 377 land plots with an area of 108.01 ha of unproductive legally. Notably, the whole province still exists 864 plots of abandoned or encroached public land, with a total area of over 61.9ha. Ben Tre City has 98 cases, an area of over 70,493m²; Thanh Phu district has 151 cases, an area of more than 40,115m²; Chau Thanh district has 374 cases, an area of more than 101,593m² (of which 363 plots are managed by the State but are being used by people, 11 cases of encroachment due to historical factors), Binh Dai district has 15 cases, an area of more than 158,600m². There are 36 cases that have been leased, but has not been put into operation, used, with an area of more than 122.9ha. In particular, the Provincial People's Committee has conducted land acquisition in 3 cases (including Ngoc Anh Private Enterprise, Con Ma Lang Travel Co., Ltd., Seavina Joint Stock Company), two other cases in the process of settlement. For the remaining unused land plots, in 2025, the Department of Agriculture and the environment will inspect and report to the provincial People's Committee to propose solutions to handle.
Proposal to speed up handling
Faced with the above situation, the Provincial People's Council Supervisory Delegation recommended that the Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee direct the locality to continue to complete the legal establishment of the remaining public land plots when they meet the conditions. There are solutions for plots of land that have not been legally established for handover when merging communes.
At the same time, urgently direct the handling of cases of land allocation and lease but not yet put into exploitation for use in the area or not used for the right purpose. Rectify the work of leasing public land funds and auctioning land use rights according to the provisions of the current Land Law.
