Up to now, Binh Dinh province has completed the work of organizing the collection of voters' opinions (representing households) on the Project to reorganize Gia Lai and Binh Dinh provinces; Project to reorganize commune-level administrative units in the province.
The results showed that more than 98% of voters participated in the proposal and 1% of voters did not agree with the merger of Gia Lai and Binh Dinh provinces into a new province named Gia Lai; reorganizing and reorganizing 58 commune-level administrative units in Binh Dinh province.
As scheduled, on April 28, the People's Council of Binh Dinh province will officially vote to approve the policy of merging Gia Lai province and Binh Dinh province; reorganizing 58 commune-level administrative units.
Assigning the right to name localities
Receiving high consensus from voters, the naming of new administrative units after the reorganization is becoming an issue that attracts public attention.
Many people believe that naming new communes and wards by keeping the old local names and adding consecutive numbers will fade the historical and long-standing cultural identity of each locality, showing the dryness, language poverty and lack of connection with traditional values.
Discussing this issue with Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Le Minh Tuan - Director of the Department of Home Affairs of Binh Dinh province - said that the naming of new communes and wards must ensure factors such as concision, ease of remembering, science and especially must continue with historical and cultural traditions.
According to Mr. Tuan, the Central Government's orientation is to keep the name of the old locality (district level). For example, with Phu My district, after the merger, it is expected to name the new communes Phu My 1, Phu My 2, Phu My 3... this approach is considered to still ensure inheritance factors, while being convenient in administrative management and digital transformation process.
"Taking consecutive numbers to make them easy to remember, easy to do, easy to digitize. Most localities in the province use the names of the old units (districts) and place order numbers," said Mr. Tuan, adding that in Quy Nhon city and An Nhon town, the central area of each locality will be kept the traditional name, respectively Quy Nhon ward and Binh Dinh ward, the remaining wards will be identified by geographical axes such as East, West, South, North; An Lao district will retain the names of existing communes.
Mr. Tuan said that the naming of the new commune and ward has been assigned to localities for discussion and decision. However, through consulting with the people, the Department of Home Affairs will analyze how many cases there are who do not agree with the expected name, from which there will be additional suggestions.
The name - memory of a land
At the Conference of the Binh Dinh Provincial Party Committee (unusual session) to discuss and approve the submission related to the arrangement of administrative units held on the afternoon of April 21, Binh Dinh Provincial Party Secretary Ho Quoc Dung suggested that local Secretaries carefully consider giving the new name, because this is a responsibility to history.
"A thousand years later, the names are still associated with the localities. Therefore, the Secretaries sitting here are responsible for history, I hope you will find the best solution, so that the people can agree and support.
As for naming, I suggest that comrades take time to think and consult experts and former leaders, what is the best way to do it, so that in the future, children and grandchildren will not blame their ancestors - why did they name them like that in the past? Now it is considered normal, but a few decades later, history will leave behind, and our children and grandchildren will have opinions, so we must be very careful in naming them," said Mr. Ho Quoc Dung.
The Secretary of the Binh Dinh Provincial Party Committee said that if necessary, it is necessary to study the naming associated with history, land, culture and importantly, it must be supported by the majority of people.
"I received many mixed messages about naming at the commune level, some say this way, some say that way, so I was very concerned," said Mr. Ho Quoc Dung and requested: "Comrades must weigh and count the good and bad things for their homeland, carefully consider before deciding".
As scheduled, on the afternoon of April 26 (Saturday), the Standing Committees of Binh Dinh and Gia Lai Provincial Party Committees will meet to discuss the merger, issue policies, and agree on data to submit to the Provincial People's Council for resolution and submit to the Central Committee.
