30 years of anxiously waiting for legitimate rights
The Ly Thai To extended road and residential and resettlement area project of Lang Son City (now belonging to Dong Kinh ward) is invested by the Lang Son Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board.
The project has a total area of 24.51 ha, affecting 543 households, individuals and organizations and residential communities.
However, behind the project expected to change the urban face are the long-standing compensation mysteries from the last century.
Located in the area of 250m at the beginning of the route that is currently blocked, Ms. Phan Thi Sinh's family (Dong Kinh ward) is a clear proof of the long wait.
Flipping through each yellowed paper and document left by her late father-in-law, Ms. Sinh recounted: "My family has about more than 1,500m2 of land affected by the project. From 1992, 1993, functional agencies have information that there is currently only compensation for crops, and when there is land compensation, people will be called to take it later.
But waiting for more than 30 years, my father, the household owner of the land that year, passed away more than 20 years ago, and so far the family has not received compensation money.
Right in the area next to the stream in alley 174 Phai Ve, 32 households completely agreed with the project's policy, and even proactively moved their belongings.
The only bottleneck is that they are still waiting for functional agencies to approve the compensation plan to know how much money they will receive before handing over the land.
Hurriedly removing knots from the past
Explaining the reasons for the "sleeping" files for more than 30 years, Mr. Hoang Van Duc, Head of the Economic, Infrastructure and Urban Department of Dong Kinh ward, said that compensation had not been carried out thoroughly before because the time had passed too long, and related documents were lost.
Along with that, the project has undergone many adjustments with many different names, so verification and compensation payments face countless difficulties.
However, fortunately, recently, the related documents have been found again. Currently, the Land Fund Development Center is verifying and reviewing the subjects affected, and at the same time comparing with previous documents to proceed with payment to the people" - Mr. Duc informed.
The delay in compensation is pushing the entire project into a "turtle crawling" situation. Accumulated construction value currently only reaches about 1.83% of the contract value. The handed-over land area only reaches 0.37ha/24.51ha (equivalent to 1.52% of the entire project) from 48 households.
The project implementation time is expected to end in 2026, meaning there are only 5 months left for implementation.
According to the representative of the Investor, if the site clearance progress continues to be delayed, the project may have to be prolonged, and the central budget capital of up to 246.165 billion VND cannot be fully disbursed.
The immediate consequence is that this situation will greatly affect the overall disbursement value of the whole province and directly threaten the double-digit economic growth target for the last 6 months of 2026 that Lang Son Provincial People's Committee is drastically directing.
Under too much pressure, in just 1 month, the Project Management Board had to send 4 consecutive documents requesting Dong Kinh Ward People's Committee and related units to focus maximum manpower and definitively resolve the rights of the people to have construction ground and save project progress.
