As Lao Dong reported, the An Quang Village Resettlement Area Project (Cat Khanh Commune, Phu Cat District, Binh Dinh Province) with a total investment of more than 130 billion VND, after 4 years of implementation, is still "stuck in place" due to the land clearance (GPMB) of only one household. Although the progress has been extended twice, the project has not been completed.
According to the report from the Binh Dinh Provincial Land Acquisition and Clearance Board, the project has completed 93% of the contract volume, but up to now, there is still an area of more than 2,100m² of Ms. Tran Thi Khai's household. Although the Provincial People's Committee and Phu Cat District have resolved the complaint and issued a decision on enforcement, the handover of the site has not been completed.
The failure to successfully enforce the law raises big questions about the effectiveness and determination of site clearance work, as well as the management capacity and approach in this locality.
It is not uncommon in Vietnam for a project to be stalled because of a single household’s land. However, a resettlement project with a total investment of more than 130 billion VND, but after 4 years of construction, is still not completed because of a single household’s land, which is unreasonable and unacceptable.
Mrs. Tran Thi Khai's household has an area of over 2,100 square meters recovered. Although the local government has resolved the complaint, they have not yet handed over the land, showing that the compensation and clearance for this household may be unsatisfactory and the results of the complaint resolution have not satisfied the people.
Another notable detail, according to the report of Phu Cat District Police, is that the reason why they could not send forces to ensure security and order during the process of organizing the forced land recovery for Ms. Khai's household was because the forced records did not meet legal requirements.
The fact that a household has blocked a resettlement project for more than 4 years in Binh Dinh once again raises questions about the ability to monitor the situation, the determination and sharing with the people in site clearance.
These are the things Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized when speaking at the 10th meeting of the State Steering Committee for important national projects and works, key to the Transport sector in March of the year.
The Prime Minister requested that: “Local leaders must be close to the situation, resolute, and share with the people in order to do the work of site clearance. Many localities have done very well, but some localities have not done well. Do not be too formal, go to the grassroots to listen to the people's opinions, see what they want, what they propose, put yourself in their position. Even one household must go down, if we do not go down, who will go down…”.
It is difficult to confirm whether local leaders have really closely followed the situation to listen and share with the people in clearing the land for the An Quang resettlement project.
But one thing is certain, the fact that the An Quang resettlement project has not been completed after more than 4 years just because one household refuses to hand over the land will cause a waste of budget resources, cause public outrage and affect people's trust in the government!
