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| Prof. Dr. Dang Hung Vo |
Former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Prof. Dr. Dang Hung Vo purposedly stressed on the possibility of corruption in the cases of forest and agricultural land encroachment in the Northern region as reported by SGGP Newspaper lately.
He attributed this to illegal management, saying that the district level also has the responsibility of inspection. When receiving feedback from the public, district leaders have to immediately check and handle the situation according to the status quo at that time instead of letting the violation happen for a long time and then adjusting the planning correspondingly before actually handling that violation. This method is a type of corruption. There is no other solution now but the involvement of the Hanoi Party’s Committee.
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| Attorney Diep Nang Binh |
Attorney Diep Nang Binh, Head of Tinh Thong Luat Law Office (HCMC Bar Association) mentioned the possibility of seeking criminal liability. He said that many factors could be attributed to the construction law violations in the districts with forest in Hanoi. The typical ones could be loose management of local functional agencies, rare inspection of construction works in the local area, a lack of transparency in construction permit issuance, and corruption.
A district plays an important role in construction management, and cannot stay away from the blame when violations happen. Depending on the nature and extent of the mentioned encroachments of protection forest land, it is possible to apply administrative punishment or seek criminal liability. In the former case, an individual can be forced to pay a fine of VND3-150 million (US$123-6,200), along with proper measures to correct the negative consequences. In the latter case, which is rather serious in protection forest land encroachment, the law breakers many be prosecuted for criminal liability for the crime of ‘Violating regulations on land use" in Article 228 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017).
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| Director Le Minh Tuyen of the Hanoi Forest Protection Department |
Director Le Minh Tuyen of the Hanoi Forest Protection Department promised an inspection of the current status of forest as soon as possible in outskirt districts of Hanoi like Soc Son District, especially the neighborhood of Dong Do Lake (Minh Tri Commune) and Ban Tien Lake (Minh Phu Commune).
Since the beginning of this year, in Soc Son District, there have been 59 cases of forest land encroachment, 36 of which for illegal construction, 21 for ground leveling, and 2 for illegal exploitation of forest land. Therefore, the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment has sent various dispatches to request the People’s Committee of Soc Son District to handle the situation completely since most of the mentioned land is under the charge of this district.
At present, the neighborhood of Ban Tien Lake and Dong Do Lake has no planning nor boundary markers, leading to difficulties for local forest guards to stop residents from constructing solid buildings on the forest land there. Many violators even refused to cooperate with the guards, saying that it is not the responsibility of these guards to take care of the matter.
It is necessary to check the current status of the forest for the local authorities and relevant state agencies to separate the locations suitable for planning as regulated from the ones not being allowed to touch, which will have boundary poles installed in compliance with the Forestry Law.
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Many resorts and homestays are built around Dong Do Lake, some towards the margin of the hill |
SGGP Newspaper has repeatedly contacted the People’s Committee of Soc Son District for further details about forest land encroachment cases in the district. However, this Committee refused to have a formal meeting to provide more information about the cases. Officials in the Committee have made one after another appointment with the reporters, but yet fulfill any of them. They merely promised to urge functional units in the district to respond to the inquiries soon.
According to the Hanoi Agriculture and Rural Development Department, there are now 28,000ha of forest land in 7 districts and towns of the city (Ba Vi, Chuong My, My Duc, Quoc Oai, Soc Son, Thach That, and Son Tay) without any boundary poles installed. Nor do they have their own digital maps, resulting in overlapping with other land types and various negative consequences.
Hence, since 2022, this Department has advised Hanoi to release instructions for the 7 above districts and towns to complete establish a necessary digital map, along with setting up boundary poles for the mentioned forest land before handing it to the agriculture sector for management. However, until now, the task has not finished due to complications in overlapping between forest and residential land lots.
As stated in Plan No.154/KH-UBND by the Hanoi People’s Committee about stricter punishments for encroachment of forest and agricultural land lots in the city, the Hanoi Home Affairs Department is assigned to cooperate with relevant state units to develop suitable policies and regulations for the matter, clearly mentioning the responsibilities of each unit and individual in the People’s Committee at district and commune levels in land management, construction order.
